title: Fostering change within organizational participants of multisectoral health care alliances.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A touted advantage of multisectoral health care alliances is their ability to coordinate diverse constituencies and pursue community health goals in ways that allow them to make greater progress than each constituency could independently. However, participating organizations may have goals that do not entirely overlap or necessarily align with the alliance's goals, which can weaken or undermine an alliance's efforts. Fostering changes within participating organizations in ways that are consistent with the alliance's goals (i.e., alliance-oriented change) may be one mechanism by which alliances can coordinate diverse activities and improve care in their local communities.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We examined whether alliance-oriented change within participating organizations is associated with alliance decision-making and conflict management style, level of participation, perceptions of alliance participation benefits and costs, and awareness of alliance activities within participating organizations.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study used two rounds of survey data collected from organizational participants of 14 alliances participating in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Aligning Forces for Quality program.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Alliance participants generally reported low levels of alliance-oriented change within their organizations as a result of the alliance and its activities. However, participants reporting higher levels of internal change in response to alliance activities had more positive perceptions of alliance decision-making style, higher levels of participation in alliance activities, more positive perceptions of alliance participation benefits relative to costs, and greater awareness of alliance activities across multiple levels of their respective organizations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite relatively low levels of alliance-oriented change within participating organizations, alliances may still have the means to align the goal orientations of a diverse membership and foster change that may extend the reach of the alliance in the community.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Services Administration, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA. lhearld@uab.edu
authors.forename: Larry R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Hearld
authors.forename: Jeffrey A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Alexander
authors.forename: Jessica N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Mittler
mesh_terms: D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000517:prevention & control; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006265:Health Care Coalitions / Q000458:organization & administration; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007324:Institutional Management Teams / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D020407:Internet; D017008:Negotiating; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D012932:Social Facilitation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017749:Total Quality Management; D014481:United States