Search

Performance measurement and networked collaboration are each important trends in public management. Research and practice on these two issues have largely proceeded on separate tracks. A logic model framework offers a way to conceptualize network coordination and performance by making explicit the hypothesized relations between network processes and outcomes. Hatry's (2006) logic model approach is used as a heuristic tool toward developing measurable indicators for network planning, implementation, and evaluation. This article provides a theoretical rationale for bridging the logic model concept with emergent network theory about outcomes-focused network processes. Several illustrative examples depict the application of logic modeling to three elements of a network performance measurement system.' planning, implementation, and evaluation. The article discusses the implications of the logic model approach as a tool for developing, managing, and assessing the performance outcomes of collaborative and networked initiatives. KEYWORDS: collaboration, management, measurement, networks DOI 10.2753/PMR1530-9576340104

This article contributes a strategic coordination framework for network performance that is derived from reviewing and integrating disparate research findings about effectiveness in public networks. The focus on network performance extends the concept of a strategic--bureaucratic, entrepreneurial, community--orientations framework for network coordination put forth by Herranz (2008b) and the similar concept of modes of network governance that is suggested by Gray, Jenkins, and Leeuw (2003) and Gray (1998). A critical review of the literature on public network performance provides a way to conceptualize how different strategic orientations in network coordination may be related to different network objectives. This article proposes hypotheses to guide further research and discusses the implications of the framework as a guide for public managers tasked with coordinating networks to achieve different performance outcomes. KEYWORDS: collaboration, management, networks, performance, strategy

Networks represent an increasingly important approach to delivering public services as well as present dilemmas for governmental managers tasked to coordinate public resources in networked settings (Agranoff and McGuire 2001, [...]