Strategic collaboration in managing existing buildings in New Zealand's state schools: school managers' perspectives

Collaboration has been considered one of the keys for effectively managing state school properties in New Zealand, with participants combining their abilities to solve challenges and achieve common goals. However, this is challenging due to the multiple stakeholders involved (Ministry staff, external consultants, school boards), process fragmentation, and the stakeholders’ diversity of knowledge. This research aims to develop a collaboration maturity model with process areas, criteria in each process area and rating levels. The criteria were identified from interviews with school managers and then used in a questionnaire survey to investigate the maturity levels of criteria in the collaboration. The assessment results provide insights into the problems or lowest scores criteria that are most needed for improvement. Based on the findings, improvement initiatives have been discussed. From school managers’ perspective, the empirical findings can be translated into actionable knowledge in a way that helps the top management review their collaboration policies regarding staff training, funding allocation, reporting system and information technology.