Shaping meaning about joint action in meta-organisational meetings

Paper in proceeding, 2019

Collaboration between different organisations creates a new organisation made up of organisations – a meta-organisation. In meta-organisations, where there is scope for experimentation and innovation, dialogue about the meaning of joint action is ongoing. I explore meta-organisational meetings as spaces that support representatives from different organisations to shape meaning about joint action. I draw on a two-year ethnographic study of a partnership of fifteen organisations that worked together to test and develop electric buses and related infrastructure live within the public transport system of a Scandinavian city. I consider a conversation between a group of senior leaders representing member organisations that was orchestrated by the coordinators of the meta-organisation. Engaging in relationally-responsive practices, the participants inquire into what they can do collectively and what this means for the meta-organisation. The paper makes clearer how meetings offer a site for understanding more of meaning-making for the joint action of meta-organising.