A Time to Follow and a Time to Go? Temporal strategies in collaborative networks over the organizational life cycle

Mandated governance networks – which can be defined as collaborative arrangements between multiple stakeholders instigated by an external party – have become increasingly common as a response to specific policy problems (e.g., local crime prevention or rural re-development). A key characteristic of such networks is that external party/ies impose and adjust the key tasks and aims of the network over time, thereby acting as an exogenous, hierarchical rhythm setters (i.e. the ‘pacer’ or ‘Zeitgeber’). Since these actions may collide with network members’ different interpretations and uses of time (including the organisational life cycles of the network and its individual members), it can lead to both horizontal and vertical temporal tensions within the network. In this article, we take inspiration from entrainment theory and management scholarship to develop a theoretical framework for analysing how network members resolve such tensions – and, as a result, temporally (re)align their activities. We build our model using interviews and archival data on two governance networks in Spain, mandated under the framework of the European Commission’s LEADER programme for rural development. Analysing the 25-year period from their creation in the late 1990s up to 2021, we identify conditions under which network members opt for/against synchronisation (i.e., coordination to operate at the same time or pace), detrainment (i.e., strategic misalignment to acquire temporal autonomy) and resonance (i.e., alignment imposed by the Zeitgeber). Our study contributes an extension of entrainment theory in public administration and collaborative governance, and thereby adds to our understanding of the internal functioning of (mandated) inter-organizational networks.