TOC | Previous | Next

Section One
Building an Effective Coalition

"Can a small group of people who see and respond differently to the world make a difference? Indeed, history shows it is the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead

Studies in Partnership

Search the Internet today for "Coalition" and you will find several hundred sites. If you expand the search to include a variety of partnerships, an even more overwhelming number of cooperative ventures await you. A casual review of the size and scope of such sites tells of a rich diversity of organizations with many different purposes and activities. The coalitions range from international trading alliances of major corporations seeking to improve their competitive position to small rural desert communities aligning themselves to protect a meager water supply.

People have always sought to band together either against a perceived threat or to promote a commonly agreed upon benefit. Today, the nature of modern society frequently makes closer linkages a necessity. We live in a society in which increasingly we are dependent on one another. Centuries ago the major thinkers of the time would live and work in seclusion emerging only on a rare occasion to announce some new insight or discovery. Anyone working today on a breakthrough discovery is not working in isolation. Foundations and corporations provide funds for a study; the expert routinely presents findings to peers at international conferences, actively seeks a critique of this work from colleagues in the field, and spends considerable time consulting with countries or corporations in an area of specialization.

We do not have to search far to find the rationale behind the need to cooperate with others in significant work and projects. Almost every organization is under pressure to achieve its goals and to do so with efficiency. Any organization, whether it is for-profit or nonprofit, finds many projects competing for limited resources. Acting jointly with another organization means that the time line for completion is reduced and the risk of failing is minimized. When partners are chosen wisely, special resources are made available. Retailers partner with e-commerce services to deliver groceries, sell hotel rooms, and reserve tee times on golf courses. Partnered activities are seen simply as a better way of ensuring that things get done and get done quickly and efficiently. If they want to stay in existence, corporations, agencies, and other operating entities must demonstrate to stakeholders, both public and private, that they not only have sound concepts but that they can translate them into effective action with urgency. ²

Development of Coalitions

In the past two decades, the development of coalitions anchored by one or more nonprofit organizations has escalated. In particular, coalitions have been formed in areas supporting community-based, health-related activities and have yielded significant results. Advocates and supporters of a variety of environmental issues have formed coalitions to make their position known and to prevent or enable legislation favorable to their position. Others have put coalitions together composed of health-related agencies, school districts, and community-based action groups to eliminate the use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco among teenagers. Church and civic groups have developed coalitions with the goal of ensuring adequate housing for the poor and the elderly. The best of these coalitions have turned out to be powerful organizational vehicles for achieving important societal goals. They have brought people together; they have expanded resources exponentially; they have focused the best of a community’s resources on attacking a problem; they have achieved results greater than any single agency or group could have reached alone.

However, not every coalition has been successful, and not every successful coalition has achieved its results without a rather high price being paid by the organizations and people involved. Coalitions are complex organizational structures. The fact that many agencies and individuals who enter into coalitions do so from motives that are primarily selfless and seek the betterment of the community does not exempt them from the dynamics common to all organizations. Like any partnership, a coalition seeks to bring together groups of people who up to that point have acted within their own sphere of activity with autonomy. They have operated within an organizational structure for achieving their goals that has usually served them well. A new coalition is a new organization and a new structure; with its establishment come new frustrations. Promised resources may not be made available; the ability to affect the community may be thwarted by conflicting interests, and appropriate recognition for accomplishments may be lost in the organizational labyrinth of a bureaucracy.

Why a Manual on Coalitions?

Those who have followed the development of partnered activities for the most part are equally familiar with the development of coalitions. Coalitions in a variety of areas have received ample attention and documentation. Coalitions for economic, business, social, and political purposes are discussed daily in the media; books and journals describe all aspects of their development and operation. The examination of these coalitions is outside the scope of this manual, although some reference will be made to them for comparative purposes. This manual seeks to chart the developmental path of health-related, nonprofit coalitions, specifically those seeking to reduce the incidence of asthma. A certain number of excellent manuals, monographs, and research articles touching on these developments have been produced. This manual is indebted to them and has made use of their insights. The manual will cite them at the appropriate place in the report and will reference them in the endnotes.

What Does the Manual Cover?

These sections cover 11 topics that correspond to the major themes of the study commissioned by The CHEST Foundation. Each of the 11 was identified as a major component from a review of the literature and discussions with coalition leaders and members. These topics were covered first in the survey portion of the research and then were more exhaustively treated in comments by designated participants. All were again reviewed in the interview portion of the research. The manual does not aim at an exhaustive and detailed review of the theory and history of coalitions. It rather aims at utilizing what we know of coalitions in order to apply to them some of the insights available to us from areas such as organizational psychology, human resource development, and other disciplines of modern management science. The goal is to provide those contemplating the development of a coalition, as well as those currently involved in one, with some reflections and observations based on what has been learned by those who have gone before them.

How Are the Topics Treated?

An attempt is made to present each of the topics in a way that is both practical and challenging. The topics have a history in management science and for each there is a theory that has relevance to the opportunities and problems faced by coalitions. These problems and opportunities can be described as decision-points in which individuals and groups make decisions that affect the development of the coalition. The Manual seeks to capture these decision-points from the viewpoint of both theory and practice. In addition, these decision-points can lead us to further observations on the nature of coalitions and ways to affect them. As often as possible, we have attempted to describe existing coalitions in ways that are realistic, using either survey results or the actual words of the individuals working in the field today. For that reason, the sections contain features such as "Tips for New Coalitions," "Survey Comment Snapshots," "What Does the Coalition Look Like?" and "How Did You Get Started?" Each section presents detailed excerpts from interviews with individuals with extensive experience with coalitions on the section topic.

TOC | Previous | Next

3300 Dundee Road • Northbrook, Illinois 60062-2348 • (847) 498-1400 • (800) 343-2227
Copyright ©1999-2008 American College of Chest Physicians. All Rights Reserved.
ACCP Privacy Policy | ACCP Web Site Terms of Use