Management And Governance Of Networks

What do public administrators and policy analysts have in common? Their work is undertaken within networks formed when different organizations align to accomplish a policy function. This second edition of Governance Networks in Public Administration and Public Policy offers a conceptual framework for describing governance networks and provides a theoretical and empirical foundation in their construction. Based on research and real-life experience, the book highlights the interplay between public actors and policy tools, details the skills and functions of public administrators in the context of networked relationships, and identifies the reforms and trends in governing that lead to governance networks. This practical text makes complex concepts accessible, so that readers can engage in them, apply them, and deepen their understanding of the dynamics unfolding around them. This second edition includes: A dedicated chapter on “complexity friendly” meso-level theories to examine core questions facing governance network analysis. New applications drawn from the authors’ own work in watershed governance, transportation planning, food systems development, electric energy distribution, the regulation of energy, and response and recovery from natural disasters, as well as from unique computational modeling of governance networks. Instructor and student support materials, including PowerPoint® presentations and writable case study templates, may be found on an accompanying eResource page. Governance Networks in Public Administration and Public Policy, 2e is an indispensable core text for graduate and postgraduate courses on governance and collaboration in schools of Public Administration/Management and Public Policy.

Governance Networks in the Public Sector presents a comprehensive study of governance networks and the management of complexities in network settings. Public, private and non-profit organizations are increasingly faced with complex, wicked problems when making decisions, developing policies or delivering services in the public sector. These activities take place in networks of interdependent actors guided by diverging and sometimes conflicting perceptions and strategies. As a result these networks are dominated by cognitive, strategic and institutional complexities. Dealing with these complexities requires sophisticated forms of coordination: network governance. This book presents the most recent theoretical and empirical insights into governance networks. It provides a conceptual framework and analytical tools to study the complexities involved in handling wicked problems in governance networks in the public sector. The book also discusses strategies and management recommendations for governments, business and third sector organisations operating in and governing networks. Governance Networks in the Public Sector is an essential text for advanced students of public management, public administration, public policy and political science, and for public managers and policymakers.

Network governance has received much attention within the fields of public administration and policy in recent years, but surprisingly few books are designed specifically to help students, researchers, and practitioners examine key concepts, synthesize the growing body of literature into reliable frameworks, and to bridge the theory-practice gap by exploring network applications. Network Governance: Concepts, Theories, and Applications is the first textbook to focus on interorganizational networks and network governance from the perspective of public policy and administration, asking important questions such as: How are networks designed and developed? How are they governed, and what type of leadership do they require? To whom are networks accountable, and when are they effective? How can network governance contribute to effective delivery of public services and policy implementation? In this timely new book, authors Naim Kapucu and Qian Hu define and examine key concepts, propose exciting new theoretical frameworks to synthetize the fast-growing body of network research in public policy and administration, and provide detailed discussion of applications. Network Governance offers not only a much-needed systematic examination of existing knowledge, but it also goes much further than existing books by discussing the applications of networks in a wide range of management practice and policy domains—including natural resource management, environmental protection, public health, emergency and crisis management, law enforcement, transportation, and community and economic development. Chapters include understudied network research topics such as power and decision-making in interorganizational networks, virtual networks, global networks, and network analysis applications. What sets this book apart is the introduction of social network analysis and coverage of applications of social network analysis in the policy and management domains. PowerPoint slides and a sample syllabus are available for adopters on an accompanying website. Drawing on literature from sociology, policy sciences, organizational studies, and economics, this textbook will be required reading for courses on network governance, collaborative public management, cross-sector governance, and collaboration and partnerships in programs of public administration, public affairs, and public policy.

Governance Networks in the Public Sector presents a comprehensive study of governance networks and the management of complexities in network settings. Public, private and non-profit organizations are increasingly faced with complex, wicked problems when making decisions, developing policies or delivering services in the public sector. These activities take place in networks of interdependent actors guided by diverging and sometimes conflicting perceptions and strategies. As a result these networks are dominated by cognitive, strategic and institutional complexities. Dealing with these complexities requires sophisticated forms of coordination: network governance. This book presents the most recent theoretical and empirical insights into governance networks. It provides a conceptual framework and analytical tools to study the complexities involved in handling wicked problems in governance networks in the public sector. The book also discusses strategies and management recommendations for governments, business and third sector organisations operating in and governing networks. Governance Networks in the Public Sector is an essential text for advanced students of public management, public administration, public policy and political science, and for public managers and policymakers.

Getting what you want – even if you are the boss – isn’t always easy. Almost every organization, big or small, works among a network of competing interests. Whether it’s governments pushing through policies, companies trying to increase profits, or even families deciding where to move house, rarely can decisions be made in isolation from competing interests both within the organization and outside it. In this accessible and straightforward account, Hans de Bruijn and Ernst ten Heuvelhof cast light on multi-stakeholder decision-making. Using plain language, they reveal the nuts and bolts of decision-making within the numerous dilemmas and tensions at work. Drawing on a diverse range of illustrative examples throughout, their perceptive analysis examines how different interests can either support or block change, and the strategies available for managing a variety of stakeholders. The second edition of Management in Networks incorporates a wider spread of international cases, a new chapter giving an overview of different network types, and a new chapter looking at digital governance and the impact of big data on networks. This insightful text is invaluable reading for students of management and organizational studies, plus practitioners – or actors – operating in a range of contexts.

This book explores the governance of networks. A network's governance mechanisms are based on trust and confidence, which go beyond a simple economic logic. As the network's boundaries expand to include clusters of businesses and stakeholders and the emergence of coalitions of all kinds, the trust will gradually dilute and the network's unifying role will be lost. The organization then evolves into the form of a network of networks, where the challenge is to bring together coalitions. Using examples from the European Union and the Regional Health Federation of Networks, this book explores the political and socio-economic challenges, including the decision making and division of tasks, faced by network organizations which move to a federation model of governance.

This book seeks to renew and refocus the debate on the use of governance networks in public policy making. It raises and answers a series of questions about the dynamics, conditions and functions of governance networks and also considers the democratic implications of network governance.

Public managers can, to a certain extent, choose between various mana- ment paradigms which are provided by public and business administration scholars and by politicians as well. How do they find their way in this c- fusing supermarket of competing ideas? This book explores how public managers in Western bureaucracies deal with the mutually undermining ideas of hierarchical, network and market governance. Do they possess a specific logic of action, a rationale, when they combine and switch - tween these governance styles? This chapter sets the scene for the book as a whole and presents the - search topic and the research question. 1.1 Problem setting Since the Second World War, Western public administration systems have changed drastically. The hierarchical style of governing of the 1950s to the 1970s was partly replaced by market mechanisms, from the 1980s - wards. In the 1990s, a third style of governing, based on networks, further enriched the range of possible steering, coordination and organisation - terventions. In the new millennium, public sector organisations seem to apply complex and varying mixtures of all three styles of what we will - fine as governance in a broad sense. This development has brought about two problems.