Exploring governance mechanisms for inter-organizational collaboration in Dutch infrastructure programmes

Abstract

Programmes in the Dutch infrastructure sector can contribute to overcoming the industry’s lagging performance and the increasing amount of renovation of work it is currently facing. Additionally, they have the potential to integrate the fragmented supply chain while facilitating better coordination of the projects being executed more effectively and efficiently. However, they also introduce chaos to the collaboration that can be detrimental effect on the programme’s outcome. Although there is extensive literature on inter-organizational collaboration in projects, little attention has been paid to the programme context. It is still unknown how governance should be organized to facilitate inter-organisational collaboration in programmes Therefore, this study responds to the call for research. Two Dutch infrastructure programmes were studied to understand the governance approach used and how it facilitated inter-organizational collaboration. The results from the case studies showed that inter-organizational collaboration in the early phases of infrastructure programmes is facilitated by an interplay of relational and contractual mechanisms corresponding to the six dimensions of governance: goal-setting, capability building, rewarding, roles & decision-making, coordination and monitoring. This governance mechanisms are established by the programme level and the contracting authorities’. They intend to provide a framework for organizational processes, decision-making, and coordination in the programme, while integrating the different levels of the programme. Additionally, this research provides a model that aims to provide a structural way to organize future programme governance while allowing public clients to analyze their choices better