This master project is about interdisciplinary collaborations. Both in an inter-organizational perspective and within a single complex organization. The paper presents a proposal for which one can work at the intersection of the strategic pressure from the parent organization and the common interest of the individual parties.
The purpose of the paper is to create inspiration for the people who work with objectives in networks, thereby creating greater engagement and effective achievement of targets in the network.
The problem to resolve is tripartite:
1. What interdisciplinary objectives is identified as central to organizational leaders on Campus Viborg?
2. How could a comprehensive objective for the parties to cooperate across look like and how could the goal be realized?
3. What challenges lie in the realization of the objective, and what considerations should be taken to achieve the objective?
The paper is based on the inter-organizational field on Campus Viborg, between VIA University College and Academy Dania. Data are collected through 10 interviews and parts of Appreciative Inquiry has been used to create a positive energy for the generation of positive objectives. The theoretical framework is an inter-organizational network model of Jeppe Gustafsson which describes the different perspectives that are at stake in an inter-organizational network.
The paper has elucidated that when talking about interdisciplinary collaboration, be it in an inter-organizational perspective or internally, it is important for each party that they find a common interest in cooperation. The common interest is the foundation of network vision. Then I show how strategic documents can help support and push cooperation in a particular direction. This leads to the perspective that I call: "The directional community". I draw a parallel to Gustafssons model for innovation in systemic network and argues why the perspective resembles roughly "systemic innovation"