How we build meaningful collaboration

This blog post was prepared by Editorial Research Associates Shein Ei Cho and Marcus Pawson.

PLOS One Academic Editors are established researchers and thought leaders in their fields. For this post, we reached out to Dr. Saima Ahmad and Dr. Aloysius Odii who have led successful collaborative projects and posed the question, “how do you build a meaningful collaboration?“

Dr. Ahmad shares with us five pillars of building collaborative networks that are both productive and personally meaningful and Dr. Odii discusses how he grows collaborative networks starting with his research peers.

Dr. Saima Ahmad is a Senior Lecturer in Business Administration at the School of Management, RMIT University, Australia. Her research focuses on ethical and servant leadership, workplace well-being, and creating bullying-free organizational cultures. A committed scholar-practitioner, she explores leadership practices that promote dignity, sustainability, and equity in diverse cultural contexts. Dr. Ahmad has published in leading management journals and serves on the editorial boards of PLOS One and European Management Journal. She is particularly passionate about interdisciplinary collaboration and translating research into positive workplace change.

Over the years, my approach to building meaningful collaborations has been shaped by both personal experiences and professional insights into leadership. Growing up in a high power-distance society, I witnessed how hierarchical norms can stifle voice, inclusion, and well-being. This early exposure now underpins my academic pursuit: to promote ethical leadership, workplace dignity, and sustainable, respectful organizational cultures.

Here’s how I build collaborative networks that are both productive and personally meaningful:

1. Start with shared values and vision
Meaningful collaborations begin with shared values, and I intentionally seek collaborators who align with my passion for creating equitable and respectful workplaces. Whether we are exploring leadership or workplace sustainability, having a common value base helps ensure coherence in our work and commitment to meaningful impact. One project that exemplifies this collaborative spirit was “Caring for those in your charge: the role of servant leadership and compassion in managing bullying in the workplace“. This research brought together a diverse team of scholars who shared something profound—a collective determination to humanize leadership and confront the systemic abuse that too often goes unchecked in organizational settings.

What made this collaboration extraordinary wasn’t just our shared expertise, but our unified commitment to psychological safety and compassionate leadership. Shared values, passion for psychological safety, and vision for compassionate leadership allowed our team to navigate the research process cohesively and purposefully.

2. Embrace diversity and cross-cultural dialogue
Diversity—in disciplines and perspectives—adds depth to any research endeavour. As someone who has experience in both Eastern and Western academic systems, I deeply value cross-cultural dialogue and interdisciplinary inquiry.

My lived experience in high power-distance contexts has taught me how deeply cultural nuances shape how authority, voice, and conflict are perceived and managed. These insights have not only informed my theoretical lens but also helped me build collaborations to conduct cross-cultural research. For instance, in our study “Bullying in the workplace: a cross-cultural and methodological perspective” (International Studies of Management & Organization), we explored how bullying manifests differently across diverse cultural settings—what is considered abusive or inappropriate in one context may be normalized or overlooked in another. Collaboration with scholars from distinct cultural backgrounds helped ensure that our analysis was contextually grounded and relevant. This experience demonstrated that interdisciplinary, culturally-aware collaboration produces more inclusive and impactful research.

3. Build Trust Through Transparency and Fairness
Trust is the foundation of any successful collaboration. Drawing from my research on ethical leadership, I emphasize fairness, accountability, transparency and open communication when working with others. From the outset, I ensure that roles, expectations, and contributions are clearly defined. Regular check-ins help maintain transparency and address potential conflicts early on. In one multi-institutional study where we established a rotating leadership model, these practices helped us navigate time zone challenges and differing academic norms. Each member took turns leading discussions, ensuring everyone felt heard and valued. This not only strengthened trust but also enriched the quality of our findings.

4. Leverage Technology to Stay Connected
In today’s interconnected world, technology plays a key role in facilitating collaboration. Tools like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and social media such as LinkedIn enable researchers to connect despite geographical barriers. During the pandemic, I co-led a project titled “Is abusive supervision always harmful toward creativity? Managing workplace stressors by promoting distributive and procedural justice. Despite the disruption, we were able to work seamlessly across borders using virtual tools to coordinate tasks and brainstorm ideas. I think digital collaboration opens doors to partnerships that might otherwise be impossible.

5. Be Open to Learning

Finally, meaningful collaboration requires humility and a willingness to learn. One of the most rewarding experiences of my career was partnering with a senior researcher whose methodological approach initially felt unfamiliar. But by staying open-minded, I discovered new analytical techniques that enhanced my own work. This experience taught me that growth happens when we step outside our comfort zones and having a mindset of learning lies at the heart of any meaningful collaboration.

Dr. Aloysius Odii holds a PhD in demography and population studies from the University of Nigeria, where he also serves as an academic staff member at the Department of Sociology/Anthropology. He has made significant contributions to the health system and sexual and reproductive health research. He has over forty published peer-reviewed journal articles and can be reached via: aloysius.odii@unn.edu.ng

There are many ways to build collaborative networks in academia, but what works best for me are the relationships that begin in what I call my “research peers”. By this, I mean people I interact with regularly, who work in similar research, and with whom I share a professional rapport that is based on shared curiosity and mutual trust.

Often, a collaboration begins informally. We might be chatting about a pressing social issue, and someone will say, “maybe we should do something about this.” That simple prompt sometimes leads to more serious discussions about writing a grant, developing a proposal, or co-authoring a paper. Once we agree to pursue it, we start thinking about who else might strengthen the team. We usually bring in people who have either worked on the topic before or who offer skills that the project needs (i.e. qualitative analysis, quantitative modelling, or stakeholder engagement). In most cases, they are our research peers.

To keep the conversation going, we typically create a WhatsApp group or other ways of maintaining communication. The bottom line is that it is informal, accessible, and encourages frequent check-ins. Usually, the person who first suggested the idea takes the lead in drafting a concept note or outline. From there, we all weigh in, agree on roles, and map out the next steps.

In my experience, asking people to work independently and return with results often leads to delays. What works better is setting clear tasks with specific dates. Each person is expected to complete their task and hand it over to the next person by a set deadline. That way, we build momentum, and people feel accountable to the group, not just to the project, but to each other.

What I found is that the success of the collaborative network is not solely measured by whether we win the grant or publish the article. Instead, it is about the group’s ability to follow through (i.e. finalise the submission). Completion strengthens our collaboration and shows that we can deliver, which then motivates future collaborations.

More importantly, completing tasks within a trusted group opens more opportunities. For instance, someone in the group might recommend one to another network because they have seen how they work. That kind of peer endorsement carries weight. It’s one thing to be qualified on paper; it’s another to have someone say, “I have worked with him, he follows through.”

That is how my collaborative networks grew organically, through trust, accountability, and consistency. I have seen that it is much easier to be recommended to a new team or project when someone can refer to specific work done together. Joining new networks through these referrals allows one to meet more people. And that kind of opportunity often leads to more collaborations with other networks.

So for me, meaningful collaboration starts small, within research peers, and grows outward. Over time, these relationships branch into larger, more diverse networks, connecting one with researchers across disciplines and regions. As one’s career evolves, so too does one’s network. Thus, collaboration is not just about academic outputs, it is about building a community of trust; one project at a time.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by contributors are solely those of individual contributors, and not necessarily those of PLOS.