The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations
Identifying 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...
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The proper management of social networks within and between organizations, argue the authors (research consultants for IBM's Knowledge and Organizational Performance Forum), can have a major impact on performance, learning, and innovation. They describe how managers can use social network analysis to assess and support important networks in a targeted way. After first describing the nature of informal social networks in organizations, they offer chapters telling managers how to understand how individuals affect networks, how to initiate and develop networks, and how to adapt organizational context to support social networks. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR CIO Magazine Cross and Parker offer managers suggestions for improving their organizations' social networks.
Preface Part 1 How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations Chapter 1 The Hidden Power of Social Networks Chapter 2 Across the Great Divide: Finding and Fixing Critical Disconnects in Organizations Chapter 3 Knowing What We Know: Developing a Sense and Respond Organizational Capability Chapter 4 Charged Up: Creating Energy in Organizations Part 2 How Managers Manage Social Networks Chapter 5 Pinpointing the Problem: Improving Networks through Individuals Chapter 6 Building Bridges: Initiating, Developing and Maintaining Networks Chapter 7 Breaking the Mold:Aligning Organizational Context To Sustain Appropriate Network Patterns Chapter 8 Uncharted Territory: The Future and Challenges of Networks in Organizations Appendix A Conducting and Interpreting Social Network Analysis Appendix B Tools for Promoting Network Connectivity Notes Bibliography About the Authors Index
\ Time MagazineWhen networks organize themselves, they can drain coordination, learning and performance. The solution...is to make the network visible.\ \ \ \ \ CIO MagazineCross and Parker offer managers suggestions for improving their organizations' social networks.\ \ \ Soundview Executive Book SummariesResearch consultants Rob Cross and Andrew Parker have performed a study of more than 60 informal networks within organizations around the world and have found that most managers do not understand how these "invisible" social networks really work. To help managers find, analyze and support these employee networks, the authors describe the specific actions that managers can take to energize them and help them become more efficient, productive and innovative. Copyright © 2004 Soundview Executive Book Summaries\ \
