Studying social representations of cross-boundary collaboration between managers through drawings

Abstract

This study examines cross-boundary collaboration between middle managers working in health and social care in Finland. It approaches the topic from social representations theory, focusing on middle managers’ everyday perceptions and experiences of cross-boundary collaboration. Drawing images of collaboration was used as an arts-based method of data production. The data consisted of 14 drawings (one from each participating manager) depicting collaboration between managers and their verbal reflections. The visual and verbal data were analyzed by content analysis. The study identified four social representations of collaboration between managers: feeling of togetherness, challenge of dispersion, reward of practicality, and joys and sorrows of diversity. The paper contributes to the current knowledge on cross-boundary collaboration between managers with practical implications. In addition, the paper provides a novel theoretical and methodological approach to studying cross-boundary collaboration.