The Five-Million Dollar Misunderstanding: A Perspective on State Government-University Interorganizational Conflicts

Abstract

September 1977, volume 22 This article analyzes the problems of interorganizational linkage that developed between a state university and a state department of public welfare. Although five years and five million dollars were spent on this project, few mutual benefits resulted. This report employs an opensystems approach to examining the environmental effects which contributed to interorganizational problems and, ultimately, to the project's failure. It then makes practical recommendations about ways to improve organizational exchanges between universities and state government agencies.