Designing a Relational Calibration Survey for Aligning Collaborative Processes through Action Research

Abstract

Organizational partnerships exist in various forms to create mutual benefits such as a focus on core activities, improved service quality, a reduction in costs, or creating strategic innovations. A general belief among researchers is that information transparency, interdependence, and trustworthiness help improving the performance of partnerships. However, traditionally, more attention is given to formulating contractual agreements, while less consideration is afforded to the relational and operational realm.
Despite that partners often put significant efforts into drafting contractual agreements, dissimilarities are acknowledged. Failing factors such as a shortage of clarity and perceived obligations in partnerships are common, and therefore partnerships often do not produce what they are projected to deliver.
This research applied academic knowledge with managerial relevance in the development of a prototype. This prototype facilitates to create clarification on mutually perceived obligations and interdependencies and assesses mutually perceived trustworthiness among the partnership through a survey.
The results of the workability of the prototype were evaluated through the examination of the design requirements. As with many first attempts, some design requirements were operational, and some need to be further refined. Indeed, the prototype provides a first move towards a systematic method of requesting cooperation objectives and interdependencies, as it aids in identifying the collaboration objectives, interdependencies, and phasing of the collaboration.

Date of Award	2 Feb 2020
Original language	English
Supervisor	Harry Martin (Examiner) & Lianne Cuijpers (Co-assessor)