A fragile achievement: the production, sustainability and complicity of cooperation in organizations

This research examines how workplace cooperation is created, sustained, and altered across diverse organizational settings. It demonstrates that collaboration depends primarily on interpersonal ties and reciprocity rather than formal rules, with a shared sense of purpose influencing employees far more than structural design. Cooperation also varies across project phases, relying temporarily on formal structures only when newly formed teams lack an established culture. Furthermore, the study explores how effective collaboration can persist during organizational decline. In such situations, structural adjustments initiate the downturn, while shifting cultural norms reinforce harmful practices, allowing coordination to remain efficient even as its results become destructive.