Complexities of coalition building: leaders' successes, strategies, struggles, and solutions.
Government and private funding initiatives are promoting coalitions, collaborations, and other interorganizational approaches to address complex community, social services, and health issues. Social work organizers and administrators are increasingly leading coalitions themselves or representing their organizations in collaborative planning and problem solving, often without understanding how to manage the complexities involved in interorganizational relationships. This article reports on aspects of a larger quantitative and qualitative research project that studied coalition dynamics, operations, and outcomes. Coalition leaders interviewed defined success in multiple ways. Competent leadership was the factor most often identified with coalition success.
Mizrahi
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Education Center for Community Organizing, Hunter College School of Social Work, 129 East 79th Street, New York, NY 10021, USA. tmizrahi@hunter.cuny.edu
Rosenthal
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BB
D003256:Community Participation; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003625:Data Collection; D017144:Focus Groups; D006126:Group Processes; D006265:Health Care Coalitions / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D009515:New Jersey; D009518:New York; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D012922:Social Change; D012947:Social Work / Q000458:organization & administration*