How collaborative networks fail - With the implications for participants learning

Liisa Välikangas, Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa

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Abstract

There seems to be a dearth of research addressing network failures and in particular failures in large-scale organizational networks that pursue radical innovation or grand challenges through collaboration. Yet these failures clearly exist with potential learnings for network participants. In this chapter we consider three major network failures that have been identified in prior research and in our own ongoing empirical work. We term the failures Stalling - not getting started in collaborative work (Jarvenpaa & Välikangas, 2016a), Strategizing using the network opportunistically to serve other goals than what the network was formed for (Grodal & O’Mahony, 2017), and Siloing – the network falling short of its collective capacity to learn and innovate due to its lack of connectivity and communication (Leonardi & Bailey, 2017, Powell et al, 1996). After describing these three seminal failures in networks of independent organizations, we consider the implications for network collaboration with high ambition – whether radical innovation or a grand challenge. We ask: what do these failures suggest in terms of network participation that would help contribute to the ambition of the network? What should the individual participants of these large-scale organizational networks mitigate failure and maintain the founding ambition, and the performance of the network? What available models for learning are there for the network participants?
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationWork Life After Failure?
PublisherEmerald Publishing Limited
Publication date2021
Publication statusPublished - 2021

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