In recent years interorganizational collaboration has increasingly been emphasized as an important step for addressing inefficiencies in the delivery of human services. Among the many benefits of collaboration described by human service authors are the creation of a more consumer-friendly service system, more efficient use of available resources, and avoiding service duplication. During the Spring and Summer of 1996, six focus groups were conducted in Oregon to assess the quality of collaboration between local social service providers and Even Start, a federally funded family literacy program. The federal Even Start legislation required that all Even Start programs collaborate with social service providers in their local communities to improve services for families and avoid duplication of services. This study examined data from the Even Start focus groups using a three-level hierarchical model to determine the approximate level of collaboration that existed in each of six Even Start communities. Results of the analysis indicated that collaboration in three of the six Even Start communities was at or near coordination, the middle level of the three-level model. Collaboration in the other three communities appeared to be somewhere below the lowest level of the model, cooperation. Although agencies at such a minimal level of collaboration may consider each other partners, they are likely to have limited knowledge about each other's operations and clients. Because three of six Even Start communities fit below the lowest level of the model, the model had limited utility for this analysis. However, for interagency relationships at higher levels, the model was effective in helping to find the approximate intensity of collaboration. Although the primary focus of the model used in this analysis was on collaboration intensity, a comprehensive evaluation of collaboration would include numerous additional variables, especially outcomes related to the purposes of the interagency relationship. Several lessons learned during the course of this study have implications for future research. First, by creating data sets that are amenable to examination from multiple perspectives, qualitative methods offer unique flexibility for data collection in secondary circumstances such as the present study. Second, it is likely that collaboration in occurs in varied patterns, few of which resemble the highest levels of collaboration advocated by authors in the field. Finally, rather than broadly encouraging human service organizations to move toward the highest levels of collaboration, researchers need to provide answers to basic questions about what forms of collaboration are most helpful, in which circumstances, and why. / Graduation date: 1999

This study documents and describes efforts by Oregon school districts to network in order to improve schools and provide resources for staff development. There are at least 41 networks linking school districts, institutions of higher education, and Educational Service Districts in both rural and urban areas of the state. These networks, collaboratives, and consortia have the common purpose of improving education, and the belief that they can accomplish more cooperatively than they can individually. These networks are described in terms of purposes, benefits and problems, and desire for assistance. Comparisons showed that large school districts are much more likely to participate in networks than small ones. This is significant because there are many small school districts in Oregon that would benefit from the assistance of a network in providing resources and expertise for school improvement efforts. Descriptions of three active networks in different parts of the state provided additional information regarding organizational structure, membership, and activities. There is a listing of the membership of 41 networks in the state. Statistical comparisons indicate that the greatest benefits responding school districts derived from networking include increased effectiveness of staff development efforts, sharing of information, cost sharing, and psychological support. Problems encountered in networking were: conflicting work priorities, conflicting goals, organizational problems, and funding. Two-thirds of the districts surveyed would like to have assistance for their efforts in the form of funding or incentives for networking, information on school improvement practices, and communications linkage among school districts. The study indicates that networking is widely practiced in the state of Oregon for the purpose of improving school effectiveness and staff development efforts. Implications are that this is an effective way for schools to accomplish their goals. Therefore, it is recommended that school districts not engaged in this practice give consideration to networking as an effective way to increase resources for school improvement efforts and to become more effective. It is hoped that encouragement and incentives for networking will be forthcoming from state and local education agencies. These agencies should exercise caution that their efforts to encourage networking not create unnecessary structures that would destroy the flexibility that makes networks so effective.

This study attempts to identify the variables associated with an organization's decision to participate in an interorganizational service network. The survev of literature on the subject supported the hypothesis that structural variables of complexity, formalization, and centralization and a psychological variable, the awareness of organizational interdependency, are associated with the decision to participate. Interorganizational participation was operationally defined in terms of various behavioral components: an organization's involvement with the coordinating agency, client referrals to and from other organizations and to and from the coordinating agency, and information exchanged with other organizations and with the coordinating agency. Using this framework, testable hypotheses were formulated regarding the relationship between the selected measures of the independent variables of complexity, formalization, centralization, and awareness of interdependency and the dependent variable of interorganizational participation. Human service agencies which provide services to the elderly in the State of Oregon were surveyed in this study. These agencies, together with the Area Agency on Aging, a coordinating agency established under the Older Americans Act, constituted the interorganizational service network. A main concern of that type of coordinating agency is to facilitate effective working relationships between the organizations in such service networks. This study was designed to explore the factors associated with that process. Findings and Conclusions: The evidence presented suggests that the psychological variable of awareness of interdependency is significantly related to the decision to participate. This finding was generally supported by qualitative data gathered from six organizations examined under the case study method. For the structural variable it was found that: a) complexity was not significantly related to the decision to participate; b) centralization had a significant relationship with only some components of the measures of participation; c) there was some association between formalization and the participation processes. In general, it appears that a key step to building effective networks of service organizations is to increase awareness of interdependency among organizational members.

Reported cases of incest in Multnomah County, Oregon, as in the rest of the country, are increasing yearly. Effective networking between agencies is important in order to successfully work with the problem. The research problem of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the present network of agencies working with incest in Multnomah County. In order to evaluate network effectiveness the following objectives were established: to provide a "cultural" description of the major components of the Multnomah County network; to determine whether a common definition of incest among practitioners exists and to compare the networking system in this county with others throughout the country.