Exploring the Relationships between Behavioral Networking, Goal Ambiguity, and Role Ambiguity

Public management scholars consistently argue that public organizations must now deliver services in the context of networks that span jurisdictional and sector boundaries, and that they are subjected to greater degrees of goal and role ambiguity as compared to private organizations. Yet, limited research examines the degree to which these phenomena are connected. We seek to develop a perspective that merges these two research traditions by asserting that the extent to which managers engage their networked environment clarifies their interpretations of goals and work roles within the home organization. Findings from a series of structural equation models reveal that managers perceive higher degrees of goal clarity as they increase engagement with actors in the networked environment, and increased interaction in networked environments enhances role clarity by virtue of clarifying organizational goals