networkinstitute.nl

Centre for Organization Studies

In the Network Institute's Centre for Organization Studies social and management scientists work together in research on organizational networks, innovation, collaboration and knowledge. The aim of the Centre is to foster theoretical and empirical work in close collaboration between researchers from different faculties and disciplines.

Networks have been an overarching theme in the organization and management literature for some time. The network idea famously burst onto the scene as a mediating concept between hierarchies and markets. Increasingly, local, regional, national and global networks are identified as localities in themselves - sometimes as platform for social interaction between various groups, sometimes as a preferred way to solve dilemmas of both government and market. Organizational interconnections have also increased because of the growth of ICT. Yet, the study of organizations in a networked world has hardly kept pace with these developments. The Centre stimulates research, fosters debate and develops projects that will help to come to grips with the consequences of networking in and across organizations. The interdisciplinary collaboration provides novel, also electronic, methods and tools to collect and analyze data, helps to understand large-scale network processes, and also facilitates to connect the research on organizations to practical dilemmas of management and policy.