Leadership Impact on Motivation and Commitment in Interregional Collaboration

Publication article | | Fatime Barbara Hegyi, Laszlo Borbely and Gabor Bekesi

The paper explores how the leadership of the thematic Smart Specialisation partnerships effect the motivation and commitment within the partnership by comparing attitudes of leaders and participants to explore the potential for more effective operation. Accordingly, in this paper, the previously proposed assessment framework is been piloted on two thematic Smart Specialisation partnerships.

Abstract

Previous research has proposed an assessment framework that allows to evaluate the impact of leadership on motivation and commitment of cross-border collaborative actions (Hegyi et al, 2020). The assessment framework has been developed with the aim to assist leading stakeholders of interregional collaborative actions to ensure efficiency, sustainability and success of their projects in achieving their objectives. The proposed assessment framework highlights areas of leadership where adjustments or changes are needed in order to contribute to the viability of cross-border collaborative efforts.

Regularly assessing the impact of leadership on the motivation and commitment of actors across participating entities contributes to the efficiency and sustainability of collaborative actions by signalling issues of motivation and commitment. Through such assessment, specific areas can be highlighted, where there is lack of motivation and commitment towards the collaboration, towards the leadership, the team or the work itself. Through regular re-assessments, effects of leadership practices or previous decisions can be measured. Interregional thematic Smart Specialisation partnerships led by visibly focused and determined lead regions with a well-defined governance structure are more likely to be successful in attaining their objectives of realising joint investment projects along shared Smart Specialisation priority areas.

Thus, building on the experiences of the thematic Smart Specialisation partnerships, this research proposes to examine the role of good governance and leadership contribute to the overall sustainability and viability of the partnerships. Accordingly, the paper explores how the leadership of the thematic Smart Specialisation partnerships effect the motivation and commitment within the partnership by comparing attitudes of leaders and participants to explore the potential for more effective operation. In this paper, the previously proposed assessment framework is been piloted on two thematic Smart Specialisation partnerships; nevertheless the framework has been developed in a way that it can be applied to any collaborative actions that have a well-defined governance structure with designated leadership.

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