Relative Managerial Networking and Performance: The Moderating Role of Environmental Context

• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Author: Eunju Rho,Sumin Han
• Date: 01 March 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13164

Research Article

Relative Managerial Networking and Performance 205

Abstract: This article examines how a dynamic view of managerial networking contributes to the cumulative

knowledge of the study of managerial networking in the public sector. The current study contributes to our

understanding of the relative influences of past and current networking relationships on current program performance

by (1) exploring the nonlinear effects of relative levels of networking on performance and (2) investigating how relative

networking influences may interact with organizational conditions characterized by different aspects of institutional

and task environments. Employing a panel data set of U.S. local school districts from 1999 to 2015, the research

finds that organizational performance improves at an increasing rate as the relative level of managerial networking

increases and that the advantages of relative networking are leveraged more effectively when the organization meets its

institutional requirements and when the environment is less complex, highly munificent, and highly turbulent.

Evidence for Practice

• When managers dramatically increase their involvement in networking relationships, they produce higher

performance in general. This finding is consistent regardless of the type of managerial networking.

• However, managers should be aware of certain conditions in which the increase in managerial networking

compared with the past can backfire.

• To build better organizational performance, managers need to increase the relative level of networking when

the institutional requirement is met, but they should not increase the relative level of networking when the

institutional requirement is unfulfilled.

• Managers’ choices to increase the relative level of networking can benefit the organization, particularly when

complexity is low, munificence is high, and turbulence is high.

Eunju Rho

Northern Illinois University

Relative Managerial Networking and Performance:

The Moderating Role of Environmental Context

Sumin Han

Auburn University

When implementing public programs and

delivering public services, public managers

operate in networked contexts involving

multiple individuals and organizations and are

required to have the capacity and competency to cope

with uncertainties, ambiguous goals, limited resources,

and political conflicts by increasing connections to

enhance collaborative work (O’Toole and Meier

2011). Public managers are often expected to set

the tone by being good collaborators, highlighting

their efforts to increase collaborative opportunities

for their organizations and to expand the network

of alliances with a host of private bodies, other levels

of government, and, increasingly, nonprofit agencies

to deal with the operations and practices of public

organizations (Agranoff 2007). Their social ties and

connections with internal and external stakeholders

become critical for gaining the necessary resources

and information. Such externally oriented networking

efforts, called “managerial networking,” can perform

numerous functions, including but not limited to

“building support, negotiating with others in an

agency’s external environment, contributing to the

management of multiorganizational efforts, exploiting

opportunities, protecting the core organization from

challenges or threats, and sometimes helping move

a set of organizations toward an objective” (O’Toole

2015, 361).

Certainly, we find much to applaud in previous

work on the impact of managerial networking on

performance in the public (e.g., Avellaneda 2016;

Jimenez 2017; Meier and O’Toole 2001; Van den

Bekerom, Torenvlied, and Akkerman 2017), nonprofit

(e.g., Johansen and LeRoux 2013; Li, Tang, and

Lo 2018), and private sectors (e.g., Li and Zhang

2007). Despite these efforts, research has primarily

taken a static view in examining the effect of current

managerial networking on concurrent outcomes (Rho

2013b). Given that a prominent feature of network

relationships is their dynamics (Gulati, Nohria,

and Zaheer 2000; Rho 2013b), as their effects may

diminish or grow over time (Soda, Usai, and Zaheer

2004), one aspect of managerial networking that is

Sumin Han is assistant professor in the

Department of Systems and Technology at

Auburn University. Her current research

focuses on joint model, dynamic model,

consumer behavior, and international

business research.

Email: szh0117@auburn.edu

Eunju Rho is assistant professor in

the Department of Public Administration

at Northern Illinois University. Her

primary research interests include

government performance, managerial

behavior, government contracting, and

networking management. Her work has

appeared in journals such as Public

Administration Review, International

Public Management Journal, and

International Review of Public

Administration.

Email: erho@niu.edu

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 81, Iss. 2, pp. 205–219. © 2020 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13164.