From management to leadership: a shift towards understanding the organizational complexity of multidisciplinary collaboration

Abstract

Multidisciplinary collaboration is central to modern social welfare organizations, yet knowledge about the organizational context of collaboration is scarce. The study objective was to establish multidisciplinary collaboration by designing an organizational field study. The aim of this article is to explore managerial roles and perspectives during an organizational process of developing multidisciplinary collaboration. Eighteen management meetings, held during a two-year period, are analysed. The analysis reveals that the management gradually grasps the complexity of multidisciplinary collaboration; negotiations on the concept are ongoing while their point of view changes from distant to involved. The management takes leadership towards multidisciplinary collaboration through a series of legitimacy-related negotiations, illustrating the organizational and managerial contexts of multidisciplinary collaboration as well as introducing it as a new type of managerial task.

Tværprofessionelt samarbejde er centralt i moderne velfærdsorganisationer. Alligevel er viden om den organisatoriske konteksts betydning for samarbejde ikke omfattende. Dette studie har til formål at skabe og understøtte tværprofessionelt samarbejde gennem et organisatorisk feltstudie design. Målet med artiklen er at undersøge ledelsesmæssige roller og perspektiver gennem en organisatorisk proces med at udvikle tværprofessionelt samarbejde. 18 ledelsesmøder, afholdt gennem en toårig periode, er analyserede. Analysen viser, at ledelsesgruppen begynder at begribe kompleksiteten i tværprofessionelt samarbejde; forhandlinger om konceptet er fortløbende og pågående, alt imens ledelsen ændrer sit perspektiv fra distanceret til involveret. Ledelsesgruppen tager lederskab for tværprofessionelt samarbejde gennem en række legitimitetsrelaterede forhandlinger. Dette illustrerer den organisatoriske og ledelsesmæssige kontekst for tværprofessionelt samarbejde og introducerer samtidig tværprofessionelt samarbejde som en særlig type af ledelsesmæssig opgave.

Keywords:

• multidisciplinary collaboration
• organizational development
• management
• leadership

Nøgleord:

• Tværprofessionelt samarbejde
• organisatorisk udvikling
• ledelse
• lederskab

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Anne Marie Villumsen, MSc in Psychology, is an Associate Professor at VIA University College, Denmark, Department of Social Work, Faculty of Education and Social Studies. Anne Marie has acquired her Ph.D. from Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark. In addition, she is a clinically trained psychologist and for years she has done research, published as well as worked within the field of multidisciplinary collaboration concerning children at risk.

Ole Steen Kristensen, Ph.D., is professor of educational psychology at the Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark. His research concerns children and youth at risk, in particular youth leaving state care. He has recently published a book in Danish on the complex out-of-home placement (in Danish Den komplekse anbringelse).

ORCID

Anne Marie Villumsen http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9198-1040

Ole Steen Kristensen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3756-4411

Notes

1. The Social Services Act defines ‘endangered children’ as the target group for legislatively based intervention.

2. Refers to developmental activities in organization.