Inter-Organization Partnership - Research Paper Example

INTER-ORGANIZATION PARTNERSHIP affiliation INTER-ORGANIZATION PARTNERSHIP Introduction Different organizations and firms identify partnership as an important aspect in ensuring smooth flow of activities and therefore success. It goes without saying that the terminology partnership may have varied meanings to different individuals and organizations. This leads to misunderstandings and confusion in terms of which duty or responsibility a party in the partnership is supposed to fulfill. Forces in the business world such including internal and mostly external are driving firms in different sectors to consider partnership as the way to go. This challenge has even seen firms with totally different goals such us profit driven and Non Governmental Organizations to partner. There exist a large number of reasons why organizations may work together. Some of those reasons may include; cost cutting, better access and chance of survivability in the market, sharing of raw materials and even sharing the prestigious status one member of the partnership if enjoying(Fleming,2006). The chosen way to do this may range from merging to even joint venture. It is rather unfortunate to note that these partnerships are rather more complicated and hard to put into play than the word suggests. Individual characteristics of the participating firms always come into the picture affecting the relationship. From Challenge to Solution Inter-organization is a program made to partially provide wages for its clients when they are out of work. It applies when one is temporarily or permanently out of a job, or when one works less than required full time because of lack of work. The program ensures that, if one is eligible by the law, he/she gets some income while they look for a job, for up to a maximum of 26 weeks in a one-year period, according to the time when the claim was made. Inter-organization, however, does not protect one against wage losses while one is absent from work because of illness or due to idleness by choice. (Noel, 2008) The inter-organization benefits are provided according to the guidelines put down by the by Federal law. Such guidelines include the eligibility for inter-organization, benefits and amounts, and the length of time the benefits are available. The contributions of the inter-organization and job core may not be the only solution to employment since the real deal would be more job acquisition and the exploration of more unprecedented opportunities. The contributions of the inter-organization, however, should not be under estimated. This paper analyzes the major ways in which the employment institutions and job core contribute to solving the problem of inter-organization. One of the means in which the inter-organization institution curbs the problem of inter-organization, is by the provision of the monetary payments for a specific, immediate and shortly subsequent after a sincere job loss. Although it does not solve the real situational problem because after all the client remains unemployed even though earning, it solves the consequential problem of inter-organization. This ensures that the client meets their financial obligations, just as while employed. The other substantial contribution of inter-organization is the creation of confidence for employment mobility. Many employees who are not insured for inter-organization find it a particularly large risk to move from one employment opportunity to another, regardless of the discomforts, underutilization or limited career growth that the employees may be experiencing. This is caused by the fear of remaining unemployed after moving from a current position. This is an inter-organization problem because were it, not for the fear, many people would easily move from their employment positions to even more secure and desired employment opportunities. Inter-organization suffices the need for a bridge whilst shifting from one job position to another. Job Core is a free training program that enables young people makes a career, earn a diploma or GED, and secure a suitable job. For the eligible youngsters who qualify as low income, Job Core provides the all-around skills needed to build and develop a career in life. The major contribution of job core to curbing inter-organization is the creation of skilled and semi-skilled human resources) that is employable in a wide range of fields. One of the causes of inter-organization is the limitation of skills. Organizations may partner to increase services, reduce duplication of work and overhead costs. They also employ the use of partnership models that are customized and engineered to ensure building teams, development organizations, develop communities and perform wholesome changes in the way these partners will play out their roles in the partnership. In view of what we are discussing, we can see that there is a growing number of literal works that have material on partnerships as a single approach to business success. In going through these literatures, we have noticed the different and similar traits between the two the various models that exist. The challenging thing now for business people is to make a choice on which method or model best suits their partnership. In this paper, the author will try and settle some major questions in terms of which models best suit partnership and which ones do not. One of those queries is, how we can distinguish the main levels of partnering which can allow people in the firms taking part in the partnership to actually appreciate the fact that each organization is distinctively different and therefore try and collaborate and work well together. The other question will be which type of talks should individuals taking part in a partnership engage in to assist them in making calculated decisions. Consultants may involve the use of these partnership apertures in training seminars to teach how organizations can partner well. Trainees in these seminars will be taught on how to coexist well in a partnership situation. Also trainees will receive encouragement on how to share what they are experiencing in the partnership without jeopardizing it. A system of working as partners The same methods we employ to analyze relationships between people, we can employ it took to analyze, understand and set forward how individuals are expected to behave in a partnership setting. We can also employee the use of analysis into firms that have successfully partnered and borrow some meaningful examples into our organization. We can also look into how these firms make sure that their individual needs are met without threatening the relationship. Richard Boettcher in one of the articles he coauthored by Chris Kloth defined the relationship in a business partnership using a line (linear continuum). Here he put forward a number of types of organizational partnerships. Adding to what Boettcher did, Kloth incorporated the continuum into a circle to also portray the aspects of a firm that the line did not represent or talk about. In this literal work, we will name of a number the aspects. First we will start by talking about the types of partnership relationships that exist. One of them is; Independent: Organizations before joining any kind of partnership must have worked independently before with each having its own methods and means of taking care of its activities also its own goals and missions. Even after joining together with other organization to achieve a common purpose, it is actually untrue to say that it is their main goal or intention. This is because, even in partnership, individual organizations still focus on how to benefit themselves individually for their own good in the long run. We can also say that they use this move to make their own intentions. For instance an individual organization may use this opportunity to learn how the other works, acquire new partners in the future or even steal ideas for new products or services they will develop or launch. This is most commonly a plot for an individual organization to get in-depth analysis of their "competitor". Coordination: Sometimes organizations in the same will find that there is value in coordinating efforts. When government entities consider legislation or regulation on fuel efficiency or driver safety regulations, automakers may decide that they will present a common message on the cost of regulations to the consumer, industry and workforce (Fleming, 2006). In the process of arriving at the common message they will probably not share information about how their engineers are designing fuel efficiency or safety improvements that will profit the company in the future. By the same token, community-based human service agencies may coordinate how and when they provide families with drug counseling, housing assistance, educational assistance or job training and child care. However, they may not disclose the fact that they are trying to expand the base of services they can offer within their agencies or that they are submitting competing proposals for grants where they are lowering the fee they may charge a particular funder to a rate below what they charge another for comparable services. Whether it is auto- makers or human service organizations, the coordination relationship allows each to work together on common interests while maintaining their boundaries and ability to pursue distinct interests. Cooperation: Most often, firms join hands to work together and conquer certain problems in the market; cooperation. Instead of producing every component of a vehicle, a car manufacturing company enlists the services of other manufacturers to produce that component for them. They only provide relevant information that will be needed for the production of that part but do not share internal company information or secrets. When an organization intends to take part in a project that it does not actually have the tech know how on how to go about it or does not see it as it requires internal involvement, it may incorporate the use of other organizations that deal with goods or products of the same line. As indicated earlier, it will only share information that it deems relevant to the project ( Bliss, 2008). The organization may also use this as an avenue to learn something new about the product they have outsourced to be manufactured during the span of this partnership. From the introduction, we can see that in cooperation, organizations can maintain some boundaries between them. Collaboration: Some organizations do share private and information considered as really proprietary in the pretext they are in a path to achieving a certain goal. An example is a military contracted company that manufactures a certain product for the men in uniform. The company did the unthinkable and invited other firms in the same line of production to attend a symposium where it was discussing ideas on the future of its products. This was to offer a hand in the company’s future plans. The move was somehow smart where the companies agreed on a number of among others. The move was a smart one also because it allowed to cost cutting because now they spend much less on research and improvement of their individual products (Bliss, 2008). This also made it possible for the companies to lay a flat playing field for each other because now what the companies had to do is compete on prices alone. Another good example is when a company needs to manufacture or launches a certain product but the sheer costs of doing that are frightening. What the company does now is to employ the collaboration of it and others in the same field to see this happen. They all chip in some amount to enable the production of the product and also agree to share the profits in a certain way. For collaboration to happen, organizations need to their resources, whether critical or otherwise in order to see this happen. This may include the sharing of information such as financial, policy related or even or even about their practice (Fleming,2006). This is in the move to creating uniformity in performing the task at hand. The sharing also enables cutting or reduce costs and other losses that may arise from one party being misinformed. The corporation also sees to it that the individuals share the risks and liabilities that may arise from that partnership relationship. Integration: Some organizations may also decide to integrate aspects of their organizations that are necessary to facilitate the partnership relationship. This comes up when two or more firms realize that they share too many common traits that may facilitate integration. This integration is enabled by the involved companies merging or one company acquiring the other (Pareek, 2009). Organizations may realize to limit the costs of such aspects as production, marketing, research, transportation and others may be highly reduced by the use of a merger or acquisition. Also an organization may observe that another one reaping a lot of profits from the market, because it also wants a share of that market too, the business may decide to enter into a merger with the other one. From the above named issues and reasons, a business, therefore may find it necessary to get into a merger or acquisition type of partnership with another business. Full Circle: Through mergers, companies find themselves in relationships where they can access more services and resources that they could not before. This may arise from the fact that one of the partners in that merger has more connections and access to certain services and resources in the sector. You also find that this relationship improves the independence of a business. This is influenced by the facts we have named above and also because it reduces the costs of running a business, thus giving the organization some flexibility when it comes to investments. A firm here may use the extra funds saved to invest in other sectors, thus giving it some kind of independence from depending on only one line and source of income. Though merging may seem a good way to go, it is also important to note that it is not at all the case that it succeeds. Two or more companies may merge, but because varying interest between the two partners, partnership and in this case merging becomes a rather bitter pill to swallow (Pareek, 2009). This may lead to the merge to fail as soon the companies will realize that they do not suit each other thus finding it necessary to end the merge. The best move for any business interested in a form of partnership is to make sure they analyze themselves and their business environment to see which form best suits them. In case you realize that the best move for your organization is to engage in a partnership, the individual businesses should try and involve themselves in different types of partnerships. Here they should experiment on a number of them until they find the one that best suits them. The key to successful partnership is enough time to keep track of what needs to be done is the definition of activities that can be achieved the scope and objectives of the records partnership initiative, decide who and what resources and schedule adjust for the activities and achievements. Activities are usually performed during the partnering process: • Roles and responsibilities of the documentation team. A team of document partnership project consists usually made by people from across the organization. For this team to work effectively, all members, leadership for support personnel record partnership must clearly understand their respective roles and how they fit into the team ( Bliss, 2008). • Build team communication. The team members are dedicated to information and project status reports exchange within their respective functional organizations. The manager makes this collaboration with partnership and the establishment of a structured meeting architecture. A consistent process for the dissemination of information and the creation of a team collaboration on site • Carry out an assessment and risk analysis. This activity identifies each team member and allocates the risks of the records partnership initiative connected. The risks are then analyzed and documented in a risk partnership plan. A risk partnership process defines it to manage the team risks throughout the life of the project. • Make insurance mechanisms and quality control. Quality assurance and quality control ensure that the work of the project team will be the fair identified in the objectives and scope. This includes the definition of performance indicators that can be monitored throughout the duration of the project. • Development of the project budget and cost control costs mechanisms.Managing with Records Partnership Initiative examines the costs associated with the project workers off provided to support the development and / or external resources deployment efforts, technology procurement, storage and any other activities or resources directly to the involved in the initiative. The manager should define a structured process for monitoring, reporting and control of project costs. • Ask to control change partnership process, the project scope, schedule, cost, quality and resources. Define how you change to manage the retention schedule is an example of the project team to consider. The retention schedule is a legally binding document that must be maintained through a structured process (Fleming, 2006). . In a structured process, the relevance of change requests may also wish to consider "Council change" and decide to create one. • Definition of organizational change partnership mechanisms. This includes the study of the effects of new processes on employee work habits and how to help them adjust to the changes. After the team about how he manages change, it may be plans to integrate develop the necessary changes in partnership mechanisms. Three organizational change partnership councils. . Implementation of a philosophy of "no surprise" • Inform participants of what you do. • Do what you said you would do. • Follow and share the results of what you have done. . Enter user training. • Educate users to implement their new tasks. • Illustrate the big picture: explain the role of each in the project and how it all fits together. Partnership Conversations For them to determine the mode of partnering that will best suit those, organizations need to seat down, analyze and therefore discuss their options. Pareek (2009) published an article on how to establish and sustain relationships between organizations. He talked of setting goals, analyzing issues of power and building trust as key to establishing strong partnership. Long time observation and research, but many researches indicate that the above mentioned facts are key to the success or failure of any relationship, be it casual or business. These three facts could lead to the survival of downfall of any business relationship. Though so, further research indicates that a deeper look into the named issues further unearths three other related issues (Pareek, 2009). . These further issues have been explained in Pareeks book. These additional factors are not new at all and we will be surprised that most of us know about them. For the purpose of this paper, we will limit ourselves to the issues presented the models discussed earlier. We will discuss the issues that will enable management in organizations make well informed decisions when it comes to partnerships. Some of the issues that when well taken care of will better an organizations relationship with its partner includes; Goal sharing: Though most organizations that take part in a partnership talk about this in the earlier phases of their relationship, they base their attention on common and obvious matters such as cutting costs and to improve their services to their customers. A thing they all forego talking about is how exactly they plan on cutting those costs, which tactic to employ to better their services to the customers, and to what level they plan on doing all that. They also forget to talk about internal factors. These internal factors are issues such as their policies, their employ contracts, their vision, and the company’s values and so on. These issues are of great importance when it comes to the initial talked because they involve issues unique to an individual organization. Such issues are usually deep rooted and another company poking into them may illicit unwanted reactions that may jeopardize the wall partnership agreement. These talks are designed to iron out any issues that may pop up later and bring about failed relationships. This conversation is also important because it will let your organization know it is really agree with the others wants and if they are really compatible. Sharing power: The other major issue of concern worth talking about is sharing of power. Power entails aspects such as management of staff, resources, facilities, and other issues related to the partnership. It is actually tough for an individual in power to relinquish power easily. This is due to the fact that it is viewed as a sign of weakness by many. When entering into a partnership l, most of the time the involved organizations will have to appoint someone to be in charge with the wellbeing and management of the partnership. The tricky situation comes in when the involved organizations disagree on the mode or method of making this choice. It is therefore very important for interested partners take part in this conversation before actually getting into a relationship in the early phases. Here they will be able to discuss and agree on how to go about this issue. References Bliss, S.,E. (2008). The effect of emotional intelligence on a modern organizational leader’s ability to make effective decisions. EQI. Retrieved from http://eqi.org/mgtpaper.htm. Fleming, D., E. (2006). The paradigm value projector: informed partnerships model planning alternatives. New York: New York times. Pareek, U. (2009). Developing Collaboration in Organizations. pp.165 – 182. Read More