The Politics of Partnerships A Critical Examination of Nonprofit-Bus
The widespread partnering phenomenon in the US and the UK spurred a significant amount of literature focusing on its strategic use. The Politics of Partnerships diverges by examining if partnerships can deliver benefits that extend beyond the organisation
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The Politics of Partnerships A Critical Examination of Nonprofit–Business Partnerships
by
Maria May Seitanidi
Dr. Maria May Seitanidi Brunel Business School Brunel University West London Uxbridge Middlesex UB8 3PH United Kingdom [email protected]
ISBN 978-90-481-8546-7 e-ISBN 978-90-481-8547-4 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8547-4 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010920319 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Dedicated to Georgia, Alex and Sophia: my agape, noesis and kallos
Abstract
The widespread use of partnering in the US and the UK has attracted a significant amount of literature on the phenomenon and its strategic use. The book suggests that partnerships between nonprofit organisations and businesses allow both organisations to strategically meet their organisational goals. However, there has been little attempt to explicitly examine whether these relationships deliver benefits that result from the intentional combined efforts of the two partners and extend beyond the organisational to the societal level. Based on 75 interviews in businesses and nonprofit organisations in the UK the book offers a critical examination of the partnership phenomenon under the three chronological stages of cross sector social partnerships: formation, implementation, outcomes. The book puts forward a holistic framework for the study of partnerships that allows for observations beyond any single stage. It addresses some critical knowledge gaps by including the perspective of both partners within a single study and comparing the organisational and societal outcomes of these relationships. Two in-depth partnership case studies are examined: an environmental nonprofit organisation, Earthwatch, in partnership with a mining company, Rio Tinto; and a youth charity, The Prince’s Trust, in partnership with the Royal Bank of Scotland. The case study findings are compared and corroborated with the partnership experiences of 29 further organisations that participated in the research. The study suggests that when collaborative nonprofit organisations partner with businesses there is an “overt functional conflict deficit” or in other words there are insufficient opportunities for the expression of divergent opinions that would lead to fundamental changes within organisations and society. As such conflict and change are connected within the context of nonprofit-business partnerships through the intention for change. Untying social partnership from the partnership approach based on
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