As public agencies have implemented programs to respond to natural disasters, alleviate poverty, provide food security, and address other wicked problems, the organizational structuring of public sector program management has changed in response. The federal agencies responsible for U.S. foreign policy, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), have embraced multi-organizational, cross-sector network collaboration as part of their core missions. The strategic transition of USAID to an increased use of network models for program implementation raises questions concerning the ability of the agency, through its partners, to foster organizational learning in this network setting. Ensuring the ability to utilize knowledge and ways of knowing generated through program activity is a critical factor to sustaining the long-term capacity of government agencies and their partners to pursue solutions for these complex global problems. The research reported in this dissertation focuses on network administrative organizations (NAOs) delegated official responsibility for the management of government-funded multi-institutional programs, to understand how organizational learning for innovation takes place in an NAO-led network. This research explored the USAID Feed the Future Innovation Labs for Collaborative Research program focusing on two comparable case studies representative of NAO-led goal-directed networks, the Integrated Pest Management and Horticulture Innovation Labs. The Crossan et al. (1999) 4I framework on organizational learning served as the primary theoretical foundation for addressing how NAOs enable, manage, and leverage organizational learning associated with the boundary work of their program team representatives to innovate as networks. In the two cases studied, the findings indicated that learning practices flowed as anticipated within and across the program network for program and administrative related knowledge, but flowed in a number of different directions for knowledge related to addressing novel problems. Additionally, the NAOs' ability to institutionalize knowledge generated through the work of program teams and individual members followed unpredictable patterns and was influenced by the presence of knowledge and learning boundaries within the network. The research contribution includes a theorized two-part role for NAOs associated with managing situational learning on behalf of the network and a proposed expansion of the 4I framework that incorporates a network level of learning, organizational boundaries, and two new processes introduced as a result of the findings. Finally, the research concludes with a proposed a preliminary framework beneficial to NAO practitioners tasked with managing organizational learning in similar goal-directed network environments. / PHD
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/95963 |
| Date | 18 June 2018 |
| Creators | Weimer, Scott W. |
| Contributors | Government and International Affairs, Cook, Brian J., Lemaire, Robin Hargroder, Rees, Joseph V., Jensen, Laura Smietanka |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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