Koorddansen met asymmetrie: Omgaan met ongelijksoortigheid en ongelijkwaardigheid in een netwerksamenwerking

Abstract

A network collaboration is seen as an instrument for leading innovation projects or complex multifaceted issues such as the energy transition, the transition to a climate-proof living environment, and to a sustainable competitive economy.. The potential of a network collaboration lies in the specific, complementary characteristics of the participants, or their disparity. However, this can simultaneously give rise to unequal power relationships or asymmetry, if they have more influence, opportunities or benefits from the network cooperation than others, resulting in tensions and conflicts. This PhD research introduces a different angle to investigate network collaborations than is common in the current collaborative governance and network governance literature. From an emic perspective, the perspective of participants, this study provides a detailed and nuanced picture of what asymmetry is, the impact it has in daily networking practice, and how participants interact with it. The study intensively examines a consultancy network and an industrial network from within and compares them with each other. This reveals six patterns that are then verified and enriched with interviews, observations and document analysis from 24 other private, public and hybrid networks. This resulted in a theory and analysis framework to gain insight into the significance of asymmetry, how it works, and how participants deal with it to ensure its positive contribution to the performance of a network collaboration and to the goals set. Asymmetry turns out to be an inescapable integral and also essential part of a network collaboration: a fact of life. In relational sphere, the undercurrent, processes take place that are crucial for the asymmetry that participants experience and how this is expressed on the surface, in the upper current. The interaction between the upper or the undercurrent, between implicit immaterial and explicit material things, and between relational and instrumental aspects form an important part of the force field. Also the value that participants attach to each other's complementary traits is in constant flux. This is due to the interconnectedness with the environments of the network and the interests that change during the collaborative process. As a result, mutual trust is always under tension. In order to be effective in aligning the upper current and undercurrent and to meet the constantly changing goals and interests, participants ceaselessly navigate between the network, their supporters and other stakeholders. Being able to "walk a tightrope" and combining substantive expertise and adaptive flexibility prove to be indispensable.