The Effect of Collaboration on Performance in Public Management: Evidence from Community Policing Copyright 2016 By Leonard L. Lira Submitted to the graduate degree program in Public Affairs and Administration and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________________________ Chair: Rosemary O’Leary ________________________________ Jacob Fowles ________________________________ Heather Getha-Taylor ________________________________ Holly T. Goerdel ________________________________ Donald P. Haider-Markel Date Defended: 7 June 2016 The Dissertation Committee for Leonard L. Lira certifies that this is the draft version of the following dissertation: The Effect of Collaboration on Performance in Public Management: Evidence from Community Policing ________________________________ Chair: Rosemary O’Leary Date Approved: 7 June 2016 ii Abstract Practitioners and academics expect collaboration to matter in public management. Both treat it as an imperative to goal accomplishment and view collaboration as fundamental in community policing. However, existing research seems to study the elements of collaboration such as pre- conditions/antecedents, processes, and outcomes, either individually or with two of the three aspects in conjunction. This approach leaves one portion or the other in a “black box” because there is no comprehensive perspective evaluating all three together. Therefore, this dissertation uses mixed methods and a non-linear approach that tests the impact of collaboration capacity on performance outcomes as mediated by collaborative behavior in the context of community policing. This allows a study of all three elements simultaneously. Results from testing cross- sectional and longitudinal data via mediation analysis indicate a causal mechanism in which individual collaborative behaviors of police mediate the impact of organizational collaborative capacity on performance over shorter time spans, but only partially transmit that impact over longer time spans. Further, qualitative research based on this finding indicates that other potential reasons, such as institutional factors, may provide the additional mediation variables as the proximate cause for collaboration capacity to transmit its effect over longer time spans. This study contributes toward collaboration theory by opening its black box and explaining how the internal gears of the collaborative process are contingent and turn in either direction to positively or negatively affect performance outcomes depending on a multitude of factors. It offers an empirical approach that investigates at the phenomena of collaboration from a non-linear perspective, at multiple levels. Lastly, it offers normative contributions by presenting a compelling institutional perspective that practitioners should account for in their daily practice and academics should consider as they design future research on collaboration. iii Acknowledgements I need to acknowledge so many people who have helped me, either through advice, encouragement, resources, or cajoling, to complete this project. First, I’d like to thank the inspirational faculty, staff, and students of the University of Kansas’ School of Public Affairs and Administration. Combined, they all made my doctoral experience enriching and fulfilling. In particular, I owe gratitude to Dr. Heather Getha-Taylor, whose research on collaboration kindled my initial research question for this project. I’d like to thank Dr. Holly Goerdel for helping me stretch my ideas, propositions and hypothesis to their limits to capture as accurate as possible an understanding of what I was studying. She helped me take it further than I could have otherwise. Thank you to Dr. Jacob Fowles, who helped me develop not only the quantitative skills I needed for this project but more importantly, the analytical skills to see patterns and meanings in my research that went beyond just the numbers. Thank you to Dr. Don Haider-Markel for agreeing to serve on my committee and for advising me on what type of sample to go for in my qualitative research. A special thank you to Dr. Rosemary O’Leary, the chair of my committee, who was not only the best advisor to have for this dissertation, but who also has been my teacher, advisor, and mentor since I was a graduate at the Maxwell School at Syracuse. I have been inspired by her and have learned so much from her during this research and over the years. When I grow up, I want to be like her. Thank you to the men and women in the police departments and in the community organizations whom I interviewed. They all work hard and put their lives on the line to make our world a better place. I also have to thank my friends and colleagues at the Army University’s Command and General Staff College. They helped me push to the finish line, especially Colonel (ret) Jerome Hawkins, who gave me the time to work on my Ph.D. and mentored me through the turbulence of Army academics and developing as a senior Army leader. Last but not least, I owe a debt of gratitude to my wife, Annette, for her encouragement and for painstakingly proofing my work these last five years, and our two boys, Ryan and Josh, for patiently sitting through all my boring presentation rehearsals and pretending to be so interested. I have more people to thank than room to list them here, because as Paul Coelho (1993) wrote in The Alchemist, “when you want something, all the world conspires in helping you to achieve it.” So thank you to everyone who conspired to help me on this journey. iv Table of Contents The Effect of Collaboration on Performance in Public Management: Evidence from Community Policing ............................................................................................................................................ i Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ v Listing of Tables, Figures, and Diagrams ...................................................................................... ix Tables: ........................................................................................................................................ ix Figures: ...................................................................................................................................... ix Diagrams: .................................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1: Collaboration & Performance in the context of Community Policing .......................... 1 Background of the problem ........................................................................................................ 3 The Study of Collaboration and within Community Policing .................................................. 13 The Significance for Public Management Scholars .................................................................. 17 Outline of the Study .................................................................................................................. 19 Chapter 2: Literature Review and Operationalization of Collaboration ....................................... 23 Collaboration: Definition and Scope ........................................................................................ 25 Pre-Conditions/Antecedents of Collaboration: The Capacity to Collaborate ........................... 28 Processes: Collaboration Behaviors .......................................................................................... 36 Collaboration and Performance Outcomes ............................................................................... 43 v Research Questions, Collaboration Mediation Model, and Hypotheses................................... 51 Chapter 3: Research Design, Variable Operationalization, and Method ...................................... 60 Research Design: A Mixed Methods Approach ....................................................................... 60 Data Sources: Quantitative and Qualitative .............................................................................. 64 Operationalization of Variables ................................................................................................ 69 The Dependent Variable ........................................................................................................... 71 Operationalizing Independent and Mediation Variables via Confirmatory Factor Analysis ... 79 Independent Variable: Indicators & Latent Collaboration Capacity Factors ............................ 82 CFA OF INDEPENDENT LATENT VARIABLES ................................................................ 86 The Mediation Variable: Indicators & Latent Collaboration Behavior Factors ....................... 90 CFA OF MEDIATION LATENT VARIABLE ....................................................................... 94 The Control Variables: Covariates of the Mediation process ................................................... 96 The Methods Used ...................................................................................................................