Organizational structure and the dynamics of collaboration relationship

Organizational structure is of great importance for the governance of the collaboration process. In this paper, in order to support substantial governance, a holistic collaboration organizational structure is established. Three dimensions including specialization, institutionalization and centralization are highlighted for the interpretation, where types of collaboration are further classified as improvised and organized. Moreover, relationships between organizational structure and the dynamics in collaborations are clearly identified, to shed some light on the theory of collaboration management. A survey based on the experience of organizations was further conducted for the analysis. In the end, the general organization structure system of this work was confirmed to hold high reliable properties and the hypotheses regarding the impacts of organizational structure on the collaboration trust and commitment can also be proved. All these are composed as a theoretical basis which helps to bring sound decision support for the strategies of collaboration.