【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 dnegotiation and also raising actors’ consciousnessregarding the importance of politically behavior.As formal structures of leadership are missing,individual activities to form coalitions and build aninfluential position in order to benefit from thecooperation should be especially effective in virtualnetworks.Furthermore, information and municationtechnology (ICT) used by virtual networks mightcontribute to or even constitute micropoliticalprocesses, as technology serves to both make existingprocesses and structures more explicit as well as bringforth new roles and rules. Network actors whoare well experienced in the use of ICT might use theirknowledge to gain power.Therefore, in our study we investigated thefollowing main research questions:1. What micropolitical processes can beidentified within interorganizationalnetworks? Are they different from typicaltactics found in the intraorganizationalcontext?2. How successful is micropolitical behavior inan interorganizational setting? How does itaffect the virtual network?3. How are micropolitical processes enactedthrough technology in virtual networks?4. MethodThe study was conducted in the spring of 2009 aspart of a larger research project concerned withgovernance and innovation in interorganizationalnetworks1. By means of a systematic Internet researchwe recruited members of interorganizational networksfor a qualitative interview study. The networks neededto fulfill the following criteria to be included in thestudy: a) horizontal relationships betweenmembers/member organizations, b) polycentricgovernance, and c) a minimum of threemembers/member organizations.Overall, we conducted 15 semistructured indepthinterviewswith members of virtual networksfrom different sectors and industries (IT, media design,shipping industry, real estate business, consultingbusiness, labeling industry medicine, farming). Theenterprise size ranged from singleperson enterprises toSMEs with up to thirty members. The network sizeranged from three to twelve members/memberorganizations. Our interview partners were betweenages 28 and 61, six were female, nine male.Economic goals such as joint customer projects orsales orders were named as the network’s primaryobjective by 13 of the 15 network representatives.Slightly different, the medical network’s aim was tofacilitate munication and exchange across differentmedical sectors and, therewith, to improve patients’medical treatment. The network of farmers acted as anagricultural cooperative. All networks were aimed atlongterm existence and arranged their collaborationmainly through the use of information andmunication technologies. The technologies appliedranged from exchange via and telephone tosophisticated munication and groupware platforms.To obtain prehensive and valid data on interpersonal influence processes, we focused on individuals whose network positions allowed for lively interactions and exchange with the other network partners, orin other wordswho were likely to beboth the source and aim of influence attempts. Therefore we concentrated on freelancers and representatives of small and middlesized enterprises, acting as the organizations39。 boundary spanners within the network.The interview partners were asked about their experiences with influence and politics, leadership, and power within their networks, . what tactics and behaviors they had either been using themselves or other network members had been using to push their interests within the network, and how successful these tactics had proven. To elicit these experiences, we asked the interviewees to describe socalled 39。criticalIncidents39。 or key situations in which influence attempts had occurred, following the mon procedure of prior research on micropolitics. Concerning the effectiveness of micropolitical behavior, no fixed criteria for success were determined beforehand。 instead the interviewees were asked for their subjective judgment whether the tactics applied had worked out for them or other network members. This open criterion of success as simply 39。getting one’s way39。 has been monly used in other studies on micropolitics as well.Furthermore, the interviewees were asked about the emergence of the network, the issue of petition and trust, processes of innovation, and the use of ICT. Data on formal aspects such as network size, duration, geographical distribution etc. was alsoollected. The interviews (3090 minutes duration) were audiotaped and transcribed literally according to a fixed set of transcription rules that had been defined beforehand. A qualitative content analysis was conducted using a bined apriori/posthoc approach: In a first step, the interview data was structured according to a category system deduced from the literature on micropolitical processes within organizations. In a second step, the category system was refined by adding further categories of tactics identified through the described behaviors and actions of network agents in the data. A total of 31 distinguishable concrete micropolitical actions in 15 different categories were identified.The stability (intracoder reliability) of the newly developed category system was tested by repeated coding three weeks after the first analysis. Cohen’s Kappa wasalculated as reliability index. Intracoder reliability was excellent (k=.91). Likewise, the intercoder reliability (tested by having the material coded by three independentaters) proved to be very good (k=.77).6. DiscussionThe aim of our study was to investigate micropolitical processes in virtual networks. Icropolitics is a wellresearched concept in organizationa