Global Compact International Yearbook Ausgabe 2013

The Strength of Loose
Couplings – The Global
Compact as a Multistakeholder
Initiative
By Prof. Dr. Andreas Rasche
Multistakeholder initiatives such as the UN Global Compact
organize their participants in specific ways. Most importantly,
they have to bridge global (universal) principles and local
(contextualized) implementation practices. Some initiatives
have responded to this need by creating a nested network
structure – that is, local networks that are embedded into a
wider global “network of networks.” The UN Global Compact,
for instance, has more than 100 local networks, which are
connected through regional hubs, the Annual Local Network
Forum, and interactions with the Global Compact Office.
Stakeholder dialogue and collective action are emerging both
within and among such networks.
Addressing complex global development problems (e.g., access
to water) requires systemic change. Such change can only occur
if initiatives like the UN Global Compact organize their
participants in ways that sufficient scale can be achieved. Scale
depends not only on the willingness of individual participants
to implement sustainable business practices, but also on a
sound organizational framework enabling collective action
and connecting participants within and among local networks.
Such a framework needs to reconcile two competing demands:
(1) the ability to locally adapt universal principles within local
networks (i.e., flexibility) and (2) the ability to constantly
coordinate activities across local networks (i.e., stability).
Tight and loose couplings in multistakeholder initiatives
To analyze how multistakeholder initiatives reconcile flexibility
and stability, we have to look at the strength of couplings
between participating organizations. In principle, participants
can be coupled tightly or loosely. Research shows that four
factors influence whether couplings between participants
are tight or loose.
• Loose couplings exist if there is a low frequency of interaction
between participants. If participants interact on an irregular
basis, and hence affect each other occasionally rather than
constantly, a loose coupling is likely to be found.
• Loose couplings can also be caused by indirect relationships
between participants. For instance, if two organizations do
not communicate directly, but only via a third party, their
relationship becomes loosely, rather than tightly, coupled.
• Loose couplings occur when a high degree of causal indeterminacy
exists. High causal indeterminacy means that
participants disagree about how their environment functions
or should function. As a consequence, the coordination of
activities becomes difficult, which, in turn, causes looser
couplings.
• Loose couplings are also caused by the existence of nonimmediate
effects. Non-immediate effects create a lag between
a stimulus by one participant (e.g., an attempt to
communicate) and the response by another participant.
Many would see the existence of loose couplings as a problem,
mostly because it makes multistakeholder initiatives harder
to govern (at least when viewed from a distance). Research,
however, has shown that looser couplings strengthen the
ability of initiatives such as the UN Global Compact to create
systemic change. In fact, it is the coexistence of loose and
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Global Compact International Yearbook 2013