The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding how Work Really Gets Done in OrganizationsIdentifying and Leveraging the Hidden Social Networks That Drive Corporate Performance In today's flatter organizations, collaboration in employee networks has become critical to innovation and to both individual and companywide performance. Executives spend millions on new organizational designs, cultural initiatives, and technologies to promote the sharing of knowledge and expertise across functional, hierarchical, and divisional lines. Yet these efforts have achieved disappointing results. Rob Cross and Andrew Parker argue that's because most managers have little understanding of how their employees actually interact to get work done. In fact, formal "org charts" fail to reveal the often hidden social networks that truly drive--or hinder--an organization's performance. In this eye-opening book, Cross and Parker show managers how to find, assess, and support the networks most crucial to competitive success. Based on their in-depth study of more than sixty informal networks within organizations around the world, Cross and Parker show how managers can implement a wide range of specific and inexpensive actions-from bridging strategically important disconnects in a network to eliminating information "bottlenecks" to recognizing key connectors-that will enhance the powerful impact networks can have on performance and innovation. |
Contents
The Hidden Power of Social Networks | 3 |
Across the Great Divide | 15 |
Knowing What We Know | 31 |
Charged Up | 49 |
How Managers Manage Social Networks | 67 |
Pinpointing the Problem | 69 |
Building Bridges | 91 |
Breaking the Mold | 111 |
Uncharted Territory | 131 |
Conducting and Interpreting a Social Network Analysis | 143 |
Tools for Promoting Network Connectivity | 167 |
Notes | 189 |
| 197 | |
| 205 | |
About the Authors | 213 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
action alliances asked awareness baseball card bottlenecks boundary spanners central central connectors collaborative behaviors colleagues communication Communities of Practice conducted a network consulting create critical cultural de-energizers diagnostic division e-mail effective collaboration employee networks energy engage example executives expertise experts face-to-face flipchart flow network focus focused formal fragmented functional Harvard Business School hierarchy ideas identify important indicate individual information flow Information Network initiatives innovation instant messaging integrate interac interactions interviews issues Kathleen Carley knowledge leaders leadership learning leverage Location managers meeting Network Assessment network diagram opportunities organization organization’s organizational context participants people’s performance peripheral personal network perspective potential practices problem problem-solving productive projects promote rela relationships response result revealed role scavenger hunt senior sharing skills Social Capital social network analysis someone strategic structure subgroups tion tionships trust