Understanding domain-based interorganizational collaboration: Governance, process and capacity

How do you ensure reliability when the task at hand is spread across multiple organizations? How do the multitude of public and private actors needed to solve some of the most pressing social, environmental and economic problems of the world harness their combined resources and capabilities for action? These are the questions that this dissertation seeks to address.The category of governance addresses the implications that the potential involvement of the private sector might have for the governance of water systems and how this might play out in Canada where there are multiple regulators involved. I find that the safe delivery of public services depends, in large part, upon how effectively the state performs its function of monitoring and overseeing the providers of these services and that accountability can be enhanced through domain-based collaborative governance.The category of collaborative processes describes the process through which interorganizational collaborations are formed and maintained. Here, I extended our understanding of domain-based collaboration by generating a grounded model of domain-based collaboration that highlights the important role of collaborative entrepreneurs as potential catalysts to domain transformation and by reinforcing the need to differentiate between domain transformation, structuring and maintenance.The category of collaborative capacity explores how organizations can better prepare themselves to collaborate effectively with other organizations. My contribution is to conceptualize collaborative capacity at the organizational level as consisting of four key collaborative capabilities: learning, transparency, proactivity, and flexibility. I conclude by examining the theoretical and practical implications of each of the three core themes uncovered in the grounded investigation.This dissertation began with a real-world problem and a desire to find organizational tools to solve it. In the wake of two outbreaks of water borne illness in Canada, I set out to understand how the governance of municipal drinking water systems could be improved to prevent future tragedies. In so doing, I sought to garner insights into how to create reliable governance systems across organizational boundaries. Adopting a grounded theory approach, this dissertation began with a research situation and a set of conversations aimed at understanding what was going on there. The grounded theory process, revealed three core categories: governance, collaborative processes and collaborative capacity.