The Pièce de Résistance of Leadership Networks : A study of network member attitudes

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to clarify and document the member perspective of leadership networks in terms of how members’ attitudes toward, and underlying reasons for participating in, leadership networks can be explained. This purpose was fulfilled by asking and answering the questions of how member attitudes toward, and underlying reasons for participating in, leadership networks can be explained. The study was conducted via a pre-research study of one network organization as well as interviews with two other network organizations. In total, the study investigated three network organizations, including 19 respondents, 13 for the survey and six for the interviews. It was concluded in both the pre-research as well as the main research, that expectations from the members’ perspective had a tendency toward organizational outcomes in the pre-consumption phase, and that the expectations on the network were mainly focused on individual outcomes in the post-consumption phase. The study also demonstrates that there are factors outside of the study’s analytical framework, such as the network position, the ego network structure and the whole network structure, that affect the network outcomes, and thus potentially the explanation for the members’ attitudes toward, and underlying reasons for participating in, leadership networks.