Leadership Dynamics in Collaboration: Lessons from the Middle Fork John Day River Intensively Monitored Watershed Collaboration

Abstract

This study explores leadership dynamics in collaborative governance. The research features a collaboration case study of sixteen federal and state agency and NGO stakeholders. The collaboration is conducting a ten-year, basin-scale monitoring project of salmonid habitat restoration projects in the Middle Fork John Day (MFJD) River basin in Eastern Oregon. The monitoring project is known as an intensively monitored watershed (IMW), one of sixteen throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The research is guided by the following question: How do leadership dynamics in the MFJD IMW collaborative governance structure facilitate effective collaborative process or create limitations to that process? This study uses qualitative research methods in evaluating multiple research sources. Insights from this study may prove valuable in providing guidance on effectively structuring and managing basin-scale collaborative habitat monitoring projects, including future IMW projects. This study further aims to contribute to research on collaborative leadership for the greater scholarship on collaboration.