Motivation to Collaborate: Applying Motivation Theory to Community Organizations and Universities Working Together

Abstract

Research has identified a variety of reasons community organizations choose to collaborate with universities. This study applies Bandura’s (1997) model of motivation to investigate the motivations for, benefits of, and challenges inherent in university collaboration for 15 community organizations. The study examined community partners’ anticipatory cognitive motivation, which is comprised of forethought, cognized goals, and outcome expectancies; the academic service-learning experience itself; and community partners’ retrospective reasoning, including perceived benefits and challenges. The study found that community partners are motivated to collaborate with the university not by external incentives but as a result of their desire to fulfill cognized goals and achieve expected outcomes.
Keywords: Service-learning, community partners, motivation, partnerships