Authors
David Ing, David Hawk, Ian Simmonds, and Marianne Kosits
Abstract
Outsourcing, strategic alliances and joint ventures are dominant forms of extending organizational reach. The scope and direction of these associations is set through management and governance of the inter-organizational relation. Yet, an understanding of the distinctions between management and government are often missing, both for those who initiate and for those who operate within a joint initiative.
This article reviews the concepts of management and governance in an inter-organizational context from the foundations of general systems and social theory. The motivations of efficiency and synergy are compared. Choices made about long-term alliances are highlighted in distinctions between designs that are complicated and designs that are complex, and between interactions that are loosely coupled and interactions that are tightly coupled. The influences of management and governance are considered in the cybernetic frame that distinguishes between external control and self-control.
Recommendations for business include considering of multiple lines of authority, as heterarchy; and the adoption of a social practice perspective that can include aspects of solidarity and style, uncovered in the disclosing of new worlds.
Citation
David Ing, David Hawk, Ian Simmonds, and Marianne Kosits, "Governance and the Practice of Management in Long-Term Inter-Organizational Relations", Proceedings of the 47th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the System Sciences, at Hersonissos, Crete, July 7-11, 2003.
Content
- [view/download the article as PDF] (104 KB)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License