From “Need to Know” to “Need to Share”: Tangled Problems, Information Boundaries, and the Building of Public Sector Knowledge Networks

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.01987_2.x
• Published date: 01 May 2009
• Author: Sharon S. Dawes,Anthony M. Cresswell,Theresa A. Pardo
• Date: 01 May 2009

From “Need to Know” to “Need to Share”: Tangled Problems,

Information Boundaries, and the Building of Public Sector

Knowledge Networks

Sharon S. Dawes is a senior fellow at

the Center for Technology in Government,

professor emerita of public administration

and policy, and aff‌i liate faculty member in

informatics at the University at Albany, State

University of New York. As founding director

from 1993 to 2007, she led the Center for

Technology in Government to international

prominence in applied digital government

research. A fellow of the National Academy

of Public Administration, she was elected

the f‌i rst president of the Digital Government

Society of North America in 2006. She

serves on advisory committees for the U.S.

National Science Foundation, the National

Archives and Records Administration, and

the United Nations University. Her main re-

search interests are government information

strategy and management, international

research collaboration, and cross-boundary

information sharing and integration.

E-mail: sdawes@ctg.albany.edu

Anthony M. Cresswell is interim

director of the Center for Technology in

Government at the University at Albany,

where he leads the center’s work in IT

research and innovation projects. He serves

on the faculties of informatics and

educational administration and policy

studies. His research focuses on information

in management and organizational action,

and he has applied this knowledge in state

and federal IT projects in the United States

and internationally. Previously, he served on

the faculties of Northwestern and Carnegie-

Mellon universities, and as an advisor in the

Off‌i ce of Management and Budget.

E-mail: tcresswell@ctg.albany.edu

Theory to

Practice

Sharon S. Dawes

Anthony M. Cresswell

Theresa A. Pardo

University at Albany, State University of New York

The importance and challenges of network-

ing and knowledge sharing for attacking

wicked problems have been aptly described

by Weber and Khademian in their provocative PAR

essay, “Wicked Problems, Knowledge Challenges, and

Collaborative Capacity Builders in Network Settings”

(March/April 2008). We argue in this essay, however,

that a broader category of equally challenging but

more commonplace “tangled” problems lies in a vast

middle ground between routine and wicked problems.

 ink, for example, of the tangle of actors involved

in operating a public school or a military base, or the

tangle of programs that a social worker must navigate

in order to help the families he or she serves. Success

in coping with these kinds of challenges ultimately

depends on f‌i nding ways to overcome the “need to

know” default option in most organizations and

moving to a “need to share” network culture.

One way to do so involves the creation of what we call

“public sector knowledge networks” (PSKNs). Unlike

other types of networks, PSKNs treat information and

knowledge sharing across traditional organizational

boundaries as a primary purpose as they try to address

public needs that no single organization or jurisdiction

can handle alone. PSKNs are sociotechnical systems in

which human, organizational, and institutional con-

siderations exist in a mutually inf‌l uential relationship

with processes, practices, software, and other informa-

tion technologies.  ey have emerged in tandem with

the adoption of advanced networking technologies

and the development of e-government.

Examples of PSKNs include ef‌f orts to share geospatial

information and expertise, such as the National Spa-

tial Data Infrastructure initiative in the U.S. federal

government; networks to support the sharing of public

health data, such as the BioSense system supported by

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and

the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services;

and networks to share environmental data, such as the

Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow program.

Other ef‌f orts support communities of practice with

information systems, communication tools, and data

resources that improve professional practice. Such

networks also gather, analyze, and share information

about program performance among participating

agencies in such f‌i elds as human services or establish

monitoring and communications functions for public

health, government f‌i nancial management, or national

security.

But building and nurturing PSKNs is no easy matter.

In this essay, we draw on existing literature on

collaboration and networking along with our own

15 years of action research and theory building involv-

ing public management projects in New York State

and elsewhere. Our argument is threefold. First, while

the problems of starting and sustaining PSKNs are

formidable, they are not beyond the capabilities of

astute, strategic, and tactically adept network build-

ers. Second, a variety of lessons from our experiences

can help in this endeavor.  e upshot of these lessons

is that it is misguided to conceive of information-

intensive public management problems as mainly

information technology (IT) problems, and therefore

it is useless to focus on IT as a silver bullet. Instead, IT

considerations must be appreciated as nested within

a variety of organizational, sociological, ideologi-

cal, and political contexts that all need considerable

attention.  ird, we argue that political leaders and

public managers need to invest in developing as fun-

damental public management skills a broad and deep

understanding of and capability for engaging with the

Realpolitik of sharing knowledge and information in

networks.

Public Sector Knowledge Networks

in Analytical Perspective

PSKNs potentially of‌f er substantial benef‌i ts.  ey

constitute communication channels that give partici-

pants access to others’ information and knowledge,

with the expectation that better quality, more timely,

and more complete information will be available to

those who need it at the time that it is most use-

ful. From an organizational learning perspective,

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