A Local-State Government Spatial Data Sharing Partnership

A Local-State Spatial Data Sharing Partnership Model to Facilitate SDI Development
3.2.1 Defining Inter-organisational Cooperation, Coordination and
Collaboration
Although inter-organisational coordination has been examined by both scholars and
practitioners, few efforts have been made to define the phenomenon (Mulford & Rogers
1982). There is a growing range of terms used to describe a collaborative initiative
including: alliance, partnership, network, coalition, co-operative, collective, forum,
association, community, and consortium (Lank 2006). It is therefore useful to initially
examine the terms most commonly used to describe these inter-organisational relations,
namely: cooperation, coordination and collaboration.
The Oxford English Dictionary Online (2005) provides the following definitions for these
terms:
Co-operation “The action of co-operating, i.e. of working together towards the same end,
purpose, or effect; joint operation”;
Co-ordination “Harmonious combination of agents or functions towards the production of
a result”;
Collaboration – from collaborate “To work in conjunction with another or others, to co-
operate”.
In essence, the terms are very similar with a common theme of working together to achieve
a common goal or production of a result. However, it is perhaps more interesting and
informative to explore the usage of the terms within an organisational context to gauge
their meaning. The terms of cooperation, coordination and collaboration are often used to
describe inter-organisational relationships (IOR). Many authors have examined the issue
of IOR in an attempt to identify the determinants that either encourage or discourage these
relationships (Gray 1985; Mulford & Rogers 1982; Nedovic-Budic et al. 2004a; Oliver
1990; Schermerhorn 1975). Although there are similarities in the drivers or motivations
for establishing an inter-organisational relationship, different environments usually have
their individual motivating factors.
Cooperation between organisations is usually seen as the first stage in the development of
more significant organisational relationships. For example organisations may agree to
cooperate with each other for the purposes of establishing a common standard to reduce
duplication or costs. Schermerhorn (1975, p. 847) defines inter-organisational cooperation
as “the presence of deliberate relations between otherwise autonomous organisations for
the joint accomplishment of individual operating goals”. In the example given above the
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