Rebecca Rice (Communication Studies) published an article in Management Communication Quarterly titled The article studies how multiple risk and emergency organizations collaborate across organizational boundaries to address shared problems. The study found that for high reliability collaborations, or collaborations that cannot afford to commit errors due to the hazardous nature of their work, containing the risks of multiple stakeholders is a key incentive to collaborate. This reverses a major assumption in interorganizational collaboration research, that collaborators are motivated to work together to share resources or expertise, instead arguing that engaging in collaborative relationships can also help maintain control during emergencies.
