On the Paradox of Collaboration, Collaborative Systems and Collaborative Networks

Abstract

It has been claimed that collaborative networks are the societal structure of this century. Nonetheless, low success rates often observed in the practice of purposeful collaboration suggest that our understanding is still limited. In this paper, I advance on the theory of collaborative systems, a systems theoretical approach to interorganizational collaborative relationships, critically investigating their nature. Based on the characteristics of social systems, I suggest an explanation to the low success rates observed in practice. Furthermore, I offer an alternative definition of collaborative networks according to the theory presented and discuss some implications and challenges to the discipline of Collaborative Networks.

Social systems theory and engaged scholarship: co-designing a semantic reservoir in a polycentric network

“…In this suggestion, Neumann (2012) agrees with both Teubner (1993), as previously stated, and with Salonen (2010). Salonen explains organizational networks as a way to increase the complexity reduction capacity beyond the organizational boundaries while still enabling enough integration of all system elements.…”

“…It is not easy for a shared semantic reservoir to emerge due to the different idiosyncrasies of the partaking organization systems, and if a shared semantic reservoir does not evolve fast enough for organizations trying to form a polycentric network, the process of structural coupling is in danger of not occurring at all, and the network will not be able to operate with success, and may disintegrate. For the network to succeed, its operation needs to absorb uncertainty and reduce complexity for all members of the collaborative system, as stated by Neumann (2012). Polycentric networks may be able to do exactly this, as they can react as a whole, or the nodes can react autonomously, and the hybridity of the dual constituency may vary over time (Teubner, 1993, p. 51).…”

“…Networks are becoming increasingly widespread in the society (Teubner, 2011; Neumann et al , 2011, 2012), and polycentric networks are seen as an emergent way of mitigating some of the effects caused by the highly differentiated nature of the modern society (Teubner, 1993). Polycentric networks have the potential for dealing with the increasing complexity and differentiation in society.…”

“…Neuman et al (2011) and Neuman (2012) point to the need for a collaborative system for networks to be coupled. Our argument is that for polycentric networks and their collaborative system to form, a shared semantic reservoir with a horizon spanning across the entire network also needs to emerge.…”

Avoiding collaborative paradox in multi‐agent reinforcement learning

“…Collaborating social organizations [1] is not a new phenomenon so that individuals will be inspired intuitively when working together, outperforming their expectations [2]. Simultaneously, collaborative teams are achieving their goals, and each individual seeks to maximize their potential through inner competitive and benevolent relations [2,3]. In such collaborative settings of game environments, recent approaches, such as multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) [4], AlphaStar [5], and Dota [6], have shown great successes than cooperative multi-agent systems (MAS) [7].…”