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Boundary Spanner:
The Gatekeeper of
Innovation in Partnerships
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that is appropriate, clear and concise. In the end, the process was critically
A few words well selected and important to getting all of the
communicated are worth far more stakeholders to embrace the
than a lot of words that are obscure programme as equals and the internal
10
and confusing.’ learning about these non-traditional
partners was very valuable for future
Finding common language can be the initiatives.
biggest barrier to getting programmes
off the ground. We were negotiating a Measuring performance
memorandum of understanding Boundary spanners’ performance may
(MOU) with two human rights be hard to measure since creating
organisations. More than a year was change takes time, building
spent finding common ground before relationships can’t be measured
agreement could be made regarding through a company’s quarterly sales
the language and the tone of the MOU. results and in the case of many
We spent considerably more time on partnerships the process outcomes
this aspect of the partnership than we may be more important than the
spent in the agreements regarding product’s outputs.
monitoring protocols and resource
requirements. It is crucial for Companies should consider taking a
businesses to understand the need for development approach (long-term
the required upfront investment of view) when reviewing these roles and
time needed to reach a common individual performance. Often due to
understanding in line with the local the diverse viewpoints at the table,
organisation’s culture and capacity. ‘getting to yes’ and the need to
That in turn would remove more develop consensus can take longer
barriers or issues in the long term. than expected and deadlines are
Translating the needs of our NGO missed. Forcing the issues simply to
partners involved in the negotiation hit target dates can lead to more
with internal business colleagues and damage within the partnership and set
the legal department was extremely back the work further and ultimately
challenging because they are used to lead to failure. Most stakeholder
working with corporate profit-driven relationships are not contractual or
partners and typically enjoying the transactional (although in some cases
power in the relationship. they can be) like the majority of
traditional organisational
10 Tennyson, op. cit.: 21. relationships with external
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