Suppliers of networks, networks of suppliers

The ?networked organisation? has a myriad of meanings ? from those organisations that have acquired sophisticated communication technology enabling high(er) levels of functionality, to firms who join together so that each can provide a component or components of an integrated product and/or develop a more commanding marketing position (e.g. export groups). Systems consisting of multiple organisations that have joined together to enable wider distribution of goods or services can also be considered to be networks. This paper reports a case study of such a service-providing organisation ? a collection of small, locally-oriented job providers who have amalgamated into a network and entered into contracts with the Australian government to find jobs for the unemployed throughout Australia ? and focuses on the coordination issues within the many layers of the network. The paper explores the network in terms of theories of social network structure and group dynamics. The differences in the network properties, competencies and effectiveness and the relationships between the individual organisations within the extended network are the focus of the case study reported here.