How teams in networked organisations develop collaborative capability: processes, critical incidents and success factors

In this article, we present a study on collaborative capability of teams in three networked organisations in Austria and Switzerland. So far, collaborative capability has mostly been conceptualised on an organisational or individual level as a set of attributes that actors employ to collaborate successfully. We found that this view of collaborative capability needs to be enlarged. Collaborative capability of teams is characterised by at least two components: an attribute-based perspective that focuses on capabilities of single actors or organisations, and a perspective on group dynamics which describes how teams successfully develop collaborative capability. We examined collaborative work processes and task requirements and the way critical incidents in different project stages influenced the development of collaboration. We discuss our findings with regard to the different organisational settings of the networks analysed and the current literature on collaborative capability and networked organisations. ...