THE EMERGENCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL COLLABORATIVE CAPACITY THROUGH REPEATED CRISES: THE CASE OF TAIWAN¿S CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION 1999-2011

Abstract

This dissertation systematically analyzes and explains organizational responses to repeated crises and makes an empirical contribution to the study of collaborative capacity building through the examination of the institutional development of Taiwan¿s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from 1999 to 2011, during which two major public health crises ¿ SARS and H1N1 ¿ took place. The central argument in the empirical findings is that collaborative outcomes depend on the emergence, and the extent, of an organization¿s collaborative capacity along four dimensions: resources, structure, communications, and orientation. The empirical evidence identifies key collaborative capacities that initiate inter-organizational collaboration and contribute to its success in fighting communicable diseases. My findings suggest collaborative capacity emerges in the hand of a facilitative leader who helps secure resources for collaboration during non-crisis periods. The capacity would be sustained when sense-making takes place in the target population and the reciprocal changes become formalized in the organizational structure.