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

Toward a “Networks as Practice” perspective

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12397693
AutoresLena 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)
Año2025
Volumen36
Número1
Páginas36-50
Fecha de publicación2025-09-19
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1053-1858 • E-ISSN: 1477-9803
EditorialOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/jopart/muaf030
OpenAlexW4414994331
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas50

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