Social preconditions of collective action among NGO:s : A social network analysis of the information exchanges between 55 NGO:s in Georgia.

Abstract: Individual shortcomings and the need for resources stimulates organizations desire to establish collaborative relations with each other. An organization tends to prefer to collaborate with other familiar organizations. The information available to an organization about its peers is necessary for its ability to appreciate the suitability of potential partners as well as their capabilities and ability to contribute to a successful collaborative relation. In a three stage analytical process, social network analysis and statistical network modelling is applied to investigate the correlation between patterns of communication and the extent to which organizations establish collaborative relationships. With a theoretical framework of resource dependence theory and social capital, data on information exchanges, resource exchanges and common advocacy among humanitarian 55 organizations is mapped. The first analytical stage explicates the structures of the collected information exchanges and evaluates the prevalence of coordination facilitating communication structures. The second stage appreciates the extent of inter-organizational involvement in collaborative relationships. The third step combines these results to demonstrate the covariance between the prevalence of coordination facilitating structures and extent of collaborative relations. The results indicate that the collected information exchanges exhibit few coordination facilitating structures and the organizations are only to a very limited extent engaged in collaborative relationships with each other. While consistent with previous research on the importance of communication for coordination, these observations illustrate the negative consequences of lacking communication. This analysis contributes with added empirical experiences to solidify our understanding of organizational behavior in inter-organizational interaction and tendencies to establish collaborative relations.