Collaboration in Business - Essay Example

Effective leadership steers the community towards achieving the set objectives of which can be customer satisfaction, profit maximization, market dominance among other business objectives. The goals and objectives of the business community will provide a frame work for laying out the policies and guidelines that will be used for running the community. Collaborative business communities employ collaborative problem-solving techniques to enhance their performance. The individual business goals and objectives of each member have to be put into consideration when formulating the overall goals of the business community (Welborn & Kasten, 2003).

In order for a business to successfully collaborate with external partners it should have the ability to successfully collaborate internally. A business firm should develop strategies and practices that enable the culture of collaboration internally (Welborn & Kasten, 2003).This may be done in various ways such as inter departmental collaboration where each department has mechanisms for dealing with their other counterpart departments effectively. Collaborations can also be exercised within the firm’s management structure whereby at each level of management there are effective methods of collaboration that ensure the smooth running of activities within the business.

Barriers that may be encountered in collaborations such institutional, legal and psychological barriers should be anticipated and preventive measures taken in advance. Institutional barriers involve the internal activities of the individual potential member. These barriers may arise due to the internal policies of the potential member of the community such as their policies on expansion whereby they might not be interested in expanding to the level that will result from the collaboration. When it comes to legal barriers, these are barriers that may arise due to the legal framework of the country that the company is.

For instance in for the multi – national firms, the firms intending to form the collaboration might be located in different countries with different set of laws regarding the activities they intend to engage in as a collaboration. The psychological barriers are related to the mindsets of the potential customers of the collaboration, the present customers of the individual members, their employees and other stakeholders. Some might have a negative attitude towards the company that is being brought into the collaboration and these might have an impact on issues to do with sales, worker motivation incase of the employees.

The legal framework of the countries intending to form the collaboration should be studied especially concerning the practice of business collaborations and measures should be put in place to ensure that the potential collaborators do not contravene the law. For institutional barriers between the members intending to form the collaboration, they should be both prepared to cede some ground regarding their internal policies so as to successfully build the collaboration. Finally, the potential collaborators can carry out consumer and employee education in order to inform them of the potential impact that the collaboration will have (either directly or indirectly) on their lives in order for them to make informed decisions (Welborn & Kasten, 2003).

The collaborative communities should deliver tangible value to each member, to ensure engagement and commitment to the common goals, and