From territoriality to altruism in interprofessional collaboration and leadership

Interprofessional collaboration has become more and more necessary in health and social care, mainly because of the increasing specialization of services and the increasing professionalization of different occupational groups. Most interprofessional collaboration is at the same time also interorganizational and it is taking place within a complicated structure, where collaborative teamwork is combined with hierarchical co-ordination and control in a sort of matrix organization. Based on the literature on organization, leadership and collaboration, this paper discusses territorial behaviour among professional groups and agencies as a difficult barrier to interprofessional collaboration. In order to overcome that barrier, the concept of altruism is explored as an alternative to territoriality. Professional altruism as well as altruistic leadership is discussed as a condition and a possibility for interprofessional collaboration. The discussion is illustrated with empirical data from a case study of collaboration in vocational rehabilitation.