Big Questions in Public Network Management Research

Abstract

As the use of networks in public management increases, more and larger questions expand this research arena. In many ways, public network management is in search of a paradigm equivalent to the hierarchical-organizational authority paradigm of bureaucratic management. We raise and offer preliminary answers to seven metaquestions that address the nature of network management tasks, group process in collaboration, flexibility of networks, self-responsibility and public agency accountability, the cohesive factor of networks, power and its effect on group problem resolution, and the results of network management. The light we shed on these issues by examining the black box of networks is designed to contribute to building an empirically derived knowledge base of network management.