Matchmaking på organisatorisk nivå
? om samverkan mellan kommunala introduktionsenheter och frivilligorganisationer
AbstractMatchmaking on an organisational level? about co-operation between municipal introduction-units and voluntary organisationsEssay in Political Science D, by Rebecka Johansson, spring 2006The aim of this study is to examine co-operation between municipal introduction-units, which work to integrate newly arrived immigrants and refuges, and voluntary organisations in Sweden. The essay is a comparative case study which examines three local authorities and the main questions are;- Do voluntary organisations constitute a functioning co-operation partner to the municipal introduction-units? Are there conditions for future co-operation?The answer to the questions is that there are no, or rarely any, co-operation between voluntary organisations and municipal introduction-units. It is difficult to judge whether there are conditions for future co-operation. The theory used is interorganisational theory and it?s thesis on resource-dependency. According to the theory organisations need to have some kind of dependency towards the other organisations to be interested in co-operation. This study shows that the local authorities are more eager to co-operate than the voluntary organisations. Both types of organisations can see benefits with co-operation, but the voluntary organisations also see costs. The main problem for the voluntary organisations is lack of resources, both economic and personnel. Many organisations have too few volunteers. Both the local authorities and the voluntary organisations see the role of the voluntary organisations as being a complement to the local authorities. The local authorities are only willing to compensate the voluntary organisations economically for smaller costs in an eventual co-operation. In other fields such as healthcare the role of voluntary organisations has developed from being a voice to delivering services on payment from the public sector. The integration field has not reached this point, and many voluntary organisations are critical towards such a development as they fear losing their autonomy in a too close co-operation with the local authority. The local authorities want to co-operate, but they still want to be in charge of the introduction program.