Administration &Society, Ahead of Print.
We explore strategic orientation as an approach to analyzing complexity in public management networks, asking how theoretically informed insights on relationship building fare when examined in the context of sector-, function- and policy arena–oriented dyads that form constituent elements of networks. Our survey of state asthma coalitions provides support for six facilitating factors regardless of strategic pairing, with surprisingly widespread support for differing ideas about how to address problems as a facilitative factor. The study also reveals several differences between dyads by strategic orientation, suggesting the approach offers a promising pathway to advancing analysis of complexity in networks.