Local government servants’ attitude towards the content of the interorganizational interaction

Straipsnyje diskutuojami Lietuvos vietos savivaldos praktikų požiūrio į tarporganizacinės sąveikos turinį tyrimo rezultatai. Pirmiausia aptariamos užsienio tyrėjų išryškintos tarporganizacinės sąveikos sampratų problemos, konkretizuojamos tarporganizacinės sąveikos formos. Akcentuojama, jog skirtingos tarporganizacinės sąveikos formos pasižymi savitais bruožais ir yra skirtos siekti nevienodo integracijos lygmens organizacijų tikslų. Toliau lyginami literatūros analizės bei empirinio tyrimo rezultatai. Daroma išvada, kad apklaustieji vietos savivaldos atstovai tarporganizacinės sąveikos sąvokas vartoja sinonimiškai, o jų turinį suvokia paviršutiniškai. Tai vertinama kaip problema, nes skirtingas bei dažnai klaidingas sąveikos turinio suvokimas mažina galimybes pasirinkti tarporganizacinės veiklos poreikius ir tikslus atitinkančią sąveikos formą, pasiekti socialiai reikšmingų ilgalaikių rezultatų, trukdo nustatyti ir ištaisyti bendros veiklos organizavimo bei valdymo trūkumus.The results of research into the attitude of Lithuanian self-government servants' towards the content of inter-organizational interaction are discussed in the article. Above all, it considers the issues of inter-organizational terms in the viewpoint of theorists and concretizes various forms of the inter-organizational interaction. Finally, the results of literature analysis and empirical research are compared. The author of the article asserts that it is not simple to understand the content of the inter-organizational interaction. Because it is closely and practically related to all subject management issues, the attitude towards the interaction is unreasonably simplified: any work done together with someone else is usually called collaboration. The article emphasizes that various forms of the inter-organizational interaction characterizes distinctive features and its aims are to pursue different purposes. The paper presents a purified and specified concept of the inter-organizational interaction. The author uses the term "integrated collaboration" for describing the interaction between subjects of the highest maturity level. The empirical research of the article is based on questionnaires, which were completed by the local government representatives, who are experienced in practical aspects of the inter-organizational interaction. When processing the questionnaire findings the discriminative power of the answers was computed. The discriminative power allowed us to determine the most and the least attributable features regarding collaboration, partnership, cooperation and coordination based on the respondents' opinions. The research shows that notions of the inter-organizational interaction are applied in a synonymous way. The difference between integrated collaboration, partnership, cooperation and coordination is very insignificant. This is a problem because by using different forms of interaction the organizations, related with mutual ties are able to achieve specific common activity results. A different and quite often wrong perception of the interaction content reduces the chances to select the form of the inter-organizational interaction that meets the needs and aims of the inter-organizational activity. The paper concludes that employees of local governments, who took part in the research, have only a superficial knowledge of the content of collaboration, partnership and cooperation. Due to this fact, the content of the interorganizational interaction is narrowed down. It is necessary to deepen the adequate understanding of the inter-organizational interaction, its purpose and content