Given the increasing proliferation of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in both developed and developing countries, and the huge challenges that are often associated with establishing and managing them, and ensuring that they achieve their objectives, it is important to understand multiple aspects of their operation. Whilst the structural and economic aspects of PPPs have long been recognised and researched, the relational aspects of PPPs remain under-researched. This thesis is a contribution to addressing this gap in the literature. It uses a dimensional approach to understand the nature of inter-organisations relationships (IORs) in PPPs and considers the factors that shape these relationships. It also investigates whether a particular pattern of relationships is needed for PPPs to deliver more than could have been achieved by each partner working alone (synergistic benefits). These issues are studied empirically in three educational PPP programmes in Pakistan. In two of these, not-for-profit organisations ‘adopt’ state schools. In the third, the state funds private sector schools on the condition that they offer free education to students and achieve threshold quality standards. A case study methodology is used and an integrative conceptual framework, derived from a wide-ranging literature review, is used to guide both data collection and analysis. The research finds that partners’ motives for entering into a PPP play a dominant role in shaping inter-organisational relationships. These motives are, in turn, influenced by a range of contextual and organisational factors. Inter-organisational relationships can be broadly characterised as collaborative, contractual, cooperative or conflictual. Whereas much of the existing literature emphasises that collaborative relationships are a prerequisite for PPPs to deliver synergistic outcomes, this research finds that these outcomes are also present in PPPs characterised by cooperative relationships. However, inter-organisational relationships in PPPs are not static; they develop and change over time. These changes result from a dynamic interplay between contextual factors, organisational factors, partner motives and the perceived outcomes of the partnership. The research reported in the thesis makes a number of contributions to knowledge. It sheds new light on the relational aspects of PPPs and offers a new conceptual framework for explaining and investigating inter-organisational relationships, which integrates insights from the largely separate literatures on PPPs and inter-organisational relations. It counters an apparent pro-collaboration emphasis in the existing PPP literature by documenting and explaining the benefits associated with cooperative relationships. It also offers new empirical evidence on the operation of PPPs in a developing country context, which contributes to redressing the predominance of evidence from developed countries in the existing literature. The insights from the research have theoretical and practical implications for the development and management of PPPs and future research in this area.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T16:15:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 VolneiAlmeida.pdf: 693595 bytes, checksum: 297eb1438887407b5a07b52ddd8e96f8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-09-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / One of the policies most used by the municipal public power to guarantee educational services to children 0-3 years and increasing the number of vacancies in kindergartens has been the adoption of partnerships through agreements with private institutions. Many questions emerge from this public policy, for example, the relationship between the secular state and the religiosity of many of these institutions. This study arose from the need to provide greater transparency and broaden the debate on the agreements between the municipal government and aid agencies, especially regarding the conflict between the public and the private, between the secular and the religious. This study aimed to investigate public-private partnerships and the possible impacts on the secular state and the right to education. The research problem posed was what the CME Paper 12/2011 revealed about the secular state and the religiosity of partner institutions in the care of early childhood education in São Bernardo do Campo. There was the assumption that the representation of a convening authority to the Municipal Board of Education on spiritual education express a possible religious education projection in public kindergarten. The theoretical discussion involved as authors FISCHMANN (2009), ARELARO (2008), SARMENTO (2006), ADRIÃO (2009), OLIVEIRA (2005) and ideas that dealt with the deformations of public and private interests, the supply of places following daycare, religious instruction in public schools. The methodology used was to analyze literature and documents. The literature shows a historical subordination of public early childhood education to private welfare and disputes over implementation of religious education in public basic education. The documents analyzed revealed that there may be some degree of involvement of the secular state when it formalizes partnerships with charities of religious origin, especially when evaluating the shortcomings and trends of management and supervision of agreements made by the government. It is believed that this study opens the doors to investigate policies and practices that are facing or stimulating religious education in public schools and covenanted day cares. / Uma das políticas mais utilizadas pelo poder publico municipal para garantir o atendimento educacional às crianças de 0 a 3 anos e a ampliação do número de vagas em creches, tem sido a adoção de parcerias por meio de convênios com instituições privadas. Muitas questões emergem desta política pública como, por exemplo, a relação entre a laicidade do Estado e a religiosidade de grande parte destas instituições. Este estudo surgiu da necessidade de se dar maior transparência e ampliar o debate sobre os convênios entre o poder público municipal e entidades assistenciais, principalmente, no que tange o embate entre o público e o privado, entre o laico e o religioso. Este trabalho teve como objetivo investigar as parcerias público-privadas e os possíveis impactos sobre a laicidade do Estado e o direito à Educação. O problema de pesquisa posto foi o que o Parecer CME 12/2011 revela sobre a laicidade do Estado e a religiosidade das instituições conveniadas no atendimento a educação infantil do município de São Bernardo do Campo? Havia a hipótese de que a representação de uma entidade conveniada ao Conselho Municipal de Educação sobre educação espiritual expressasse uma possível projeção de ensino religioso na educação infantil pública. A discussão teórica envolveu autores como FISCHMANN (2009), ARELARO (2008), SARMENTO (2006), ADRIÂO (2009), OLIVEIRA (2005) e ideias que tratavam das deformações dos interesses públicos e privados, da oferta de vagas no seguimento de creche, do ensino religioso em escola pública. A metodologia empregada foi analise bibliográfica e documental. A literatura aponta uma histórica subordinação da educação infantil pública à assistência social privada e as disputas pela implantação do ensino religioso na educação básica pública. Os documentos analisados revelaram que é possível haver certo grau de comprometimento da laicidade do Estado quando se formaliza parcerias com entidades assistenciais de origem religiosa, principalmente, quando se avalia as deficiências e tendências de gestão e supervisão dos convênios realizados pelo poder público. Acredita-se que este estudo abre portas para novas investigações sobre políticas e práticas que enfrentam ou estimulam o ensino religioso em escolas públicas e creches conveniadas.

This thesis presents a case study of Microsoft Corporation’s Partners in Learning (PiL) program, an example of transnational policy authority in education, with two embedded case studies of PiL in Jordan and South Africa. The constructivist and rationalist approaches highlight the changing nature of governance through the cultural and strategic shifts that led to Microsoft’s policy role in education. Microsoft’s strategic profit interests and its corporate-social-responsibility aspiration to play a policy role in education influenced its educational footprint. From a top-down perspective, Microsoft used supranational forms of power by implementing its global PiL blueprint through similar PiL programs worldwide. From a bottom-up perspective, Microsoft used “localization practices” by engaging different subnational agents and used different strategies to gain footholds in two very different political and policy contexts. Microsoft’s top-down and bottom-up approaches link the supranational policy arena to the subnational or subgovernmental. Microsoft’s economic power and strategic engagement gave it entry into education. It gained expert authority from its extensive history and experience in education. Its expert authority was experessed through strategic relationship building through diplomacy and partnerships, policy networks, and the sharing of best practices. The company was however not able to claim absolute legitimacy because of resistance in both countries. This thesis highlights that at the governmental level, sovereignty does not disappear when transnational corporations become involved in education at the national level. Instead, nation- states become strategic sites for the restructuring of global policy roles. The Jordanian government became a public facilitator, by working with Microsoft to implement a stand-alone PiL program. The South African government became a public integrator, by implementing the PiL program within government policies and programs. Power was also redistributed within both countries, moving away from government education officials towards the monarchy in Jordan and the presidency in South Africa. The findings of the study highlight the need for corporations engaged in public education to be governed within instituted accountability measures, for appropriate partnership frameworks, and for governance tools that can both effectively engage companies in education and ensure that they work within common goals and values set out by international education organizations.

This thesis presents a case study of Microsoft Corporation’s Partners in Learning (PiL) program, an example of transnational policy authority in education, with two embedded case studies of PiL in Jordan and South Africa. The constructivist and rationalist approaches highlight the changing nature of governance through the cultural and strategic shifts that led to Microsoft’s policy role in education. Microsoft’s strategic profit interests and its corporate-social-responsibility aspiration to play a policy role in education influenced its educational footprint. From a top-down perspective, Microsoft used supranational forms of power by implementing its global PiL blueprint through similar PiL programs worldwide. From a bottom-up perspective, Microsoft used “localization practices” by engaging different subnational agents and used different strategies to gain footholds in two very different political and policy contexts. Microsoft’s top-down and bottom-up approaches link the supranational policy arena to the subnational or subgovernmental. Microsoft’s economic power and strategic engagement gave it entry into education. It gained expert authority from its extensive history and experience in education. Its expert authority was experessed through strategic relationship building through diplomacy and partnerships, policy networks, and the sharing of best practices. The company was however not able to claim absolute legitimacy because of resistance in both countries. This thesis highlights that at the governmental level, sovereignty does not disappear when transnational corporations become involved in education at the national level. Instead, nation- states become strategic sites for the restructuring of global policy roles. The Jordanian government became a public facilitator, by working with Microsoft to implement a stand-alone PiL program. The South African government became a public integrator, by implementing the PiL program within government policies and programs. Power was also redistributed within both countries, moving away from government education officials towards the monarchy in Jordan and the presidency in South Africa. The findings of the study highlight the need for corporations engaged in public education to be governed within instituted accountability measures, for appropriate partnership frameworks, and for governance tools that can both effectively engage companies in education and ensure that they work within common goals and values set out by international education organizations.