Framing involvement: rationale construction in an interorganisational collaboration

An analysis of the different rationales articulated and utilised by partners in an interorganisational collaboration is the focus of this paper. The Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Program in Business is an initiative involving 12 US universities, nearly 40 multinational corporations, a federal government agency, and a non-profit organisation working together to introduce underrepresented students to business education and careers in business. Major themes emerging from an extensive field study of the partnership dynamics in LEAD are that rationales (1) range from altruistic to utilitarian in nature, (2) are not sedimentary but continue to evolve in conjunction with environmental and organisational changes, (3) display varying degrees of directness, and (4) vary in terms of their meaning and importance to actual programmatic outcomes.