Public Administration ETDs

Publication Date

6-26-2015

Abstract

Governments use networks of organizations from the public, for-profit, and nonprofit sectors to deliver public services. While the public administration literature on the tasks and responsibilities of network management is extensive, research on the sources and methods of knowledge acquisition by public network managers is underdeveloped. The study adds to this area through original research. A group of state government professionals, who manage a federal grant in their states, was surveyed to determine how they obtain actionable knowledge to perform network activities. The results were generally consistent with prior research in several disciplines, including public administration, with notable exceptions. Significantly, the personal sources used are predominantly staff or colleagues within their state government, rather than the grant managers in other states. Spearmans rho was used to explore relationships between the respondents' characteristics and the use of personal and impersonal sources. The relationships were extremely weak. The thesis concludes with suggestions for future research.'

Degree Name

Public Administration

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

School of Public Administration

First Committee Member (Chair)

Rivera, Mario

Second Committee Member

Jimenez, James

Language

English

Keywords

Network, Knowledge Acquisition, Public Manager

Document Type

Thesis

Download

Share

COinS