Do networks really work? A framework for evaluating public-sector organizational networks

Although cooperative, interorganizational networks have become a common mechanism for delivery of public services, evaluating their effectiveness is extremely complex and has generally been neglected. To help resolve this problem, we discuss the evaluation of networks of community-based, mostly publicly funded health, human service, and public welfare organizations. Consistent with pressures to perform effectively from a broad range of key stakeholders, we argue that networks must be evaluated at three levels of analysis: community, network, and organization/participant levels. While the three levels are related, each has its own set of effectiveness criteria that must be considered. The article offers a general discussion of network effectiveness, followed by arguments explaining effectiveness criteria and stakeholders at each level of analysis. Finally, the article examines how effectiveness at one level of network analysis may or may not match effectiveness criteria at another level and the extent to which integration across levels may be possible.

[1]  P. Furlong.  Making democracy work: civic traditions in modern Italy , 1994 .

[2]  F. Stevens Redburn.  On "Human Services Integration" , 1977 .

[3]  Robert Agranoff,et al.  Human Services Integration: Past and Present Challenges in Public Administration , 1991 .

[4]  W. Hamilton,et al.  The evolution of cooperation. , 1984, Science.

[5]  H. Milward,et al.  Policy Subsystems, Networks and the Tools of Public Management , 1985 .

[6]  L. O'toole.  Treating networks seriously: Practical and research-based agendas in public administration , 1997 .

[7]  Mark S. Granovetter.  Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness , 1985, American Journal of Sociology.

[8]  P. Ring,et al.  Developmental Processes of Cooperative Interorganizational Relationships , 1994 .

[9]  E. Jennings,et al.  Interorganizational Coordination, Administrative Consolidation, and Policy Performance , 1998 .

[10]  Michael W. Lawless,et al.  Interorganizational Systems in Public Service Delivery: A New Application of the Dynamic Network Framework , 1989 .

[11]  Sol Levine,et al.  Exchange as a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Interorganizational Relationships , 1961 .

[12]  H H Goldman,et al.  Continuity of care and client outcomes in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program on chronic mental illness. , 1994, The Milbank quarterly.

[13]  J. Bolland,et al.  Three faces of integrative coordination: a model of interorganizational relations in community-based health and human services. , 1994, Health services research.

[14]  Martha Derthick,et al.  The influence of federal grants , 1970 .

[15]  E. Fama,et al.  Separation of Ownership and Control , 1983, The Journal of Law and Economics.

[16]  W. Edwards Deming,et al.  Out of the Crisis , 1982 .

[17]  K. Provan,et al.  A Preliminary Theory of Interorganizational Network Effectiveness: A Comparative Study of Four Community Mental Health Systems , 1995 .

[18]  John Scott.  Social Network Analysis , 1988 .

[19]  Keith G. Provan,et al.  Environmental Linkages and Power in Resource-Dependence Relations between Organizations. , 1980 .

[20]  Jane E. Fountain,et al.  Social capital: Its relationship to innovation in science and technology , 1998 .

[21]  Todd Saxton,et al.  The Effects of Partner and Relationship Characteristics On Alliance Outcomes , 1997 .

[22]  A. Hunter,et al.  The Interorganizational Network as a Resource: A Comparative Case Study on Organizational Genesis. , 1985 .

[23]  Ranjay Gulati,et al.  Organizations Working Together. , 1994 .

[24]  Myrna Mandell,et al.  Application of Network Analysis to the Implementation of a Complex Project , 1984 .

[25]  R. Freeman.  Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach , 2010 .

[26]  B. Weiner,et al.  The Challenges of Governing Public-Private Community Health Partnerships , 1998, Health care management review.