Do Collaborative Management Actions Lead to Better Organizational Outcomes?

This study examines the effects of managerial actions that promote inter-governmental collaboration on organizational performance at the sub-national level. Employing measures of organizational performance (i.e., fiscal performance and education in Colombia), I find that managerial actions that promote collaboration between organizations at the territorial level predict higher levels of organizational performance. Actions oriented toward collaboration enable bureaucrats to accomplish organizational goals by creating trust, increasing information exchange, and producing external collaborative structures. The article provides insights into the discussion about the role of managers in organizational dynamics in the public sector by showing new insights about how managers’ intentional efforts can improve public organizations’ outcomes. The research contributes to the literature on collaborative public management in a comparative context that focuses on sub-national governments.