SYMPOSIUM CONCLUSION: FUTURE RESEARCH ON THE DIMENSIONS OF COLLABORATION

As the research findings in this symposium demonstrate, public and nonprofit managers in health and human service agencies continue to collaborate with multiple goals in mind. As would be anticipated, the collaborations described in the symposium generally addressed service gaps, enhanced services, improved access, and expanded programs. A common underlying expectation was that participation in the collaboration would further an agency's mission (Goodsell, 2011). As cautioned by Word in her commentary, however, making joint decisions and sharing power does not come easy when agencies also must respond to countervailing pressures that inherently flow from the agency's political, social, and economic contexts. Overall, the symposium examines levels of linkages, decision-making, hierarchy, autonomy, shared administration, governance, outcomes, and more. Reflecting their various research questions, the authors use a variety of methods to examine the multiple dimensions of collaboration. Clearly, the symposium's researchers are building on and adding to our knowledge about cooperation, coordination, and collaboration (Keast, Brown, & Mandell, 2007; Keast, Mandell, Brown, & Woolcock, 2004) as well as how to assess the multiple dimensions of collaboration. The authors effectively used existing instruments and models to understand collaboration dimensions but also propose new models and test metrics/variables.