The management of networks with highly distributed international use

The world is gradually but steadily becoming smaller. That is true for those who have access to modern means of communication, such as computers, mobile telephones and the networks that connect them. In general they are inhabitants of industrialized and technologically developed countries. It is a question whether the ability to communicate throughout the world is a cause or a consequence of technological development. It also remains a question whether globalisation and the present technological developments really mean progress for the world population. Professor Schuurman of Delft University of Technology even stated in his valedictory address (May, 2002) that technology has become the greatest threat to humankind and his natural environment. This thesis avoids these questions, because the answers only can be given later in retrospect. The basic assumption here is that the growth of worldwide communication is irreversible, and that it requires modern technology, such as electronic networks, to keep going. And if irreversible, then we must do it as well as possible. To "do" not only means to develop new means of communications, but above all to manage the existing facilities, to achieve continuity and optimization. Management of existing infrastructures always seems to be overshadowed by development activities, apparently because innovation, challenge and creativity tend to be associated with development more than with management. In my opinion that is a misconception that I hope to refute in this thesis. This book's theme is the challenge to fight the complexity of worldwide networks by means of professional network management, on the basis of insight. The essence is to gain insight into the relations and effects of heterogeneous colorful unpredictable situations abroad, their influences on the network and to convert this insight to reliable and predictable management activities. Doing so should channel a lot of concern, contingency and inefficiency towards quality of networks. By way of research this challenge resulted in a frame of reference to gain this theoretical insight. Its shape is a model for organisations with a worldwide network, helping them to handle foreign and internal influences on their networks. The model, for its part, also offers a challenge to network managers: in an environment with divergent foreign local influences many things are possible to raise the network to the required quality, and to maintain it there. This thesis serves these two goals: to contribute to scientific understanding of the complexity of networks and to provide organisations with an aid for practical network management