Upload
scott-robinson
View
215
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
1/35
Structured to Partner
0
TITLE PAGE:
Structured to Partner: School DistrictCollaboration with Nonprofit
Organizations in Disaster Response
Scott E. Robinson*
Bush School of Government and Public Service
And
Angela Bies
Bush School of Government and Public Service
* Corresponding author: [email protected]
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
2/35
Structured to Partner
1
Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit
Organizations in Disaster Response
Abstract:
Emergency preparedness and response is moving from a specialized circle of
emergency management professionals and select nonprofit organizations (such as
the Red Cross and other national relief organizations) to include a broader varietyof organizations not traditionally fulfilling emergency management roles,
including schools. It is not clear who among these new potential members of
emergency preparedness networks collaborates with whom. We present the
results of a survey of Texas public schools and test how structural characteristicsare related to collaboration with nonprofits and relief organizations following a
local, visible disaster, that of the 2005 Gulf Coast Hurricanes. Our results showthat the propensity to collaborate is related to the size of the districts and its
degree of centralization, even while controlling for a districts general
collaborative tendency.
Keywords: Collaborative Public Management, Nonprofit Management, Emergency Management
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
3/35
Structured to Partner
2
Introduction
Numerous and frequently poignant stories emerged after Hurricane Katrina in the fall of
2005. Most remember the horror stories of the crowds of people neglected at the Superdome.
Many remember the images of entire neighborhoods being washed away as the flood waters
overtook the levees in New Orleans or wiped away as the storm scoured coastal communities.
The result of these perceptions resulted in a negative assessment of how the government
(defined broadly) handled the disaster. Not all of the stories, however, were so negative. Amid
the stories of government neglect and incompetence (which sadly, often overshadowed stories of
the heroism and competence of many civil servants), many contrasting stories emerged about the
successful efforts of private companies and nonprofit organizations to provide relief. These
private and nonprofit organizations emerged as important secondary disaster organizations
organizations who provided services to those affected by a disaster but whose mission was not
primarily disaster related. Examples of such secondary disaster organizations include local
churches that provided shelter or food to people in their community who lost their homes;
schools that enrolled the children of evacuees; or animal protection organizations that provided
assistance to evacuees with pets. These stories led to a shift in public perception about the role
and capacity of government to address future disasters adequately, and led many to call for an
increased role for private and nonprofit organizations, as secondary disaster organizations, in
governmental planning for emergency response.
The emergence of private and nonprofit actors as key players in disaster response has
raised the profile and perceived utility of secondary disaster organizations in emergency
management. It is now clear that emergency preparedness must include a role for local business
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
4/35
Structured to Partner
3
organizations, local welfare agencies, local education institutions, local religious institutions, and
many others. It is increasingly clear that effective disaster response calls for the incorporation of
organizations for which disasters are not their primary mission. In this paper, we address two
aspects of the non-governmental components of emergency management. Using a survey of
Texas public school districts, we investigate how school districts (not primarily disaster
organizations) connect to nonprofit organizations (including many relief organizations and non-
disaster nonprofits). In the first part of the paper, we discuss the existing literature on
collaboration and emergency response. From this literature, we adapt general hypotheses related
to collaborative propensity between public organizations and nonprofit organizations. The
hypotheses focus on the role of organizational structure to create capacity for collaboration. We
then describe a survey that we conducted of Texas school districts to assess their collaborative
practices in emergency response and its results. Finally, we discuss the most important questions
remaining about the collaboration between public and nonprofit organizations.
Collaboration and Disaster Response
Collaboration has been the subject of great interest in policy and practice discussions
(e.g. Choi, 2008; Gazley & Brudney, 2007; Graddy & Chen, 2006) and become a popular subject
of speculation and research in public administration (Foster & Meinhard, 2002; McGuire, 2006;
OToole, 1997; Waugh & Streib, 2006). Despite such interest, collaboration is defined variously
and with continuing imprecision. In general, collaboration is considered in terms of organizing
structures, in which collaboration exists on a continuum from informality to formality, with a
central concern resting on the issue of at what point a cooperative relationship transforms into a
collaborative one. Across this continuum, for example, collaboration might span from structures
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
5/35
Structured to Partner
4
that are informal and episodic, such as collaboration on a task force by business, citizen, and
nonprofit organizations to address an acute public health concern, to highly formalized contracts
between governmental agencies and social service providers.
Collaboration has also been defined in terms of process aspects around a problem about
which parties that see different aspects of a problem can constructively explore their differences
and search for solutions that go beyond their own limited visions of what is possible (Gray,
1989, p. 5). It is clear, however, collaboration suggests something less than authoritative
coordination and something more than tacit cooperation (Foster, 2002, p. 19). Collaboration for
our purposes is defined as a formal organization providing assistance in an emergent fashion to
address a disaster response need, whether as part of an existing collaboration or in the context of
a new relationship or venture.
In terms of cross-sector collaboration, the definition focuses on the parties to the
collaboration. Bryson, Crosby and Stone define cross-sector collaboration as partnerships
involving government, business, nonprofits and philanthropies, communities, and/or the public
as a whole (2006, p. 44). The specific policy domains in which people have investigated
collaborative public management have ranged from environmental regulation (Koontz &
Thomas, 2006), social service delivery (Provan & Milward, 1995), and the focus of this paper
emergency management (Waugh & Streib, 2006; Simo & Bies, 2007). In each of these areas,
writers have been optimistic that collaborative practices will improve outcomes and efficiency,
as well as increase the democratic inclusion of stakeholders. However, there are still many
standing questions in relation to policy networks and collaborative public management
(Robinson, 2006).
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
6/35
Structured to Partner
5
One gap in our knowledge that is particularly salient to collaboration and emergency
response is the proclivity for secondary disaster organizations to engage in collaborative public
management practices, and more specifically, the proclivity for collaboration with nonprofit
partners. Why is it that some secondary disaster organizations connect with other organizations
in responding to or planning for disasters while others do not?
In the sections that follow, we explore the dynamics of collaboration with special
attention to issues related to collaboration in disaster response contexts. We review the
controversies over the meaning of collaboration as well as the forces that are hypothesized to
predispose some organizations to collaborate. The section concludes with general hypotheses
reflecting our literature-grounded expectations of the role of organizational structure in the
decision whether to collaborate.
Choosing To Collaborate
A key area requiring investigation is how partners choose to link into collaborative
networks. For the most part, research (especially the large N quantitative literature) has focused
on the characteristics of collaborations in operation. The issue of how participants decide to
participate is central to the democratic potential of collaborative networks. Fung (2006) warned
of the illusory nature of some forms of participation. Even large numbers of participants in
administrative processes may not be particularly democratic if the participants are similar and
fail to represent the diversity of the effected population. A key mistake, Fung noted, was to
assume that self-selected participation systems would likely result in diverse participants. While
the solutions to the potentially skewed distribution of participants are not obvious or inexpensive,
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
7/35
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
8/35
Structured to Partner
7
Collaboration in Emergency Management and Disaster Response
Scholars and practitioners in emergency management have been among those most active
in promoting the importance of collaborative public management. By their very nature,
emergency management taxes the capacity of any organization or community. As has been
evident in the aftermath of recent emergencies ranging from terrorist attacks to natural disasters,
no one organizationor even municipality or statecan deal with large-scale emergencies
alone. It is nearly impossible, then, to effectively prepare for or respond to emergencies without
extensive collaboration.
Louise Comfort has been a pioneer in researching collaborative public management in the
area of emergency response. Her work on complexity theory and the management of emergency
response networks has made it clear to researchers and practitioners alike that emergency
response requires collaborative networks and that these networks raise a number of new
questions about the governance of these arrangements (Comfort,1994, 2007). The most basic
question raised in these studies was who is it that participates in disaster response?
Recent research into large scale disaster response has noted the prominent role of
nonprofit organizations in providing response and relief service. For example, research on the
response to Hurricane Katrina revealed the importance of nonprofit organizations in community
response to disaster. Robinson, Berrett, and Stone (2006) described the emergence of many new
partnerships between nonprofit organizations and local government officials in the Dallas/Fort
Worth area, as well as among networks of nonprofit organizations. This early research showed
how the picture of emergency response following the hurricanes of 2005 would have been
woefully incomplete without including the nonprofit collaborations. Similarly, Simo and Bies
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
9/35
Structured to Partner
8
(2007) documented the diversity of nonprofit collaborations along the Gulf Coast generally
during the same response period.
Mirroring the general literature on collaboration, the research into nonprofit
collaborations in disaster response have documented that there are many such collaborations.
What is lacking is a theory of why some collaborative relationships emerge while many other
potential collaboration fail to materialize. Why do some organizations have a diverse set of
collaborative partners while others collaborate with few (or no) external partners? We seek to
address this question. Before we present our research, we want to take a moment to discuss
collaboration from the side of the nonprofit organization.
Collaborations with Nonprofits
Nonprofits, like public agencies, are increasingly engaged in collaborative activity to
achieve public purposes. Such collaboration routinely cuts across across government, business,
and nonprofit sectors (Milne, Iyer, & Gooding-Williams, 1996), especially as nonprofit-public
sector collaborations become a prominent feature of public service delivery in the United States
and abroad (Gidron, Kramer, & Salamon, 1992).
In their research on government-nonprofit collaborations,Gazley and Brudney (2007)
argued that a desire for resource stability facilitates collaboration. The authors found that the
motivation by nonprofits to collaborate is driven by an organizations need to secure scarce
resources, with funding for nonprofits and its expertise and capacity for government as
predictors (p. 340). Government and nonprofit respondents provided remarkably similar
responses to questions about the goals of the collaboration explaining collaborations as
valuable in jointly addressing problems, improving community access to a service, improving
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
10/35
Structured to Partner
9
community relations, and promoting shared goals (p. 398). Their research also suggested that
nonprofits differ in some respects from government in terms of motivations to partner, with
nonprofits (relative to government) more likely to emphasize using collaborations to build
relationships to presumably help them gain resources (p. 398).
Gazley and Brudney also explored factors that explain non-collaboration. The authors
found that concerns about internal capacity and mission, rather than external factors such as
statutory pressure, appear to provide the strongest rationale for entering or avoiding public-
private partnerships (p. 412). Jang and Feiock (2007) also suggested that the costs of
collaboration and subsequent influence of nonprofits financial stakeholders are associated with
collaborative behavior.
Similarly, recent research on nonprofit-school partnerships provides a nuanced view of
institutional and environmental factors on collaboration, and indicated that organizational
characteristics and local policy environments may have a significant effect on the form and
intensity of collaborative efforts (Sowa, 2008, p. 317). In her study of interagency collaborations
to deliver early childhood services between school districts and community-based organizations,
Sowa (2008) emphasized the importance of examining the type of resources shared between
organizations in a collaborative relationship, and beyond this, the commitment of collaborative
partners, because varying degrees of commitment may produce significant variation in the
implementation of these collaborative service delivery mechanisms (p. 317). To the extent that
nonprofit organizations operate on different resource bases than organizations in other sectors,
Sowas argument suggests that there may be inherent difficulties in cross-sector collaboration.
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
11/35
Structured to Partner
10
This research illustrates the interest in better understanding the complexities of
collaboration that crosses sector boundaries between government and nonprofit organizations.
Given the prominence of these collaborations and the complexities involved in crossing sector
boundaries, it is important to test propositions about why some government organizations choose
to collaborate with nonprofits while others do not. The next section develops general
propositions about when organizations are likely to seek collaborative partners grounded in the
theory of inter-organizational relations.
Theoretical Expectations
Based on the existing literature reviewed above, we have expectations about the sorts of
factors that would increase the probability that a public agency would seek to collaborate with a
nonprofit organization. It would be prohibitively complex to assess all of the possible factors that
can influence the propensity to collaborate with nonprofits. We have chosen to focus on how
organizational structure affects the propensity to collaborate. We will control for other potential
factors in the empirical test, but our theoretical focus will be on structure in this section.
First, we expect larger organizations to possess the slack resources and the opportunities
for structural specialization to facilitate collaboration of any type. As a general effect, this should
affect organizations propensities to collaborate with nonprofit organizations. This expectation is
defended in detail in Thompsons classic text Organizations in Action (2003[1967]).
Organizations generally seek to protect their core operations from turbulence in the environment.
Managers dont want the people who perform functions close to the core mission of the
organization to worry about the supply of resources or other potentially uncertain components of
the environment. As a result, they create specialized units to monitor and interact with the
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
12/35
Structured to Partner
11
uncertain environment. Only larger organizations, though, have the economies of scale to devote
resources to these sorts of specialized units. Larger organizations can have separate press
relations units, analysis departments, or the like. All of these units serve to keep people
performing the core operations of the organization in their daily tasks.
Recent empirical work confirms some of theoretical explanations for nonprofit
collaboration reviewed above. Specifically, resource-dependence and environmental uncertainty
explanations for collaboration have been supported in the nonprofit literature (e.g., Gazley &
Brudney, 2007; Guo & Acar, 2005; Foster & Meinhard, 2002; Singer & Yankey, 1991). The
diversity of the evidence convinces us that this phenomenon is general across sectors. As a
result, we offer the following proposition.
Proposition One: Larger organizations are more likely to collaborate than smaller ones.
In addition to organizational size, the arrangement of resources within an organizations
structure is also likely to be important. Using the same Thompsonian logic as above, one expects
to see greater investment in boundary spanning operations in organizations where resources are
sufficiently centralized to realize economies of scale. If resources are decentralized, each unit
divides the potential base for such boundary spanning organization. Where these resources are
instead centralized, it is more likely that an organization can overcome the threshold start-up
costs needed to create a boundary spanning relationship. As a result we also propose the
following:
Proposition Two: Organizations with a greater degree of centralization are more likely to
collaborate than organizations with a lower degree of centralization.
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
13/35
Structured to Partner
12
We outline our approach to testing these propositions and the results of our tests in the next
section.
METHODS AND RESULTS
These propositions call for extensive data on the collaborative behavior of organizations
and a testable model of these behaviors. In this section, we review the data collection strategy
and our approach to operationalization, a nested regression model with which we simultaneously
test hypotheses derived from propositions one and two, and the results of the analysis.
Data Collection
As reviewed in a previous section, scholars have studied collaborative behaviors in a
variety of policy arenas. We chose to test these propositions within the context of emergency
management and disaster response. Specifically, this choice allows us to test the propositions
related to collaboration with nonprofit organizations in ways that would not have been possible
in other policy arenas. We chose to survey Texas public school superintendents about their
collaborative behaviors for a variety of reasons related to the strength of this sampling frame and
the saliency of the context.
First, this sampling frame is well studied and provides us a background against which to
compare our survey methodologyreducing the probability of results that are the result of
unpredicted characteristics of an untested sampling frame. Second, the sampling frame is one
where repeated surveys have resulted in relatively high response rates. This reduced the chance
that the survey would result in a data set that was too small for statistical analysis. Third,
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
14/35
Structured to Partner
13
previous research on the sample frame allows us to leverage years of previous research to test
propositions about structural and financial characteristics of the agencies. Fourth, the subject area
of collaboration (emergency management and disaster response) was salient, allowing for survey
measurement at a time when the respondents were most likely to be deliberately choosing
collaborative strategiesrather than operating under unconscious forces of structural inertia.
We conducted the survey in the immediate aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
(about 60 days after Katrina). One should not discount the importance of this salience. Salience
makes the survey a better test of conscious strategies, but may misrepresent more typical
strategiesbut this is a question for future investigation. While this salience does create an easy
test of collaboration it tests for collaborative behaviors when these behaviors are most likely
it is appropriate to use an easy test strategy when studying relatively unstudied behaviors (like
the decision of public agencies to collaborate with nonprofits in emergency management).
Finally, the sampling frame includes an array of organizations that varied on all of our variables
(large and small districts, districts with recent or distant emergency experience, etc.).
The survey went to all public school district superintendents in Texas with two follow-up
waves. The final response rate was approximately 50%. Comparisons of the respondents to
known characteristics of the non-respondents suggest that the respondents were slightly (though
not statistically significantly) more affluent than non-respondents and significantly larger on
average (though of a relatively small magnitude). With these comparisons, we are confidents that
the results of the survey provided reasonable approximations of the population values.
Operationalization
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
15/35
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
16/35
Structured to Partner
15
months of 2005. We have greater faith in patterns observed across tests using multiple
operationalizations of collaboration.
Each proposition also includes an independent variable. The first proposition is related to
organizational size. We use state data on each school district to measure each districts size. For
each district, we included the logged total number of full time equivalent employees as the
measure of size. This measure is highly correlated (at around .997, depending on the year) with
other popular measures of district size such as total enrollment. We logged the value to reduce
what was a significant skew. This measure of size represents organizational size and not the
geographical area served by the district. This limitation will be important as we discuss the future
directions for research in the area.
The second proposition deals with the structural centralization within the district. We
operationalized this concept in two ways. First, we included a measure of the percentage of the
district budget dedicated to central administration. High values indicate a leaders general
preference for centralized offices rather than campus-based capacity. This measure is similar to
prior measures of administrative centralization and bureaucratization (Robinson, 2004; Robinson
et al. 2007). Second, we asked specifically about the districts strategy toward delegating
preparedness activities to the individual campus level. The specificity of the question should
balance the pressures toward reporting centralized emergency preparedness with the general
predisposition among education administrators (and the programs that certify them) to pursue
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
17/35
Structured to Partner
16
campus-based policymaking. The result was a response pattern that suggests variety in district
delegation strategies (ranging from delegation to centralization).1
While we expect that these measures of size and centralization to explain some of the
variation in observed collaborations between school districts and nonprofit organizations, we do
not expect that these propositions will explain all of the variation. We take various steps to
ensure that spurious forces are not contaminating our inferences related to propositions one and
two. To control for the differences in disaster vulnerability and recent disaster experience, we
included variables that measure reported impact of recent disasters as well as the perceived
likelihood that the district will experience a disaster in the near future.
Even with the control for disaster vulnerability, there are a variety of factors that could be
spuriously related to both organizational structure and collaboration with nonprofit
organizations. The set of variables omits a variety of important concepts in collaborative public
management that we simply could not simultaneously measure. To assess whether our model is
greatly affected by this under-specification, we tested two models. The first is as described
above. The second specification includes an additional variable of how many collaborations,
other than those reported with nonprofit and relief organizations, the superintendent reported.
This serves as a control for general collaborative predisposition and will account for all of the
unmeasured factors related to both general collaboration and nonprofit collaboration. Any
reported effects in the models that include the general collaborative tendency measure indicate
the influence of the variable on the specific probability of collaborating with nonprofit and relief
1These two measures of centralization do not present multi-collinearity problems in that they are uncorrelated
with each other.
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
18/35
Structured to Partner
17
organizations beyond the effect that the variable has on general collaborative tendencies. This
represents a hard test for the relationships considered.
Regression Model
We test our two propositions using a probit regression model. The dependent variable
was given a value of 1 if the superintendent reported that the district had collaborated with
nonprofit or relief organizations (or had regularly scheduled meetings with them in the third
model). If the superintendent reported that they had not collaborated with nonprofit
organizations, the dependent variable was given a value of 0. Non-responses were omitted from
the analysis.
Besides logging the size and centralization variables (as described above), we assume
simple linear relationships between all of the independent variables and the dependent variables.
While nonlinear relationships are potentially interesting, we reserve those possibilities for future
research. The result is the following regression equation.
EQ.1 - P (Nonprofit Collaboration) = f [0 + 1 (Size)) + 2 (General Delegation) + 3
(Emergency Planning Delegation) + 4(Likelihood) + 5 (Recency) + 6(Impact) + ]
We also tested models that added the general collaborative predisposition. The result is equation
2.
EQ. 2 - P(Nonprofit Collaboration) = f [0 + 1 (Size)) + 2 (General Delegation) + 3
(Emergency Planning Delegation) + 4(Likelihood) + 5 (Recency) + 6(Impact) + 7 (General
Collaborative Tendency.)+ ]
For each of the models, we employ robust estimators to produce robust standard errors.
Results
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
19/35
Structured to Partner
18
The results of the three models are presented in Table 1. Model 1 performs relatively
well, successfully predicting 68% of collaborations and for a proportionate reduction of error of
37%. The model follows previous results on generalized collaborative behaviors in suggesting
that organizational size and centralization both make collaboration with nonprofit organizations
more likely. These three variables (including the two measures of centralization) are in the
predicted direction (larger organizations and greater centralization induce greater probability of
collaborating with nonprofits) and were strongly significant.
Models 2 and 3 provide tests on the robustness of these initial findings. Model 2 adds the
general collaborative tendency as an independent variable. This robust model performs better
overall with a predictive accuracy of 76% with a proportionate reduction in error of 52%. This
additional variable changes the nature of the estimated values. As one would predict, the general
collaborative tendency is strongly significant. The effect size is also quite large.
Figure 1 illustrates the size of the effect of general collaborative tendency. Using the
simulation techniques described in Appendix 1, we estimated the predicted probability of
collaboration for each level of general collaborative tendency while holding all other variables at
their mean (for continuous variables) or median (for ordered variables). For purposes of
comparison, note that 48% of superintendents reported collaboration overall. As Figure 1
illustrates, the expected value of an otherwise typical district with no other collaborations is less
than 20% likely to collaborate with a nonprofit or relief organization. The line in the center of
each box plot is the median prediction with the grey and outer enclosed areas representing the
uncertainty around the estimated median. An organization with five other collaborative partner
types (the maximum possible) is over 80% likely to collaborate with a nonprofit or relief
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
20/35
Structured to Partner
19
organization. These predicted probabilities give an indication of the large effect size of
generalized collaborative tendency, which is not surprising.
The introduction of such a baseline variable, much like adding a lagged dependent
variable in a time series model, reduced the magnitude and significance of the other components
in the model. The size of the organization is still significant though the effect size is reduced by
25%. Still, the variables representing organizational size and centralization were significant in
both models.
Model 2 serves as a hard test for any variable, so we focus our analysis on the results of
this hard test. Figure 2 illustrates the effect of organizational size on the probability of
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
21/35
Structured to Partner
20
collaboration with nonprofit or relief organizations. The figure reports the estimated probability
of collaboration for an organization at each decile within the sample (e.g., an organization that is
larger than only 10% of other districts, an organization larger than only 20% of other districts,
etc.).
As seen in Figure 2, when all other variables were held at typical values larger
organizations are much more likely to collaborate with nonprofit and relief organizations.
Districts larger than only 10% of other districts were about 20% likely to have reported
collaboration. Districts larger than 90% of other districts were about 80% likely to report
collaboration.
Figures 3 and 4 report the effect of our two measures of centralization. Both general
centralization and emergency management centralization are significant factors in the prediction
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
22/35
Structured to Partner
21
of collaborations with nonprofit and relief organizations. Figure 3 shows that the effect of
general centralization can increase the probability of collaboration from 25% to 70% as one
moves from the first to the ninth decile of centralization. Similarly, Figure 4 shows that as one
moves from planning that is reported as entirely or mostly campus-based to entirely district-
based, the expected probability of collaboration with nonprofit or relief organization increases
from 34 to 54%.
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
23/35
Structured to Partner
22
Model 3 changes the dependent variable to regularly scheduled meetings with nonprofit
and relief organizations. The baseline probability of such collaborations is much lower. In the
survey sample, only 15% of districts reported holding regularly scheduled meetings with
nonprofit or other relief organizations. The relative rarity of the collaborations makes estimating
a model predicting the relatively rare events difficult. The predictive power of the model seems
strong at 85%, but this represents only a 3% proportionate reduction of error because the nave
model of simply always predicting that a district will hold no regularly scheduled meetings will
be correct only 84% of the time. Proportionate reduction of errors is typically low in the presence
of such relatively rare events, as in this case.
Given the importance of the generalized collaboration variable in model 2, we have
included it here as well. Here again, generalized collaborative tendency is the most important
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
24/35
Structured to Partner
23
explanatory variable. Figure 5 illustrates the effect of general collaborative tendencies, all other
variables held at typical values. It is important to notice that the scale of the figure has been
changed. Although the figures for collaboration reported simulated probability ranging to 100%,
the figures for regularly scheduled meetings only go to 50% because of the rarity of the
prediction.
Figure 6 illustrates the impact of organizational size on regularly scheduled meetings. Again, the
variable is significant but the effect is only dramatic at large district sizes.
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
25/35
Structured to Partner
24
Figure 7 illustrates the impact of general centralization and emergency management
centralization. General centralization has the same muted effect seen for size and general
collaborative tendency as shown in Figures 5 and 6. Interestingly emergency management
centralization is not significant in this model. The implication is that the tendency to schedule
regular meetings with nonprofit and relief organizations is not related to reported tendencies for
internal emergency planning, but only to general district policies regarding centralization.
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
26/35
Structured to Partner
25
Discussion and Directions for Further Research
Our results just scratch the surface of the issues related to collaboration with nonprofit
organizations. These initial results suggest that there is much to learn about why collaborations
emerge. Structural factors provide some leverage in explaining the collaborative behaviors of
these civil servants. The mix of influences depends on the nature of the collaboration. The results
do more to reveal the limitations of the extant conceptual toolbox related to collaborative public
management than to shed light on the collaborations themselves.
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
27/35
Structured to Partner
26
Consider this example. The findings depend on whether collaboration is defined openly
(in this case, allowing survey respondents to define it for themselves) or whether a strict
definition requiring regularly scheduled meetings is used. The evidence suggests that these two
different activities are quite distinct. This raises the question of whether the data represent two
different types of collaboration, two extremes of one essential type of collaboration, or whether
only one of these is bona fide collaboration. We do not currently possess the conceptual
framework to distinguish between these possibilities nor is there sufficient consensus on the
definition of collaboration to distinguish between different types. This sort of conceptual work is
a precondition for compelling interpretations of the data.
While conceptual limitations affect our ability to interpret the results of the analysis,
significant data limitations are also present. The survey used here went to public managers and
provides insight into the government side of the cross-sector collaboration. What we do not have
is data on the nonprofit side of the collaboration. The review of the literature revealed some
important similarities between the theories of public sector collaboration and cross-sector
collaborations; in the present research we were not able to test propositions about the nonprofit
side of the relationship.
The key data we still need to develop is on the supply side of the cross-sector
collaborations. Scholars have generally hypothesized that nonprofit supply is expressed as a
function of the needs and resources of the region (Bielefeld & Murdoch 2004, p. 222). Studies
(e.g., Gronbjerg & Paarlberg, 2001; Wolch & Geiger, 1983) have confirmed the robustness of
this assumption. More specifically, population growth (Bielefeld, 2000), community wealth
(Wolch & Geiger, 1983; Wolpert, 1993; Corbin, 1999), and proportion of older residents
(Gronbjerg & Paarlberg) have been identified as determinants of the nonprofit supply. Peck
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
28/35
Structured to Partner
27
(2008) summarizes the literature on the nonprofit location as tending to frame the determinants
of nonprofit location as a function of neighborhood characteristics, hypothesized as:
measures of need (such as poverty density), popula tion characteristics (such as
education levels, racial distribution, age, families' structure), community
characteristics (such as heterogeneity, incorporation date, urbanicity), resources (such
as government expenditures, property tax base, housing values), and other
organizations' locations (both for-profit and nonprofit organizations.(p. 139)
Although nonprofit supply is somewhat implicit in the environmental and structural
explanations for nonprofit motivation to collaborate, it has generally not been explicit and has
typically been defined in non-spatial terms. Measurement challenges may partially account for
this gap, as may the fact that the collaboration and supply literature streams have developed
concurrently, but for somewhat distinct purposes. Service provision by nonprofits has been used
as a measure of nonprofit sector size, as has annual expenditures by nonprofits. Spatial analyses
are increasingly promising, with new methods allowing multidimensional considerations to
space, such as nonprofit income in relationship to nonprofit concentration and population
characteristics. To the extent that larger school districts are in locations with a greater supply of
partners, some of the role of size in the statistical models may be picking up factors related to
nonprofit partner supply. The inclusion of the general collaborative propensity addresses this
problem to a great extent. To the extent that nonprofit supply is related to the supply of other
sorts of actors (general partner density), the general collaboration propensity control variable will
partial out these factors. All that will remain are the elements unique to nonprofit supply and not
correlated with the supply of other actorsa much more limited problem.
It is not surprising that there are few data on the supply of nonprofit organizations. There
are considerable conceptual difficulties in developing such a measure. What is the relevant range
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
29/35
Structured to Partner
28
of a spatial measure of nonprofit supply? Should we only count nonprofit organizations located
within the geographic boundaries of, in this case, a school district? What prevents a nonprofit
from nearby assisting? How broad should we draw that circle? Our intuition is to bring the
measure up to the level of a metropolitan standard area but this measure is itself difficult to
implement and would dramatically reduce our sample to school districts within MSAs. Despite
these difficulties, future work that directly measures nonprofit partner supply would be a great
addition to the model. Further, to be able to parse nonprofit partner supply by primary or
secondary mission focus on emergency and disaster response could assist understanding of cross-
sector collaboration in the specific policy domain of emergency response and could have
implications for disaster planning, particularly in deliberative efforts to improve cross-sectoral
network formation.
This research leaves us wanting to press forward in three directions. First, we want to
elaborate the theory of collaboration to understand better which factors should be related to
which types of collaboration. Second, we would like to collect data (beyond the available IRS
Form 990 data) on the nonprofit side of these cross-sector collaborations to see how structural
elements on the partners side can influence the emergence of partnerships. Third, we would like
to develop measures of the supply of nonprofit organizations available to public agencies as
partners. These developments should provide considerable insight into cross-sector collaborative
networks.
With the increased importance of secondary disaster organizations, it becomes all the
more important to understand the dynamics of collaboration. In the cases studied here,
secondary disaster organizations (school districts) sought collaboration in relation to emergency
management and disaster response with nonprofits to varying degrees. The data suggest that
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
30/35
Structured to Partner
29
these secondary organizations may be limited by their organizational structures as to the level of
collaboration they are likely to seek. However, these secondary organizations are those that most
need to seek additional resources (including expertise) from partners. Attempts to cultivate
collaboration between secondary disaster organizations and others in matters of emergency
management and disaster response needs to be sensitive to the importance of structure and the
barriers to collaboration that poorly suited structures may represent.
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
31/35
Structured to Partner
30
Table 1.Regression of collaboration with nonprofit organizations
MODEL 1 - THE BASELINE COLLABORATION MODEL
MODEL 2 THE BASELINE COLLABORATION MODEL WITH THE GENERALIZED
COLLABORATION VARIABLE ADDED FOR ROBUSTNESS
MODEL 3 THE REGULAR MEETING COLLABORATION MODEL WITH THE
GENERALIZED COLLABORATION VARIABLE
______________________________________________________________________________
Model (1) (2) (3)
Organization Size .45 (4.4) .44 (4.5) .43 (4.3)
Planning Delegation .16 (2.0) .18 (2.1) .13 (.14)
General Centralization .68 (3.5) .84 (3.8) 1.1 (4.3)
General Collaborative ---------- .44 (4.5) .12 (2.2)
Propensity
N 435 435 470
Percent Correctly Predicted 68% 76% 85%
Percent Reduction in Error 37% 52% 3%
Note: The absolute values of the Z-statistics are in parentheses.
Controls for perceived likelihood of disasters and the impact of recent disasters were also
included in all models.
Coefficients significant at greater than .05 are in bold.*
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
32/35
Structured to Partner
31
REFERENCES
Alexander, J., & Nank, R. (2009). Publicnonprofit partnership: Realizing the new public
service.Administration and Society,41(3), 364-386.
Bailey, D. & Koney, E. M. (1996). Interorganizational community-based collaboratives: A
strategic response to shape the social work agenda. Social Work,41(6), 602-611.
Bardach, E. (1998). Getting agencies to work together: The practice and theory of managerial
craftsmanship. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Benjamin, L. (2008). Bearing more risk for results: Performance accountability and nonprofit
relational work.Administration & Society, 39(8), 959-983.
Bielefeld, W. (2000). Metropolitan nonprofit sectors: Finding from NCCS data. Nonprofit and
Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 29(2), 297-314.
Bielefeld, W., & Murdoch, J. (2004). The locations of nonprofit organizations and their for-profit
counterparts: An exploratory analysis.Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 33(2),
221-246.
Brinkerhoff, J. (2002). Government-nonprofit partnership: a defining framework. Public
Administration and Development, 22(1), 19-30.
Brown, T.L. & Potoski, M. (2003). Contract-management capacity in municipal and county
governments. Public Administration Review, 63(2), 153-164.
Bryson, J. M., Crosby, B. C., & Stone, M. M. (2006). The design and implementation of cross-
sector collaborations: Propositions from the literature. Public Administration Review,
66(Suppl. to Issue 6), 44-45.
Corbin, J. J. (1999). A study of factors influencing the growth of nonprofits in social services.
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 28, 296-314.
Comfort, L. K. (1994). Self-organization in complex systems.Journal of Public Administration
Research and Theory, 4(3), 383-410.
Comfort, L. K. (2007). Crisis management in hindsight: Cognition, communication,
coordination, and control. Public Administration Review, 67(Suppl. to Issue 6), 189-197.
Dicke, L. (2001). Ensuring accountability in human services contracting: Can stewardship theory
fill the bill?American Review of Public Administration, 32(4), 455-470.
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
33/35
Structured to Partner
32
Ebrahim, A. (2003). Making sense of accountability: Conceptual perspectives for northern and
southern nonprofits.Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 14(2), 191-212.
Foster, M. K., & Meinhard, A. G. (2002). A regression model explaining predisposition to
collaborate.Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 31(4), 549-564.
Fung, A. (2006). Varieties of participation in complex governance. Public Administration
Review, 66(Suppl. to Issue 6), 65-75.
Galaskiewicz, J. (1985). Professional networks and the institutionalization of a single mind set.
American Sociological Review, 50(5), 639-658.
Gazley, B. (2008a). Why not partner with local government? Nonprofit managerial perceptions
of collaborative disadvantage.Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, OnlineFirst, no
volume number yet assigned.
Gazley, B. (2008b). Beyond the contract: The scope and nature of informal government
nonprofit partnerships. Public Administration Review, 68(1), 141-154.
Gazley, B., & Brudney, J. L. (2007). The purpose (and perils) of government-nonprofit
partnership.Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36(3), 389-415.
Gidron, B., Kramer, R., & Salamon, L. (Eds.). (1992). Government and the third sector:
Emerging relationships in welfare states. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Graddy, E. A., & Chen, B. (2006). Influences on the size and scope of networks for socialservice delivery.Journal of Public Administration and Theory, 16, 533-552.
Gronbjerg, K., & Paarlberg, L. (2001). Community variations in the size and scope of the
nonprofit sector: Theory and preliminary findings.Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector
Quarterly, 30(4), 684-706.
Guo, C., & Acar, M. (2005). Understanding collaboration among nonprofit organizations:
Combining resource dependency, institutional, and network perspectives.Nonprofit and
Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 34(3), 340-361.
Jang, H. S., & Feiock, R. (2007). Public versus private funding of nonprofitorganizations. Public Performance and Management Review , 31(2), 174-190.
Jamal, T., & Getz, D. (1995). Collaboration theory and community tourism planning.Annals of
Tourism Research, 22(1), 186-204.
8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
34/35
Structured to Partner
33
Jang, H. S., & Feiock, R. C. (2007). Public versus private funding of nonprofit organizations:
Implications for collaboration. Public Performance & Management Review, 31(2), 174-
190.
McGuire, M. (2006). Collaborative public management: Assessing what we know and how we
know it. Public Administration Review, Special Issue, 33-43.
Milne, G. R., Iyer, E. S., & Gooding-Williams, S. (1996). Environmental organization alliance
relationships within and across nonprofit, business, and government sectors.Journal of
Public Policy & Marketing, 15(2), 203-215.
OFlynn, J. (2009). The cult of collaboration in public policy. The Australian Journal of Public
Administration, 68(1), 112-116.
OToole, L. J. Jr. (1997). Treating networks seriously: Practical and research-based agendas in
public administration. Public Administration Review, 57(1), 45-52.
Peck, L. R. (2008). Do antipoverty nonprofits locate where people need them? Evidence from a
spatial analysis of Phoenix.Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 37(1), 138-151.
Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. R. (1978). The external control of organizations: A resource
dependence perspective. New York: Harper & Row.
Provan, K. G., & Milward, H. B. (1995). A preliminary theory of network effectiveness: A
comparative study of four community mental health systems.Administrative Science
Quarterly, 40(1), 1-33.
Robinson, S.. E. (2006). A decade of treating networks seriously. Policy Studies Journal, 34(4),
589-598.
Robinson, S. E., Berrett, B., & Stone, K. (2006). The development of collaboration of response
to Hurricane Katrina in the Dallas area. Public Works Management and Policy, 10(4),
325-327.
Robinson, S. E., & Gettis, B. (2007). Seeing past parallel play: Survey measures of
collaboration in disaster situations. (Bush School Working Paper #391). Retrieved
February 17, 2010, fromhttp://bush.tamu.edu/research/workingpapers/
Salamon, L. M. (2002). The tools of government: A guide to the new governance . New York:
Oxford University Press.
Singer, M. I., & Yankey, J. A. (1991). Organizational metamorphosis: A study of eighteen
nonprofit mergers, acquisitions, and consolidations.Nonprofit Management and
Leadership, 1(4), 357-369.
http://bush.tamu.edu/research/workingpapers/http://bush.tamu.edu/research/workingpapers/http://bush.tamu.edu/research/workingpapers/http://bush.tamu.edu/research/workingpapers/8/9/2019 Structured to Partner: School District Collaboration with Nonprofit Organizations in Disaster Response
35/35
Structured to Partner
Simo, G., & Bies, A. L. (2007). The role of nonprofits in disaster response: An expanded model
of cross-sector collaboration. Public Administration Review, 67(Suppl. to Issue 6), 125-
142.
Sowa, J. E. (2008). Implementing interagency collaborations: Exploring variation in
collaborative ventures in human service organizations.Administration & Society, 40(3),298-323.
Smith, S.R. & Lipsky, M. 1993.Non-profits for hire: the welfare state in the age of contracting.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Thompson, J. D. 2003[1967]. Organizations in Action: Social Sciences Bases of Administrative
Theory. Edison, NJ: Transaction Press.
Van Slyke, D.M. (2003). The mythology of privatization in contracting for social services.
Public Administration Review, 63(3), 296-315.
Van Slyke, D. M. (2006). Agents or stewards: Using theory to understand the government-
nonprofit social service contracting relationship.Journal of Public Administration
Research and Theory, 17(2), 157-187.
Waugh, W. L. Jr., & Streib, G. (2006). Collaboration and leadership for effective emergency
management. Public Administration Review, Special Issue, 131-140.
Williamson, O. E. (1975).Markets and hierarchies: Analysis and antitrust implications. New
York: Free Press.
Williamson, O. E. (1985). The economic institutions of capitalism. New York: Free Press.
Williamson, O. E. (1991). Comparative economic organizations: The analysis of discrete
structural alternatives.Administrative Science Quarterly, 36(2), 269-296.
Wolch, J. R., & Geiger, R. K. (1983). The distribution of urban voluntary resources: An
exploratory analysis.Environment and Planning, 15, 1067-1082.
Wolpert, J. (1993). Decentralization and equity in public and nonprofit sectors. Nonprofit and
Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 22, 281-296.
Word, J. (2006).A structural examination of collaborative relations between nonprofitorganizations in the greater Jacksonville area. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Florida
State University, Tallahassee.