Uniting Diverse Organizations: Managing Goal-Oriented Advocacy Networks

by Angel Saz-Carranza

Overview

Networks are made up of organizations. Often a central unit, or "Network Administrative Organization" (NAO), manages an entire network of organizations that collaborate to achieve an overall network-level goal. Goal-directed networks are those that come together to achieve a shared objective, in addition to the individual organization-specific goals. This book’s focus is on the management of goal-directed networks.

Despite the fact that formalized goal-directed interorganizational networks have become extremely popular in the public and nonprofit sectors, as many social problems require concerted action, publications on managing goal-directed networks do not exist. In this book, author Angel Saz-Carranza examines four networks that differ by size, scope, and geographical location. He offers a novel and innovative framework focusing on networks’ inherent internal tensions between unity and diversity, paralleling the differentiation/integration tension found in organization theory, which has not previously been applied to interorganizational networks.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781136263309
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/27/2012
Series:	Routledge Studies in Business Organizations and Networks
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Angel Saz-Carranza is Coordinator of ESADE Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics as well as a Research Associate at ESADE's Institute of Public Governance and Management. He was previously Associate Professor at the Catalan Polytechnic University (2007-2008).

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. Advocacy Networks in the U.S. Immigration Field 3. The Core of Goal-Directed Network Management: Uniting in Diversity 4. Building Power and Using It 5. Sustaining the Unity/Diversity Tension 6. Managing Interaction and Decision-Making in Diversity 7. Conclusion. Appendix 1: Research Design and Methodology. Notes. Bibliography. Index

Editorial Reviews

"In this book, Angel Saz-Carranza provides a stimulating and insightful discussion of the governance of four organizational networks in the U.S. immigration sector. The book is highly readable and offers a well-documented and balanced discussion of both the challenges that are inherent to the network form, and how effective governance can overcome these problems." Keith G. Provan, Ph.D, University of Arizona, USA

"Saz-Carranza's study of four organizational networks offers insightful first-person accounts and astute third-person analysis of a poorly understood and yet critical determinant of network effectiveness: the intentional work that transforms the network from a collection of organizations into a diverse and unified institution. The book blends masterfully the precision and rigor of a scholarly work with a practitioner sensibility that helps to translate the findings into useful management implications for the governance of this type of network." Sonia M. Ospina, New York University, USA

From the Publisher