IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v130y2015icp225-233.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of boundary maintenance and blurring in a UK collaborative research project: How researchers and health service managers made sense of new ways of working

Author

Listed:
  • Smith, Simon
  • Ward, Vicky

Abstract

The paper investigates whether, how and in what circumstances boundary blurring or boundary maintenance is productive or destructive of sense in collaborative research based on a case study involving researchers from two universities and two principal organisational stakeholders in a local healthcare system in England between 2009 and 2012. Adopting a narrative method, using meeting observation, document analysis and interviews, we describe two key sets of activities in the evolution of collaboration, which allows us to tackle the question at two levels. Studying the production of documents and their use as boundary objects in project management meetings, we show how these were used to enable cooperation by establishing a truce between worldviews, giving participants a better feel for the game and a clearer perception of its stakes. Studying how the partnership expanded to take in other organisations besides the two formal partners, we show how the project accommodated pre-existing organisational interests but thereby sacrificed its experimental ethos. In showing how actors needed to subvert their experimental script to enact collaborative partnership, we argue for understanding and evaluating the latter as the co-produced outcome of disputes and co-orientations towards a practical ideal, not as an organisational format for knowledge co-production.

Suggested Citation

  • Smith, Simon & Ward, Vicky, 2015. "The role of boundary maintenance and blurring in a UK collaborative research project: How researchers and health service managers made sense of new ways of working," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 225-233.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:130:y:2015:i:c:p:225-233
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.02.023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953615001069
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.02.023?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. van Wijngaarden, Jeroen D.H. & de Bont, Antoinette A. & Huijsman, Robbert, 2006. "Learning to cross boundaries: The integration of a health network to deliver seamless care," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(2-3), pages 203-213, December.
    2. Godin, Benoit & Gingras, Yves, 2000. "The place of universities in the system of knowledge production," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 273-278, February.
    3. Gustafsson, Robin & Autio, Erkko, 2011. "A failure trichotomy in knowledge exploration and exploitation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 819-831, July.
    4. Sandra Nutley, 2010. "Debate: Are we all co-producers of research now?," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(5), pages 263-265, September.
    5. repec:dau:papers:123456789/3432 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Jean-Louis Denis & Geneviève Dompierre & Ann Langley & Linda Rouleau, 2011. "Escalating Indecision: Between Reification and Strategic Ambiguity," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 225-244, February.
    7. Stewart Clegg & David Courpasson, 2004. "Political Hybrids: Tocquevillean Views on Project Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 525-547, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ii, Suzanne Sayuri & Fitzgerald, Louise & Morys-Carter, Megan M. & Davie, Natasha L. & Barker, Richard, 2018. "Knowledge translation in tri-sectoral collaborations: An exploration of perceptions of academia, industry and healthcare collaborations in innovation adoption," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 175-183.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gary T. Burke & Carola Wolf, 2021. "The Process Affordances of Strategy Toolmaking when Addressing Wicked Problems," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 359-388, March.
    2. Manning, Stephan, 2017. "The rise of project network organizations: Building core teams and flexible partner pools for interorganizational projects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1399-1415.
    3. Spaniol, Matthew J. & Rowland, Nicholas J., 2022. "Business ecosystems and the view from the future: The use of corporate foresight by stakeholders of the Ro-Ro shipping ecosystem in the Baltic Sea Region," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    4. Hayashi, Takayuki, 2003. "Effect of R&D programmes on the formation of university-industry-government networks: comparative analysis of Japanese R&D programmes," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1421-1442, September.
    5. Rachel Levy & Pascale Roux & Sandrine Wolff, 2009. "An analysis of science–industry collaborative patterns in a large European University," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 1-23, February.
    6. Enrico Santarelli & Hien Tran, 2013. "The interplay of human and social capital in shaping entrepreneurial performance: the case of Vietnam," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 435-458, February.
    7. Céline Michaïlesco, 2007. "Contrôle de gestion de projet au 19ème siècle," Post-Print halshs-00338976, HAL.
    8. Rodríguez-Navarro, Alonso & Brito, Ricardo, 2018. "Technological research in the EU is less efficient than the world average. EU research policy risks Europeans’ future," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 718-731.
    9. Yi Zhang & Kaihua Chen & Guilong Zhu & Richard C. M. Yam & Jiancheng Guan, 2016. "Inter-organizational scientific collaborations and policy effects: an ego-network evolutionary perspective of the Chinese Academy of Sciences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(3), pages 1383-1415, September.
    10. Nola Hewitt-Dundas, 2013. "The role of proximity in university-business cooperation for innovation," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 93-115, April.
    11. Malo, Stéphane, 2009. "The contribution of (not so) public research to commercial innovations in the field of combinatorial chemistry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 957-970, July.
    12. Michaela Trippl & Franz Tödtling, 2006. "From the ivory tower to the market place? The changing role of knowledge organisations in spurring the development of biotechnology clusters in Austria," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2006_07, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    13. Maja Levi Jaksic & Milica Jovanovic & Jasna Petkovic, 2015. "Technology Entreprenurship in the Changing Business Environment – A Triple Helix Performance Model," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 17(38), pages 422-422, February.
    14. repec:oup:rseval:v:32:y:2024:i:2:p:273-285. is not listed on IDEAS
    15. van der Heide, Iris & Snoeijs, Sanne & Quattrini, Sabrina & Struckmann, Verena & Hujala, Anneli & Schellevis, François & Rijken, Mieke, 2018. "Patient-centeredness of integrated care programs for people with multimorbidity. Results from the European ICARE4EU project," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(1), pages 36-43.
    16. Guijie Zhang & Yuqiang Feng & Guang Yu & Luning Liu & Yanqiqi Hao, 2017. "Analyzing the time delay between scientific research and technology patents based on the citation distribution model," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(3), pages 1287-1306, June.
    17. Martina Fromhold-Eisebith & Claudia Werker, 2013. "Universities’ functions in knowledge transfer: a geographical perspective," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 51(3), pages 621-643, December.
    18. Filipp Kazin & Stephen Hagen & Prichislenko Prichislenko & Andrey Zlenko, 2017. "Developing the Entrepreneurial University through Positive Psychology and Social Enterprise," Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, issue 3, pages 110-131.
    19. Jungwon Yoon & Joshua SungWoo Yang & Han Woo Park, 2017. "Quintuple helix structure of Sino-Korean research collaboration in science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 113(1), pages 61-81, October.
    20. Norbert Knoll, 2001. "Progress Towards the Knowledge-Based Economy," WIFO Working Papers 161, WIFO.
    21. van der Have, Robert P. & Rubalcaba, Luis, 2016. "Social innovation research: An emerging area of innovation studies?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 1923-1935.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:130:y:2015:i:c:p:225-233. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.