Summary

Often interacting parties may agree on, and even establish, the "best" structures for their collaboration. However, as organizations and individuals try to advance their interests, these structures may enact different processes from what was originally anticipated. This case illuminates how such dynamics were played out in a network of organizations working with youth-in-trouble in a large North American city. It is intended to advance an understanding of the politics of structuring interorganizational relations, and sensitize students to the way seemingly rational interorganizational arrangements may mask processes that serve the interest of organizations by facilitating their selection of "good clients."