Management of mandated networks from a dynamic perspective

The management of networks has received increasing attention in recent years in the form of systematic empirical research. The general thrust of the results seem to indicate that network management resembles what we know about general management. However, there are also specific characteristics of networks that lead to a different emphasis of traditional management tasks and practices. Yet there are also new management tasks emerging which can be attributed to the fact that in networks there is no unified ownership of the problem and no unity of command. Mandell et al. (2017) therefore go even so far as to call for the development and use of a new management language. This paper contributes to our understanding of network management in two ways. First, we will discuss what network management tasks and practices we can observe in mandated networks and how they might differ from networks that develop more serendipitously. Second, we will analyze how these networks are managed in the different stages during the formation phase that is crucial for the further development and the performance of a network. A multiple case study has been conducted on four inter-organizational networks of healthcare providers, created to provide integrated care to chronic patients in the Lombardy Region (Italy). The results show that three managerial levels are present, neither of which exerts full control over the networks. In a situation, where multiple similar networks are mandated for different territorial entities, the management of network learning might emerge as an additional task if a variation of processes in the different networks is embraced to some extent and best practices diffused. Based on the findings we also suggest, how different management tasks and activities might be distributed over the different stages in the formation process.