A recipe for success? The importance of perceptions of goal agreement in cross-sector collaboration

This article addresses whether perceived goal agreement matters for cross-sectoral collaboration outcomes. Using original survey data from Lebanon that compares the perceptions of local governcment and nonprofit leaders, the findings indicate perceived goal agreement is salient and linked to judgments that collaboration meets its objectives. The article also examines perceptions of goal agreement as it relates to social (trust) and process (power-sharing) collaboration outcomes and find it to be associated with higher trust between collaborators. While this is the case for nonprofits more than local governments, we find no corresponding sector differences for the relationship between perceptions of goal agreement and effectiveness. In addition, agreeing on goals seems to be linked to perceptions of unequal decision-making authority for local governments. The results highlight implications for the relationship between goal agreement and cross-sector collaboration outcome, particularly in the context of developing countries.