Streamline Training & Documentation: Social Networks

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Social Networks

As the disadvantages of overly rigid hierarchy have become apparent to businesses, the value of the informal networks through which much work actually gets done has become more evident.

In a June Wharton School article, some of the advances in mapping social networks in a business organization are discussed. Professor Lori Rosenkopf explains that there are two central reasons pioneering companies are putting effort into mapping their social networks. They want to:

identify key employees — influential individuals whose views and activities play a disproportionate role in determining what gets done and how it is done.

understand better how employees interact.

The idea is to learn what the actual work flow and communication flow are. As Rosenkopf explains,

Maybe there are bottlenecks where one person is managing all interactions. If you expect two groups to work together closely, and you don't see them doing this, you might want to create liaison roles or other relationships to make information flow better. On the other hand, you may see groups talking to each other too much. When managers see network diagrams, they often realize they need to reconfigure their organizational chart.

How do you actually map an informal network? This is something that can be handled quite straightforwardly. Ask people whom they go to for advice, and who provides the best advice.

Helping managers take advantage of social networks, while also being alert to associated problems, should be an prominent element in any company's manager training.

###

Labels: Networking

<< Home