Leading collective action to address wicked problems

Alexander, Benjamin Nathan

doi:10.1002/nml.21394

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 65 publications

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“…Convening the various partners around a common purpose. Scholars link this type of activities to roles like network convenor [ 29 ] or anchor [ 12 , 13 , 30 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What leadership role should University Medical Centers take in regional primary prevention networks? An interdisciplinary, multi-method analysis of a crowded stakeholder environment

Kuiper,

Douglas,

Keunen

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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Advancing public health through prevention necessitates collaboration among public, private, and community actors. Only together can these different actors amass the resources, knowledge, and community outreach required to promote health. Recent studies have suggested that university medical centres (UMCs) can play a key role in regional prevention networks, given their capacity to initiate, coordinate, drive, and monitor large partnerships. Yet, the literature often refers to prevention activities in general, leaving underexplored what UMCs can add to primary, universal prevention networks specifically. Moreover, UMCs operate in a crowded field of other organizations with extensive experience in primary prevention, who will already have an idea about what role UMCs should play in the network. This article presents a case study examining the potential role of a UMC within a densely interconnected stakeholder environment in the surroundings of a large city in the Netherlands. Combining insights from public health studies and network governance research, and integrating data from various methods, this study concludes that UMCs can enhance their contributions to prevention by assuming the role of network servants rather than network leaders. Stakeholders consider public health authorities or municipal governments as more logical candidates for coordinating the network. Moreover, partners often perceive–deservedly or not–UMCs as overly focused on the medical aspects of prevention, potentially neglecting social interventions, and as favouring universal treatments over tailor-made community interventions. At the same time, partner organizations hope that the UMCs join collaborations within the community, using their expertise to measure the impact of interventions and leveraging their prestige to generate attention for primary prevention. By synthesizing theoretical insights from multiple disciplines and analysing the empirics of network leaderships through multiple methods, this study offers UMCs a contextually-informed perspective on how to position themselves effectively within primary prevention networks.

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“…Convening the various partners around a common purpose. Scholars link this type of activities to roles like network convenor [ 29 ] or anchor [ 12 , 13 , 30 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What leadership role should University Medical Centers take in regional primary prevention networks? An interdisciplinary, multi-method analysis of a crowded stakeholder environment

Kuiper,

Douglas,

Keunen

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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The benefits and challenges of shared leadership in sport for development and peace collaboratives

Kang

Svensson

2022

Sport Management Review

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Community Foundations as Network Conveners: Structuring Collective Agency for Child Education and Development System Impact

Sedgwick

Lemaire

Wirgau

et al. 2021

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory

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The resource investment and flexibility necessary to support the development of collective agency among autonomous organizational actors can be substantial. Public agencies, with their rigid budget cycles and regulatory burdens, often struggle with providing the resources needed to forge this type of system building to address complex community issues. Community foundations, as anchor institutions in communities, exhibit financial and social power, flexibility, and a reputation for broad community interests that position them to be such conveners. Framing our examination with structuration theory, we conducted a longitudinal mixed methods action research project from Fall 2015 to Spring 2019 to document how a community foundation dislodged schemas and convened a purpose-oriented network to forge collective agency. Data collection included surveying 40 system providers before the launching of the network and 49 providers three years later, interviews with 10 network participants and field observations of 21 network meetings. Network analysis was employed to examine the changes to the system while qualitative methods were used to analyze the processes behind those changes. The implications of this study are that emphasizing the resources and processes that contribute to building collective action broadens perspectives about which organizations may be well suited to convening networks in the public sphere.

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Leading collective action to address wicked problems

Cited by 5 publications

References 65 publications

What leadership role should University Medical Centers take in regional primary prevention networks? An interdisciplinary, multi-method analysis of a crowded stakeholder environment

What leadership role should University Medical Centers take in regional primary prevention networks? An interdisciplinary, multi-method analysis of a crowded stakeholder environment

The benefits and challenges of shared leadership in sport for development and peace collaboratives

Community Foundations as Network Conveners: Structuring Collective Agency for Child Education and Development System Impact

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