KDI: Knowledge Networking in the Public Sector

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This study examines the formation and operation of Knowledge Networks (KNs) in the public sector. The study describes, evaluates, and compares several empirical cases involving groups of agencies in New York State engaged in programmatic or administrative innovations that depend on the sharing of knowledge and information across multiple organizations. The investigators identify the dimensions of success and evaluate how organizational, technological, and political factors influence results. The study produces and enhanced model of KN formation and operation in the public sector as well as recommendations to practitioners about planning and implementing knowledge networks.The three-year study addresses the following research questions:- what are the defining characteristics of successful knowledge networks in the public sector?- what activities comprise the processes of planning and implementing these networks? How does the order or combination of activities affect results?- what organizational, technological, and political factors influence public sector knowledge networks and how can they be measured? What is their relative importance at each stage of the planning and implementing process? How sensitive are they to different environmental conditions?The review of existing research on these questions establishes that previous researchers have applied a number of disciplinary lenses and identified an abundance of characteristics, activities, factors, and conditions as relevant to effective KNs. The complexity of the environment in which KNs develop is mirrored in the complexity of the research insights, yielding an understanding of this phenomenon that is both confusing and incomplete. This complexity is especially unsatisfying for practitioners, who have little guidance from the research literature that would help them maximize their chances for developing successful knowledge networks.The study addresses these questions through an in-vivo examination of actual public sector initiatives as they are being developed, together with a study of one successful benchmark initiative. Each of the seven initiatives is studied as a distinct case, using a comparative case study design. Because of the Center for Technology in Government's (CTG's) unique project based collaboration with New York State government agencies, the researchers in this study have exceptional access to these organizations, their staffs, their partners, and their customers. For the purpose of this investigation the researchers define a knowledge network as a combination of inter-organizational relationships, policies, information content, work processes and technology tools and architectures brought together to achieve collectively defined purposes. This definition is reflected in a preliminary framework that guides the data collection and analysis. A subsequent revised framework forms the basis for further research and serves as guidance for building and operating future KNs in the public sector.