Networks are an increasingly common aspect of administrative life. One organization in health care, the National Quality Forum (NQF), is attempting to address issues of health care quality in a new way by bringing together organizations from the public and private sectors to discuss and debate measures of quality and, ultimately, to effect change. Little, however, is known about a network leader’s tasks during the creation of an organization like the NQF. The purpose of this article is to discuss and elaborate on one critical task, building a social base, that the NQF’s president and CEO engaged in during the NQF’s formative stages.
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