Como a governança dos projetos interorganizacionais se desenvolve ao longo do tempo

Abstract

The development of interorganizational projects (IOPs) is considered an important organizational strategy, including ways to obtain resources for university research and purchase of equipment by universities. In addressing the governance of these projects, it is common to identify project phases that are particularly associated with their life cycle, which brings the idea that the development of governance follows a linear process that emphasizes the design of an optimal governance choice for each project phase. This perspective does not consider the complexity of interorganizational relationships (IORs) in which changes depend on modes of interaction, influenced by uncertainties, the role of interpersonal relationships and trust. Consequently, if the governance of IOPs does not consist of steady choices in certain project phases, how does it evolve over time? The answer to this research question required a procedural approach that could reveal "how" and "why" changes in IOP governance occur. We developed a longitudinal qualitative research with a single case study for fifteen months (from September 2017 to November 2018), designing, in real time, the governance process of LaWEEEda Project (Latin American-European Network on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Research, Development and Analyses). This project was instituted in October 2016, with completion scheduled for September 2019, through an Erasmus + funding program. LaWEEEda is formed by eleven organizations, eight Latin American and three European, and aims to improve the dialogue between research and management practices of Electrical and Electronic Waste (WEEE) through the establishment of regional training centers in Brazil and Nicaragua. The data were analyzed during and after the data collection and three strategies were used: narrative, visual map and temporal decomposition. The results of the research revealed a pattern that supported the construction of the theoretical-conceptual model of governance development of IOPs and answered the question "How does governance of interorganizational projects develop over time?" We argue that changes in the governance system throughout the development of a collaborative IOP are caused by the incidence of critical events that destabilize one or more of the interrelated parameters of this system. Once destabilized, this system compensates the reduction of one or more than one of its parameters through the mobilization of trust and interpersonal relationships. In this context, the revealed pattern that answers the research question is that the governance system of a collaborative IOP keeps its key actors as holders of the project's effective capacity for specialization, centralization, coordination, and control over time. Regarding the governance mode, the exercise of governance by a leading organization of a collaborative IOP requires the synchronization of its activities with those from leading regional organizations of the project over time. In addition, the metagovernance of a collaborative IOP is practiced by determining the fundamental conditions of the project and by influencing the reconfigurations of the governance system over time. The main theoretical contributions are the following: the partners’ different value perceptions of a collaborative IOP generate different relational incomes for each partner over time, and each partner exhibits different perceptions of value that vary throughout the project. Also, the design of an effective collaborative IOP for the generation of relational income must be developed from the articulation of fundamental conditions, value creation initiatives and governance system.