The Role of Boundary‐spanning Managers in the Establishment of Public‐private Partnerships

Abstract

This article presents the findings of a study examining the roles and behaviours of boundary‐spanning managers during the establishment of voluntary public‐private partnerships (PPPs). It responds to recent calls in the literature to pursue research that incorporates the pivotal contribution of individual actors in the collaborative process, and to set this research within the stage specific context of partnerships. The analysis is located within the theoretical framework of organizational sensemaking. Using a grounded methodology of data collection, coding and analysis within ten Australian and UK PPPs, the study demarcates a four‐stage evolutionary establishment process of PPPs. Within each stage there exists a specific managerial focus in conjunction with one or two main managerial challenges. Boundary‐spanning managers employ various strategies to overcome such challenges within each specific stage, thus ensuring the progressive evolution of the PPP. These foci, challenges and strategies are identified and analysed in the article.

Créer du consensus dans un partenariat public privé : analyse des compromis et arrangements managériaux

“…D'abord, ils confirment les résultats partiels établis dans le monde du sport sur la difficulté d'être manager dans un environnement statutairement hétérogène (Gasparini et Scheeck, 1999;Richet et Soulé, 2008). Au-delà, ce travail renforce la vision d'un manager privé impliqué dans les partenariats public/privé comme un véritable acteur frontalier devant articuler plusieurs logiques d'action (Noble et Jones, 2006;Jones et Noble, 2008). Cette recherche vient aussi compléter les apports de la littérature sur les contradictions et conflits présents au sein des différentes formes de partenariats public/privé (Jacobson et Choi, 2008;Kwak et al, 2009;Hodge et Greve, 2010;Hayllar et Wettenhall, 2010).…”

“…Les résultats obtenus restent limités. La validité externe des rares travaux empiriques anglosaxons (Noble et Jones, 2006;Jones et Noble, 2008) reste à construire tant les spécificités culturelles, juridiques et sociales structurent ces partenariats public/privé (abré-gés en PPP) (Sadran, 2004;Hodge et Greve, 2010). Pour autant, un consensus se dégage de la littérature sur les PPP, pour faire de l'émergence d'une dynamique de coopération managériale au plus près du terrain l'un des facteurs clé de leur succès (Perrot, 2007;Voisin, 2007).…”

Local government partnership working: a space odyssey. Or, journeys through the dilemmas of public and private sector boundary-spanning actors

“…Our boundary spanners are both those who are involved in day to day partnership working, and those who occupy positions in their own organisations as project champions − in the terms used by Noble & Jones (2006) (though we find that these roles, at a senior level, are often conflated). Our participants include senior public managers, politicians, local entrepreneurs and private sector executives of local, national and multinational companies.…”

Managing cultural diversity in healthcare partnerships: the case of LIFT

“…In recent years a number of researchers have explored the cultural implications of partnership working (Peck and Dickinson 2008;Noble and Jones, 2006;Broadbent et al, 2008). These studies have highlighted key differences in the shared values and beliefs of public and private sector managers.…”