A process study of managing tensions for sustaining public purpose-oriented networks

Toward a “Networks as Practice” perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID12397693
AuthorsLena E Bygballe (0000-0001-9518-8963, BI Norwegian Business School Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, , Oslo 0442), Ragnhild Kvålshaugen (0000-0003-4051-9344, BI Norwegian Business School Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, , Oslo 0442), Anne Kokkonen (0000-0002-1607-5512, University of South-Eastern Norway), Anne Helena Kokkonen (University of South-Eastern Norway Department of Business, History and Social Sciences, , Borre 3184)
Year2025
Volume36
Issue1
Pages36-50
Publication date2025-09-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1053-1858 • E-ISSN: 1477-9803
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/jopart/muaf030
OpenAlexW4414994331
LanguageEN
References cited50

Purpose-oriented networks (PONs) face multiple tensions, but although their existence is well-documented, there is limited research on how network tensions emerge and how they are managed over time to enable network sustainability. We conducted a longitudinal process study of a public PON in the natural hazards field in Norway to explore how network participants experience and manage network tensions. The study identifies four tension-managing practices that help sustain networks. The analysis reveals how network tensions are interrelated and (re)emerge as the network unfolds, and how the participants’ use of these practices yields different outcomes but enables them to sustain the network over time. The study answers recent calls in the public administration literature for process studies to better understand network phenomena and contributes a “networks-as-practice” perspective on managing network tensions. This perspective helps to reconcile and extend the dominant network governance and management perspectives because, by focusing on practice, it captures how structures and actions mutually shape one another—an interaction that is fundamental to network processes and dynamics

Information Systems Theories and Implementation