Building collaborative capacity for homeland security

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to build a foundation of relevant knowledge about interorganizational collaboration that would assist local, state and federal officials in their management of activities related to Homeland Security. Academics and practitioners stress the criticality of coordinating the efforts of federal, state, local and private sectors. Some barriers to interorganizational collaboration include: missions that are at odds with one another, unclear roles and responsibilities lack of accountability. Managers of homeland security will need to find ways to overcome these barriers and work together more effectively. This project is meant to discover the factors that contribute to and inhibit collaboration. The first phase of the research focused on the development of a conceptual model of interagency collaboration. Phase II was an action-based workshop to gather data from a group of 30 senior homeland security managers. Nine major topics that were central to interagency collaboration were identified in Phase III. We anticipate that these deliverables will be used for future workshops, seminars, short class modules or longer graduate-level courses. Future plans include developing a diagnostic survey. This diagnostic tool could be used by HLS organizations to evaluate their current collaborative capacity and, based on this assessment, establish action plans to improve their collaborative capacity.