Competence Requirements for Managing Supply in Interorganizational Networks

There is evidence of research in various fields that has relevance to the examination of competence requirements for managing in interorganizational networks, However, research to date is limited in its potential application to managing supply in inter-organisational networks and particularly so when those networks relate to public sector services. This empirical paper builds on prior research on managing supply in interorganizational networks by identifying the skills, knowledge, traits, and behavioural indicators (collectively termed 'competence') associated with effective team performance. Within the wider context of a long-term action research programme on the strategic management of supply in supply networks, interviews were conducted with members of teams learning to undertake a variety of network management roles such as innovation facilitator and information broker. The findings are presented in the form of a competence framework, with the aim of capturing the developing, but still fragmented and largely tacit, understanding among the teams about the strategic management of supply. Competence indicators are organized into six themes: network understanding; developing network position; relationship management; learning, knowledge and knowledge management; strategy formulation; strategy implementation. The complete framework is presented. We advocate further research to evaluate the usefulness of the competence framework in practice and the generalisability of the framework. In particular we propose to investigate its applicability to examining boundary-spanning teams not directly involved with the purchasing function.