Introduction
A partnership includes different types of affiliations. Scholars define the term as deciding to do something together. In fact, a partnership is a relationship that encompasses two or many groups sharing a common goal and deciding to pursue that goal as a team. Partnerships may vary in terms of scope, complexity, purpose, diversity of partners, and size.
The importance of developing partnerships
Partnerships are very important in any organization given that they serve as a strategy for success in every organization’s service delivery system. Partnerships ensure that the resources and risks involved in carrying out an activity are shared equally to increase efficiency (Myers, Myers & Grant, 2010). In most cases, partnerships allow for sufficient use of resources with no wastage, thus better use of limited resources. The diverse number of groups in a partnership ensures that there is through accountability.
Conversely, individuals, groups, and professionals are involved in a partnership with their different expertise. The step ensures that there is accurate understanding of the prevailing issues. The strategy enables the group involved to develop good strategies that increase their ability to plan and evaluate (Tsasis, 2009). Therefore, partnerships allow for the advancement of various methods, assets, and flairs.
Partnerships also ensure that there are no duplications of activities. The assertion follows the fact that there is more than one party to go through the intended plan. It convenes together diverse ideas as compared to a single organization. Partnerships coordinate and integrate services, which helps in building communities.
Human service administrators (HSA)
These people need to have great leadership and management skills without which the entity will collapse. The administrator searches, recruits various stakeholders and gives the partnership skills and resources it needs. The HSA should be easy to relate and interact with since its mandate is to motivate participants to ensure that the work is successful (Salamon, 2003). The administrator has to give clear detail on the role of each partner and ensure that each one serves in the partnership for a long time. That is, administrator shows how partners will benefit from the collaboration.
Elements contributing to a successful partnership
The fact that right actors should be included in the partnership is very important. All the relevant and diverse stakeholders’ viewpoints must be involved. Secondly, the definition of the purpose of the partnership as well as the expected results ought to be clear. Lastly, everyone must agree with only the clearly stated roles and responsibilities of each party involved in the partnership.
Elements contributing to failed partnerships
Shortage of resources and time pose a problem to partnerships. More often than not, the organization looking for partnership is not always willing to employ more resources. Thus, such strategies overwork the current staff with little or no increase in their salaries (Tsasis, 2009). As a result, if an organization has limited money to employ extra staff or create time for a partnership, the partnership will collapse.
Addressing a failed partnership
A partnership may fail and the administrator must revive such partnerships to long-term growth. First, the HSA has to find out where the problem emerged from and what caused the failure (Bailey & Dolan, 2012). Second, the HSA has to go back to the various stakeholders, discuss with them the problem, and offer the solution at hand. The HSA must be able to justify its mandate and give the partners a reason to stay. Third, the HSA must find a way forward through discussions with the various parties and implement what they have discussed. Finally, the HSA has to get rid of whatever caused the failure to ensure accountability and transparency in every activity carried out.
Conclusion and insight
In conclusion, to ensure that there is great service delivery, an organization needs partnerships with other entities. For example, the United Nations (UN) would not be able to deliver all its services without partnerships. It had to form various shareholder conglomerates including the Civic Humanity Players. Thus, forming partnerships are the only ways for it to achieve its global goals.
References
Bailey, F. & Dolan, A. (2012). The meaning of partnership in development: lessons for development education. Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review, 2(13), 30-48.
Myers, L., Myers, L., & Grant, L. (2010). The creation of regional partnerships for regional emergency planning. Journal of Business Continuity and Emergency Planning, 4(4), pp. 338-351.
Salamon, L. (2003). The resilient sector: The state of nonprofit America. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Tsasis, P. (2009). The social processes of inter-organizational collaboration and conflict in nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 20(1), 5-21.