Paper info

Intra-organizational tensions as drivers for external relationship and network formations

Edith Andresen, Sabine Gebert Persson and Heléne Lundberg

The paper was published at the 28th IMP-conference in Rome, Italy in 2012.

Most research within the IMP tradition has focused on the formation of relationships and networks between business actors. We argue, however, that internal interests and tensions within organizations need to be re-entered into research within the IMP tradition if we are to fully understand formations of external relationships and networks as well as their development. The argument put forward in this paper is that internal conflicts within a company, originating from local branch office competition about limited internal resources, can function as drivers for such local branch offices to form and develop external strategic relationships and networks that can be used as a means in enhancing the local branch offices’ intra-organizational power. This paper address this issue by illustrating how a regional strategic network including competitive actors was formed by local branch office managers and where one of the purposes was to achieve strengthened internal power and an influential position within their intra-organizational hierarchies. This paper thus contributes to research by focusing on internal tensions as drivers for external network formations.