Interorganizational learning through collaboration in the non-profit sector

Abstract: In 2015, Swedish Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) served as the backbone of society, assisting 162.877 immigrant refugees escaping conflict zones throughout the world. As the thrive to include newcomer refugees in the Swedish society continues, non-profits are facing numerous of challenges such as operating in highly competitive environments marked by shrinking grant budgets and increased pressure to provide long-term impact. To achieve optimal NPO organizational sustainability, the non-profit sector must therefore interact and learn how to address the aforementioned difficulties collectively. Furthermore, existing studies emphasizes the scarcity of research on learning through non-profit collaboration, as the knowledge management and organizational learning field has mostly concentrated on the for-profit sector rather than the non-profit sector. To fill this research gap, this study uses a qualitative approach to investigate NPO perceptions of interorganizational learning through collaboration, conducting ten semi-structured interviews with NPO employees working with newcomer refugees in Sweden. The results indicated that the NPOs’ learning outcomes connected to the need for collective sensemaking of the Swedish government’s new migration policies, which had a significant influence on the target groups prospects of remaining in Sweden. Moreover, the NPOs learned from unsuccessful collaborations, resulting in changes to the organizations’ routines and processes aimed at improving future collaborations. As a consequence, learning outcomes were incorporated into their organizational memory through digital Knowledge Management Systems such as Google Drive and Rise-Up. They were, however, heavily reliant on people’s willingness to share tacit and explicit knowledge, as well as an organizational culture that encouraged them to knowledge share. As a result, most non-profits either did not upgrade these systems at all or did not have the technological infrastructure to do so in the first place.