Collaboration of Organizations Across international Borders

An organization in the Riverbend City called Fuerza y Unidad has targeted in its mission to serve recipients after a toxic spill that has caused adverse effects. The city has not been able to effectively respond to the needs of the Latino Population. Some members of the Latino Riverbend City have families and relatives in the area affected by the spill. The spill’s effects have touched the groundwater, soil, and air. Fuerza y Unidad has set to collaborate with a local organization in Canexico in its bid to help the people there. These two organizations have been constituted differently thereby calling for collaboration across the international border. These factors may prompt the formation of an NGO to address the challenges. This paper entails an analysis conducted to elaborate the theories that may influence their collaborations, the consequences of using organizational policy, opportunities that may be present for the two organizations, the possible type of relationship that may be chosen. It will also offer recommendations for alternative strategies.

Theories and other factors affecting the decision to Collaborate

One of the basic theory that will guide the decision-making process of how the organization in Canexico and Fuerza y Unidad and their interaction will be the social theories. These present an analytical frameworks that are effective in observing a social phenomenon. The main factor to be considered under the social theories is how societies change and develop in terms of social behavior, power and modernity. It forms a relevant background as it provides a basis to reflect how to tackle the situation of the toxic spill as it influences the nature of social life. The theories inform on the structure of social institutions where the intended collaboration between the organizations may acquire an insight.

Another theory that will be useful in getting this relationship right is the theory of change. This represents an approach for planning, implementing and evaluating change at an organizational or community level. This theory is based on the assumption that any action intended is purposeful. In forming this collaboration, the theory will inform on the need of the two organizations to have a common agreed purpose. The theory requires proper articulation of how the intended project will achieve intended outcomes and the action to be taken. In this case, Fuerza y Unidad and the women organization in Canexico will need to decide and agree on the goals and the action plan for the project plan. The goals of the collaboration will be to help the community deal with the adverse effects of the toxic spillage (Laing & Todd, 2015).

The other theory that may influence the collaboration decision between these two organizations is the agency theory. This theory requires one party act as the principal and delegate the duties to another party who performs the work. In this scenario, organization Fuerza y Unidad will be the principal and will have the women organization in Canexico serve on its behalf in carrying out tasks meant to mitigate the adverse effects caused by the spill to the community. The factors that will be considered through this lens will be on conflicting goals and different attitudes between the two organizations (Rossignoli & Ricciardi, 2015).

Another major factor that will be at play in deciding the nature of the collaboration between the two organizations will be based on sustainability decision-making. The main issue at hand will be related to environment and the individual use to conserve resources. The difference is the cultural settings between the two organizations cause’s different views on responsibility, and the manner in environmental decisions are made (Schmitz, Stinson, & James, 2010).

In this kind of intended relationship between the organizations across the international borders, there will be an influence of the government policy on the exact type and nature of collaboration that will be established. Globalization has seen an increased integration of organizations across the international borders in a manner that creates interdependency of organizations across the globe. One key element of this, and one that may be factored in the decision to collaborate, is on the establishment of nongovernmental organizations. The NGOs offers conduits through which aid is provided and organizations can offer services in development projects to low-income countries. The NGOs have created new channels through which organizations can offer social services such as poverty relief and environmental protection (Allard & Martinez, 2008). Such as scenario would be favorable in this situation by providing a framework under which Fuerza y Unidad and the organization in Canexico can collaborate.

Forms of Relationships and Partnerships between the Organizations and their Consequences

 Capacity building                                                                                                                

One of the forms of collaboration that may apply in this case is capacity building by Fuerza y Unidad to the organization in Canexico. This approach is quite popular in the development sector as well as research cooperation due to its potential in realizing benefits. Capacity building helps tackle risks of an unaccomplished initiative, brain drain and poorly maintained infrastructure that may be developed. Capacity building ensures a long-term, reliable, and sustainable research partnerships. In this case, capacity will be used to help the organization in the area affected area of Canexico understand the methods necessary to facilitate reduction of the adverse effects associated with the spill. The capacity building is a multi-dimensional approach, and in this case, it will include strengthening the network and optimizing skill that will be enhanced and shared (OECD, 2011).

One of the factors that may be considered as negative in this case is based on the period required to produce measurable results. This may make the organizations impatient especially where prompt results were desired.

Consortium

A consortium refers to the association of two or more organization of different nationalities temporarily that comes together to achieve a task. The consortium does not lead to the formation of a new entity but rather entering into a contractual relationship between the consortium members.  In this scenario, the organizations can form a consortium that will even bring together other partners and stakeholders. This will ensure that all interested stakeholders in dealing with adverse effects resulting due to the spillage that occurred.

The formation of a consortium involves bringing together some organizations that some of the following characteristics. These include a contribution by different parties regarding resources, knowledge, and skills; the organizations should have a joint interest in the main subject matter; leads to a right of mutual control or management of the association, an expectation of profits. In the scenario, the profits expected will not be considered regarding monetary terms, but the rather social achievement is dealing with the adverse effects that may be affecting the community due to the spillage.

Some of the benefits that can be delivered in this form of collaboration are on risk-sharing. This ensures that the organizations without huge financial muscle can still make a positive contribution to the course. Another positive consequence in the consortia is on the potential possibility of combining the technical expertise in several concerns for a large project. In this case, the organization in Canexico has a lot of background advantage in the community and can, therefore, guide other organization in the areas affected and the ones that are yet to get adequate assistance from the government. The magnitude of the matter regarding complexity may favor the pooling of resources to tackle the issues at hand.

Some of the negative consequences of this form of a partnership include the possibility of defects in the performance or quality of the work to be performed. Delays may occur in the completion of the project due to the difference in management policies. Where the contractual agreement is not affected as agreed, there may case of poor management of resources. Organizations may also contribute to the failure of attaining the target. This may because the benefits intended from being achieved.

Strategic alliance

The organizations may come together and form a strategic alliance. This is a collaboration that comes through a combination of resources in pursuit of mutual gain. In the strategic alliance, there is no formation of a new firm but just firms working together to achieve a unified goal. In this case, the goal is on assisting the Latino and other community members in Canexico where oil spillage has had adverse effects on the environment in the form of polluting the groundwater and the soil. The form of this interdependence requires the organizations to learn how to work together and depend on each other.

Strategic alliance offers the opportunities of bringing various organizations to contribute to the project without making equal contributions. This implies that not all partner relationships can be equal partners. This implies that the two organizations can be the main partners and bring other minor stakeholders. The unique characteristics of the form of collaboration include being critical to the success of the main objective of the intended project. The strategic alliance is critical to the development and maintenance of the core competency; it eliminates the blockage that may be present due to competitive threat of stakeholders not working together.

The essential negative consequences that need to be considered in this case is a possibility of a misunderstanding between the organizations thereby allying to fall apart. Where one organization believes the alliance in benefiting the others without consideration of benefits accrued to the community (Wakeam, 2003).

NGO

A non-governmental organization is known best for operating as private voluntary organizations, civil society organizations, and citizen association. NGOs address the conceivable issue and can operate even beyond the international border. An NGO is legally constituted, a voluntary association bringing together individuals or organizations. An NGO maintains it’s a status by ensuring that the government does not engage in the involvement of it. The NGOs operate in a manner that the organization is treated by the organization. NGOs are exempt from income taxes thereby the operating expenses to achieve the intended purpose. This form of collaboration allows the formation of NGOs branches in respective countries. In this case, both organizations can operate in their respective countries but collaborate in the projects in different countries.

The growth of NGOs has been said to grow due to various reason mainly being government failure and market failure. In the scenario, the government has been unable to provide a solution to the community affected by the oil spillage. For this reason, the organizations come to fill the space left by the unsolved issues. The formation of NGOs enable the organizations to work in solidarity and take advantage of collective empowerment.

The engagement of the collaboration helps the organizations in offering the social services. An NGO highly enjoys a wide degree of legitimacy to the public. The NGOs are equipped to deal with the specifics groups that may have been overlooked by the government. Through NGOs networks, they can reach different stakeholder together. It provides an opportunity of bringing on organizations with technical expertise and who have experience in dealing with such matters affecting the underserved populations such as the Latino population in the Canexico.

Recommendation

The initiative by these two organization is a commendable initiative.  The government has failed in helping the community that has been affected the oil spillage. To achieve this, the best form of collaboration is the formation of NGO. This would means starting of a new entity.  Its management and policies are allow a wider perspective to dealing with the problem. Formation of collaboration requires the consideration of a few things including; reasons for collaboration, the risks and benefits be distributed; and the indicators for success achievement for the mutual goals. This will determine the level of interdependence between the partners. With this NGO, Fuerza y Unidad and the women’s cooperative in Canexico will manage to help the community of affected by adverse effects due to the toxic spills that the government has not managed to properly handle.

References

Allard, G., & Martinez, C. (2008). The Influence of Government Policy and NGOs on Capturing Private Investment. Global Forum on International Investment . OECD .

Laing, K., & Todd, L. (2015). Theory-based Methodology: Using Theories of Change for Development, Research, and Evaluation . Newcastle University.

OECD. (2011). Opportunities,Challenges and Good Practies in International Research Cooperation Developed and Developing Countries. OECD Global Science Forum.

Rossignoli, C., & Ricciardi, F. (2015). Inter-Organizational Relationships . Management Science.

Schmitz, C., Stinson, C., & James, C. (2010). Community and Environmental Sustainability: Collaboration and Interdiscplinary Education. Critical Social Work .

Wakeam, J. (2003). The Five Factors of a Strategic Alliance . Ivey Business Journal .