Fred Van den Anker

How teams in networked organisations develop collaborative capability: processes, critical incidents and success factors

In this article, we present a study on collaborative capability of teams in three networked organisations in Austria and Switzerland. So far, collaborative capability has mostly been conceptualised on an organisational or individual level as a set of attributes that actors employ to collaborate successfully. We found that this view of collaborative capability needs to be enlarged. Collaborative capability of teams is characterised by at least two components: an attribute-based perspective that focuses on capabilities of single actors or organisations, and a perspective on group dynamics which describes how teams successfully develop collaborative capability. We examined collaborative work processes and task requirements and the way critical incidents in different project stages influenced the development of collaboration. We discuss our findings with regard to the different organisational settings of the networks analysed and the current literature on collaborative capability and networked organisations. Moreover, we identify six critical success factors for collaboration and discuss the role of network management in co-innovation.

Collaborative Capability of Teams in Network Organizations.

In this paper, we present a study on collaborative capability of teams in three network organizations in Austria and Switzerland. So far, collaborative capability was mostly conceptualized on organizational or individual level as a set of attributes that actors employ to collaborate successfully. We found that this view of collaborative capability has to be enlarged. Collaborative capability of teams is characterized by at least two components: an attribute-based perspective that focuses on capabilities of single actors or organizations, and a perspective on group dynamics, that describes how teams develop collaborative capability. We discuss our findings with regard to the different organizational settings of the networks analyzed and the current literature on collaborative capability and network organizations.

Critical Success Factors for Establishing Online User Participation in System Design: An Evaluation in Healthcare

Recent web-based technologies such as social media offer new ways for involving users in system design. However, little is known about the concrete benefits and limitations of online user participation and how to organize such processes in a corporate context. This research reports on an approach that integrated an online-platform with face-to-face activities to design an ICT-based health care service together with health care staff. A qualitative, formative evaluation of the approach over two years revealed critical success factors for applying online participation within a participatory design process. The authors show how task-related, media-related and organizational characteristics, transaction costs of participating and the need for a shared context work as preconditions and drivers for online participation. The evaluation also revealed that the online platform and scenario workshops complement each other well by integrating online user-generated content with detailed context information derived from face-to-face interaction.