Doctoral Thesis
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DOCTORAL THESIS Title MANAGING INTERORGANIZATIONAL NETWORKS: LEADERSHIP, PARADOX, AND POWER—Cases from the U.S. immigration sector Presented by ANGEL SAZ-CARRANZA Centre ESADE – ESCUELA SUPERIOR DE ADMINISTRACIÓN Y DIRECCIÓN DE EMPRESAS. Department BUSINESS POLICY, HUMAN RESOURCES AND INFORMATION SYSTEM Directed by DR. ALFRED VERNIS DRA. SONIA OSPINA MANAGING INTERORGANIZATIONAL NETWORKS: LEADERSHIP, PARADOX, AND POWER Cases from the U.S. immigration sector by Angel Saz-Carranza Abstract This empirical qualitative study—of four interorganizational nonprofit networks promoting immigrant rights in the U.S—contributes to the interorganizational network management literature by focusing on the management of two inherent paradoxical tensions: unity/diversity and cooperation/confrontation. Four leadership activities— activating, facilitating, framing, and capacitating—are found to generate unity and maintain diversity. Unity and diversity, together, build the networks’ power: conceptualized as “power to” and as four power bases, namely, knowledge, financial resources, legitimacy, and access. In turn, the networks’ power together with two other leadership activities—strategizing and mobilizing—is found to be used by the immigration nonprofit networks to both cooperate and confront with powerful state actors. By using paradoxical tensions inherent to networks as its focus, this research further develops both the network leadership and network power literatures, and also aims at providing reflexive practitioners with a guiding conceptual framework. i Para la Mama. ii Acknowledgments A dissertation is a long journey. It’s a long individual journey but unrealizable in solitude. For the past five years, since I started ESADE’s PhD program in October 2001, many, many people have provided me their essential support. Family, friends, and colleagues have sustained me during this time. My family gave me a solid base from which to start this journey and was later a source of vital comfort during deep troughs which made everything seem purposeless. Regarding friends and colleagues, I must recall at this point the initial friends—and founders—of ESADE’s Doctoral Society. Back in 2001, dissertation-related (and not-so- related) conversations with Sandra, Marc, Amorós, Gilberto, Alejandro, Pablo, and Oriol had a strong impact, albeit indefinable, on this journey. Today, EDS is a dynamic group of doctoral students—unfortunately, the football team we founded within the Society, the “inducktivists,” is by now defunct. From later generations of PhD students, two “ducklings” stand out: Veronica and Laura. My first tutor, Angel Castiñeira and the initially cryptic research meetings of the Social Sciences Department served as remarkable introductions to academic life. Almost in parallel, I came to know this dissertation’s co-supervisor, Alfred Vernis, who made me see the beauty in nonprofit management. (I had initially enrolled in the program due to my interest in the role of business in conflict resolution.) Together with Alfred and his team—Maria, Pau, and Bea—I submerged myself in the world of nonprofit management. iii Bea would become a close friend and an indestructible supporter of my journey. Later on, through Albert Serra, I discovered the attractive complexity of public management, and, perhaps more importantly, that “managing” the self is the authentically crucial matter. The rest of the Institute of Public Management—Paco Longo, Joat, Tamyko, and Eduard—has also signified the supportive scenery of this journey. “La Caixa” gave me the opportunity to travel to my adoptive city, New York, and finish my dissertation—special thanks go to Josep-Anton Monfort, former coordinator of the grant program. With this grant and Alfred’s help, I landed at NYU Wagner’s Research Center for Leadership in Action. Here, the co-supervision of Sonia Ospina has been indispensable for this dissertation and for learning the academic profession. Other RCLA colleagues of great academic help and personal friendship have been Erica, Amparo, Marian, Ana Maria, Yulia, Angie, Sanjiv, Meredith, and Jennifer. In New York, my friends Oliver and Liz served as a conduit to the fascinating American life, and Bob, my English instructor, has the credit of making this work somewhat more readable. And of course, special mentions go to the interviewees and members of the networks studied in this dissertation. In particular, Javier, Aeryca, Ramon, Dale, and John opened up their work to me, while being immersed in gigantic but necessary battles. Finally, I must acknowledge Eto’o & Co., who have made the last two years just a little sweeter. iv Table of Contents 1. Introduction........................................................................................................................................... 1 Difficult to manage, popular, and understudied......................................................................................... 1 Unpacking the difficulties.......................................................................................................................... 2 Contributions ............................................................................................................................................. 4 Outline of dissertation ............................................................................................................................... 5 2. Interorganizational Networks: Definitions, Approaches, and Early Findings....................................... 7 Defining the object of study: interorganizational networks....................................................................... 7 Markets, hierarchies, and networks....................................................................................................... 8 Different network definitions.............................................................................................................. 10 Different types of interorganizational networks.................................................................................. 11 Subfields of interorganizational network research .................................................................................. 14 Network rationale: formation and structure ........................................................................................ 18 Evaluating networks: success, performance, and added value............................................................ 20 Network process.................................................................................................................................. 23 Network management ......................................................................................................................... 26 The preliminary study.............................................................................................................................. 28 3. Network Management: Paradox, Leadership, and Power ................................................................... 33 Paradox in networks ................................................................................................................................ 33 Paradox in organizational studies........................................................................................................ 36 The absence of paradox in network management research ................................................................. 39 Complexity and ambiguity in networks .............................................................................................. 40 Paradoxes of belonging: unity and diversity....................................................................................... 43 Paradox of engagement: confrontation and cooperation..................................................................... 45 Managing paradox............................................................................................................................... 48 Leadership of interorganizational networks............................................................................................. 50 Leadership activities ........................................................................................................................... 54 Interaction and structure...................................................................................................................... 54 Power of networks................................................................................................................................... 59 Defining power ................................................................................................................................... 60 Power of the network ..................................................................................................................... 60 The sources of the power of networks....................................................................................... 61 Power to..................................................................................................................................... 62 A research framework for interorganizational network management...................................................... 63 4. Research Design and Methodology .................................................................................................... 65 Research design ....................................................................................................................................... 65 v Topic