Keeping the Strings Attached: The Intra-Organizational Management of Transnational Network Behaviour

EasyChair Preprint 1138

Abstract

Due to the internationalization of markets and growing interdependence of policy issues, many forms of transnational collaboration have emerged, enmeshing domestic agencies in a wide variety of (formal and informal) transnational policy settings. However, the internal problems of management and coordination this potentially creates for domestic agencies are rarely studied by public administration scholars. This paper applies the concept of boundary-spanning and connects it to organizational structure, as to provide a better understanding of the different ways in which external network activities can be internally organized and what potential tensions might emerge. The analysis demonstrates how domestic agencies use network coordinators to resolve tensions between the differentiation needed to operate in complex transnational environments and the integration needed to keep them accountable. The discussion notes several challenges resulting from a reliance on such network coordinators and sets out directions for future research. 

Keyphrases: Network Management, boundary spanning, organizational structure, transnational networks

@booklet{EasyChair:1138,
  author    = {Machiel van der Heijden},
  title     = {Keeping the Strings Attached: The Intra-Organizational Management of Transnational Network Behaviour},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 1138},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2019}}