IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/pubmgr/v4y2002i1p101-118.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Good, Better, Best? Inter-organizational learning in a network of local authorities

Author

Listed:
  • Jean Hartley
  • Maria Allison

Abstract

The UK government's agenda for the 'modernization and improvement' of public services is based on legislative change, programmes of experimentation and the sharing of better practice. But how does the sharing of better practice take place? The precise processes for the transfer of knowledge and their implications for organizational and cultural change have not been analysed in detail in the public sector context. This article examines the role of a local authority inter-organizational network in transferring better practice in implementing the Government's major initiative on Best Value. The article draws on the theoretical framework of Nonaka (1994), and particularly the distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge to examine how knowledge is transferred between individuals and between organizations. The article analyses data collected as part of the Better Value Development Programme (BVDP), an inter-organizational network. Findings indicate that the inter-organizational network was valued by participants as a way to share and transfer knowledge about better practice through a number of processes. The need to consider both tacit and explicit knowledge transfer in inter-organizational learning is considered. This has implications for traditional policy models of best practice transfer.

Suggested Citation

  • Jean Hartley & Maria Allison, 2002. "Good, Better, Best? Inter-organizational learning in a network of local authorities," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 101-118, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:pubmgr:v:4:y:2002:i:1:p:101-118
    DOI: 10.1080/14616670110117332
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14616670110117332
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14616670110117332?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Benington, 2000. "Editorial: The Modernization and Improvement of Government and Public Services," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 3-8, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Allen, April D. & Hyde, Justeen & Leslie, Laurel K., 2012. "“I Don't Know What They Know”: Knowledge transfer in mandated referral from child welfare to early intervention," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1050-1059.
    2. Chris Huxham & Paul Hibbert, 2008. "Manifested Attitudes: Intricacies of Inter‐Partner Learning in Collaboration," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 502-529, May.
    3. Fischer, Caroline, 2018. "Motivated to Share Your Knowledge? Development of a scale to measure knowledge sharing motives of public employees," OSF Preprints r5xba, Center for Open Science.
    4. Lummina Horlings & Chris Collinge & John Gibney, 2017. "Relational knowledge leadership and local economic development," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 32(2), pages 95-109, March.
    5. G. Jan van Helden & Åge Johnsen & Jarmo Vakkuri, 2008. "Distinctive research patterns on public sector performance measurement of public administration and accounting disciplines," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(5), pages 641-651, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mark Moore & Jean Hartley, 2008. "Innovations in governance," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 3-20, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:pubmgr:v:4:y:2002:i:1:p:101-118. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RPXM20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.