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Management Decision
Special Issue Call for Papers
Organizational Behavior and Decision-Making: Decision-Making Processes in Multi-Sector Collaborations
Guest Editor: Daniel M. Miller, (North Carolina A&T State University, USA) and KC Patrick Low (University of the South Pacific, Fiji)
Purpose: The purpose of this special issue of Management Decision is to frame theory that examines decision-making processes related to multi-sector collaborations. An extensive review of the literature yielded only cursory references to decision-making in multi-sector collaborations. Thus, there is a lack of research and theory to guide research or practice in multi-sector collaborations. In spite of the lack of good theory, in the areas of public administration, non-profit organizations, a business, organizations have worked together across sector to maximize collective impact on pressing social and business issues. From an organizational behavior standpoint, the question remains, "In order to effectively work across sectors, what are the issues that impact decisions among organizations?"
Context: Organizations and societies in general face a wide variety of large-scale and complex challenges that require combined efforts from multiple sectors. Examples of such challenges include political conflict, health care management, educational improvement, economic growth, business/industrial development, poverty, socio-cultural change, malnutrition, energy resourcing, etc.). Increasingly, organizations from multiple sectors are working together to address such large-scale social and business related challenges. Collaborations that span sectorial boundaries elevate the complexity of decision-making processes. Interdisciplinary thought and action are inherent to multi-sector collaborations.
Theme: In theory and practice there is the assumption that in order to address large scale and/or complex challenges, organizations from multiple sectors must collaborate to design and implement strategies for solving those problems.
While interorganizational decision-making is often difficult within sectors (e.g., technology, economics, education, health care, government, etc), there are increased challenges in working across sectors. Decision-making across boundaries is perhaps the most critical dimension for organizations to effectively plan strategies to positively impact multi-sector approaches.
Multi-sector collaborations provide many possibilities for theorizing and conducting research. In order to work effectively across sectors, there are internal facets of organizations that have implications for macro organizational behavior and the success of multi-sector collaborations. However, current theory appears to be inadequate to guide research and practice. For example, resource dependence theory assumes that organizations have differences in their motivation and decision-making to collaborate with others. Central to this assumption is that organizations are transactional in nature. That is, they seek to mitigate resource cost in order to achieve their goals. There are other theoretical veins and models from organizational behavior theory that can also be useful when applied to decision-making in interorganizational contexts (e.g., complexity theory, leadership theory, policy analysis, cultural anthropology, communications, marketing, etc.). However, the specific context of multi-sector collaborative decision-making remains unaddressed.
Given that decision-making is influenced by multiple factors and given the complex nature of multi-sector collaborations, it is necessary to examine both internal and collaborative decision-making processes as key strategies for multi-sector initiatives. This special issue will contribute to this growing body of literature on multi-sector collaborations by focusing on decision-making processes, an area of research and theoretical framing that has been largely ignored.
Questions for Theory, Research and Practice:
This special issue seeks to examine the following general questions:
· What aspects of leadership contribute to the effective decision-making processes in multi-sector initiatives?
· What are organizational factors that result is making decisions to collaborate among organizations (for profits and/or or non-profits)?
· How do processes for decision-making within organizations impact collaborative decision-making across sectors?
· How does organizational culture influence multi-sector decision-making?
· How does policy context (organizational or governmental) influence multi-sector decision-making?
· What are key strategies for the design of effective multi-sector decision-making?
Potential Topics and Areas of Research: To fulfill the purpose of the special issue and answer the outlined questions, the topics of potential contributions may include, but are not limited to, the following subject areas:
· Integrative leadership and collaborative decision-making.
· Intra and interorganizational policy and structures for collective decision-making.
· Participants in collective decision-making
· Internal and external marketing & communication for collective decision-making.
· Interorganizational conflict/conflict management in the decision-making process.
· Collective impact/action
· Collective strategic decision-making
· Complexity theory and decision-making
· Macro-systems theory
Submissions: Authors are invited to submit complete unpublished research or conceptual papers that provide frameworks for understanding multi-sector collaboration decision-making. Authors may use micro, macro or combination of organizational behavior perspectives. Research papers may employ a wide variety of methodologies and analyses including qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods approaches.
To be considered for publication in this special issue, manuscripts must be received by August 31, 2014.
Papers submitted will be subject to a minimum double-blind peer review process to ensure that this special issue maintains the excellent reputation and record of Management Decision.
Please read through the author guidelines on this site before submitting your paper. Submissions to Management Decision are made using ScholarOne's Manuscript Central http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/md Queries should be submitted directly to the Guest Editors, Daniel M. Miller, North Carolina A&T State University, USA email: danmmiller@aol.com). and KC Patrick Low (University of the South Pacific, Fiji). Contact Editor, Daniel Miller Daniel M. Miller, Ph. D.
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