A Process Study of Managing Tensions for Sustaining Public Purpose-Oriented Networks: Toward A “Networks as Practice” Perspective

Abstract

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 with 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.