Learning to do and doing to learn teaching managers to collaborate in networks

How do we cultivate the practice of collaborative public management? George Frederickson early observed (1999, 702) that public administration is moving “toward theories of cooperation, networking, governance, and institution building and maintenance” in response to the “declining relationship between jurisdiction and public management” in a “fragmented and disarticulated state.” Frederickson emphasized institutionalism, public sector network theory, and governance theory as relevant to the future of public administration research. He defined institutionalism as pertaining to “social constructs of rules, roles, norms, and the expectations that constrain individual and group choice and behavior” (703), public sector network theory as pertaining to “structures of interdependence” that have “formal and informal linkages that include exchange or reciprocal relations, common interests, and bonds of shared beliefs and professional perspectives” (704-5), and governance theory as occurring at institutional, organizational or managerial, and technical or work levels, including formal and informal rules, hierarchies, and procedures, and influenced by administrative law, principal-agent theory, transaction cost analysis, leadership theory, and others (705-6).