Making the Most of Collaboration: Exploring the Relationship Between Partnership Synergy and Partnership Functioning

Considering the challenges inherent to collaboration and the time it takes to achieve measurable outcomes, partnerships need a way to determine, at an early stage, whether they are making the most of collaboration. The authors have developed a new measure, partnership synergy, which assesses the deg...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health education & behavior 2002-12, Vol.29 (6), p.683-698
Main Authors: Weiss, Elisa S., Anderson, Rebecca Miller, Lasker, Roz D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Community Health Planning - organization & administration
Cooperative Behavior
Cross-Sectional Studies
Effectiveness
Efficiency, Organizational
General aspects
Health Care Coalitions
Health education
Health Promotion - organization & administration
Humans
Interinstitutional Relations
Leadership
Medical sciences
Partnerships
Planification. Prevention (methods). Intervention. Evaluation
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Regression analysis
United States
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Summary:Considering the challenges inherent to collaboration and the time it takes to achieve measurable outcomes, partnerships need a way to determine, at an early stage, whether they are making the most of collaboration. The authors have developed a new measure, partnership synergy, which assesses the degree to which a partnership’s collaborative process successfully combines its participants’ perspectives, knowledge, and skills. This article reports the results of a national study designed to examine the relationship between partnership synergy and six dimensions of partnership functioning: leadership, administration and management, partnership efficiency, nonfinancial resources, partner involvement challenges, and community-related challenges. Data were collected from 815 informants in 63 partnerships. Results of regression analysis conducted with partnership-level data indicated that partnership synergy was most closely related to leadership effectiveness and partnership efficiency. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.
ISSN:1090-1981
1552-6127
DOI:10.1177/109019802237938