This study has examined the differing institutional logics that exist between bridging agents ‘collaborative leaders’ such as CEOs and managers, from faith-based organisations (FBOs), government, businesses, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in cross-sector partnerships (CSPs) in South Africa. The doctoral thesis employed a qualitative inductive approach by interviewing 22 professionals involved in CSPs which include FBOs. The semi-structured interviews conducted provided an in-depth, fine-grained insight into the boundaries which existed between professionals of divergent sectors engaged in CSPs. It was found that bridging agents from differing sectors held contradictory institutional logics, these are assumptions, habits and expectations, which caused temporal, spatial, social, material and symbolic boundaries in CSPs. Thus, this required a response from bridging agents across the CSPs. This thesis argues that whether a CSP dissolves or engages in tension reduction actions, is based on the CSP bridging agents’ micro (individual) and organisational (meso) understanding of value creation. Bridging agents that had to contend with a fixed understanding of value creation, either at the micro or meso levels, often opted for dissolution. As the organisation that they work for, often did not see the value in the engaging in CSPs which would not enable them to convert beneficiaries to Christianity. On the other hand, bridging agents who engaged in conflict reduction activities were influenced by a more flexible interpretation of their religious logic, so had a more dynamic or malleable understanding of how they could achieve value creation from their respective CSPs. This thesis also seeks to contribute to the institutional work and boundary work literatures, by illustrating the practical methods which CSP leaders utilise to reduce tensions and boundaries in CSPs. It was found that both secular and religious bridging agent actors enacted mediation at the micro level to reduce tensions in CSPs. However, there were diverging mediation techniques, with religious actors more likely to utilise interpersonal engagement to reduce tensions, as their flexible religious logic sought to eliminate the boundaries between the organisations. In contrast, actors from secular organisations implemented rules to reduce tensions, as they did not attempt to eliminate the boundaries that existed between the organisations. Instead, they sought to accommodate and circumvent the boundaries which caused tensions and conflict in CSPs. This is a contribution to the institutional work and boundary work literatures, as it highlights the dichotomy between conflict resolution techniques wielded by secular and religious bridging agents working to alleviate social problems in South Africa.
