Resourcing Goal-directed Networks: Toward A Practice-based Perspective

Abstract

This paper proposes a practice-based perspective on how managers resource goal-directed networks in the public sector, especially those governed by a network administrative organization. While previous literature shows that network managers need to acquire and allocate resources in order to achieve network goals, little is known about specific resourcing practices and related challenges to resourcing goal-directed networks. To shed light on these issues, we outline a processual, multilevel, network-centric perspective that focuses on network resourcing practices and takes their interplay with network rules and goals into account. This paper shows that, to attain network goals, network managers need to mitigate developing tensions arising from the different interests of network members, external stakeholders, and the network itself, while navigating a trajectory of network resourcing. The paper contributes to the literature on public networks by examining potential sources of network-level resources; outlining basic resourcing practices of controlling, producing, reproducing, and transforming such resources; discussing multilevel tensions around network resourcing; and exploring trajectories of network resourcing. In addition, we propose avenues for empirical research on network resourcing.