Abstract
Within forest planning and management, collaboration has becoming increasingly widespread. Many collaborative projects take place over long time periods, and thus personnel turnover is inevitable within these groups. Scholars from the fields of business and organizational science have long studied strategies that organizations can use to prepare for and address turnover successfully. We draw from that literature and use it to examine the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP), a federal program aimed at bringing diverse stakeholders together to address the increasing costs, severity, and prevalence of wildfires in the United States. We conducted qualitative analysis of interviews, archival documents, and memos to explore what strategies are used within CFLRP groups to address turnover. We discuss our findings in light of the existing literature from business and organizational science and present insights about which strategies may be adaptable to collaborative natural resource management and which may require further research to assess their applicability to collaborative groups.
Study Implications
Successful collaborative natural resource management may require collaborative groups to plan for and address the inevitable turnover of personnel. Previous work demonstrates that personnel turnover threatens trust between members, challenges the longevity of collaboration, hinders accountability within collaborative groups, and impedes the development of relationships. However, studies from the field of organizational science show that turnover may also allow groups to shed toxic members, set new directions, and reduce entrenched conflict. When collaborative groups have the resources and structures to do so, they may benefit from proactively recruiting replacements, developing leadership pipelines, and implementing onboarding practices.
Can We Manage for Resilience? The Integration of Resilience Thinking into Natural Resource Management in the United States