Inter-organisational collaboration for large scale recruitment : Investigating the collaborative challenges and opportunities

Abstract: Together with the EU2020 goals, set in order to increase sustainability, there is an oncoming storm of electrification. The need of Batteries is growing, but Europe is lacking both production and competence in the area. Unrestricted new establishments, so-called “greenfield” ventures are a growing trend, which are often placed in rural areas where recruitment can be difficult. What follows is the necessary collaboration between the greenfield venture itself and local as well as national government to consolidate enough power and competence so that the parties can complete the task at hand. Collaborating between such different organisations are bound to spark conflict and shed light on organisational differences all the while exploring the benefits of the collaborative venture itself. The aim of this research is to investigate which challenges and opportunities arise during the initial phase of an inter-organisational collaboration for a large-scale recruitment effort. Where the main questions to answer were; What challenges can be identified throughout the collaboration? And, what opportunities arise during this collaboration? In order to investigate this, the case of Northvolt-Västerbotten was selected which is the collaborative project that has been established between the Region Västerbotten (RV, regional government of Västerbotten), Skellefteå Municipality, local employment service and Northvolt. This collaboration was studied through continuous observations of 16 project participants, close day-to-day work with the project manager as well as two rounds of interviews with 5 participants. All of which performed through the eyes of a participating researcher. The research concludes, that entering an inter-organisational collaboration means that resources and knowledge from each actor can be shared. When this collaboration takes part between organisations in the public and private sector it can be of further advantage. Differences, while sometimes hard to manage, can if done so successfully be avoided and turned into opportunities. If you manage to combine private and public actors to create a team with clear communication, established trust and aligned goals you can instead utilise the differences and by doing so save money, time and resources.