1. Week 9: Social Networks (11/7) Professor Payal Sharma
MANAGEMENT 101
Week 9: Social Networks (11/7)
Professor Payal Sharma

2. Class Agenda Lecture: Social Networks
Article: The Company Behind the Charts
Article: How to Build Your Networks
Takeaways
Next Time
Midterm Exam Debrief

3. Next Time
Week 10 (11/14): Influence and Information (rescheduled from Week 5)
For lecture:
Managing Your Boss
Week 5 Study Guide
For recitation: Round 1 of Organizational Change Simulation
Read Player’s Guide (Canvas/Student Resources/Simulation)
Run Technology Test / Laptop Requirements (same folder)
Strategy and Competition: recordings on Canvas (original Week 10)
Article: Five Competitive Forces
Article: Analyzing the External Environment

4. Social Networks Defined
A set of actors and the relationships or ties among them
Actors also called nodes represent any discrete entity in the network, such as a person or units (this means you!)
Ties represent the linkages between actors, which are formed by some type of connection, relationship, or interaction occurring between actors
Structure refers to patterns of relationships or interactions among units or individuals

5. Collecting Social Network Data
Between any set of actors:
Individuals (aka “nodes’)
Groups
Organizations
Ask people to:
List names of others
Questions about any relationship (or “tie”):
Who do you consider to be a friend?
Who do you go to for advice?
Who do you talk to frequently?
Who do you trust?
Who do you talk about behind their backs?

6. Network Formation
Physical and temporal proximity (proximity principle)
Workflow and hierarchy
Actor similarity (homophily) aka self-similarity principle
Personality (self-monitoring)

8. Assessing Your Network
Broker:
Definition: A person who is the connector between tow other disconnected people. In a network map, this would be visually depicted as two ties – one from Person A to B and one from Person B to C. Thus, brokerage exists at the actor/triad level.
Examples: (1) In my house (i.e., the network), I am a broker between two students who live on different floors. (2) Further, we know that people can “broker” a relationship by introducing disconnected others. (3) Paul Revere from the article.
Implications: Influential member of a network who has power in transmitting information between disparate parties.

9. Bow tie:
Definition: Where one person connects two disconnected “clusters” or a set of people (in a group, team, department, or division). Thus, bowtie reflects a property of one’s network structure.
Example: My house (i.e., the network) has a bowtie structure because the 2nd and 3rd floors are connected through me, as the “knot” at the center of the network.
Implications: Slow and rigid processes if person remains; connections between isolated groups collapse if person leaves. A person at the center of the bowtie has both power and higher levels of stress...

10. Centrality:
Definition: Degree centrality refers to the number of ties a node has to other nodes. As such, centrality measures how many connections exist between nodes – that is, how popular are you?
Centrality reflects an overall assessment of an actor’s position in his/her network, as follows:
In-degree
Out-degree
Closeness
Between-ness

11. Team Leadership Implications

12. Centrality: In and Out Degree
Definitions: In-degree centrality refers to incoming ties to an actor, as reported by others. Out-degree centrality refers to outgoing ties from an actor, as reported by one’s self (so a less objective measure).
Examples?
Implications: In-degree centrality: because others seek ties to you, this is a measure of your importance (Adamic, 2013). Out- degree centrality: because you have numerous ties to others, you can quickly disperse information. X Y X Y

13. Centrality: Closeness
Definition: Number of links it takes to reach everyone else in the network to whom you are not directly connected
Examples: Measure for the Kevin Bacon game: Also think about if Management 101 as a class was the network, how quickly could you reach all members across the three lectures? Days? No social media or electronics?
Implications: Reflects efficiency

14. Centrality: Between-ness
Definition: Extent to which actor falls between any other two actors in the network. A measure of the degree to which a node serves as a bridge. If a person engages in a lot of brokerage, by extension, their between-ness will naturally be high.
Examples:
Implications: Reflects power

16. Impact of Networks
Networks provide opportunities and constraints – patterned relationships among multiple actors affect behaviors, attitudes, cognitions, etc.
We can use social network analysis to effectively manage teams, identify leaders, and promote effective information sharing transfer in organizational settings
Gallup engagement survey question is “Do you have a best friend at work?” Because friendship is one of the strongest drivers of productivity, commitment, and retention

17. Impact (cont’d) Power Leadership Getting Ahead
Job Satisfaction and Commitment
Individual Performance
Group Performance
Citizenship Behavior
Power
Leadership
Getting Ahead

18. Types of Ties
Strong
Weak
Dormant

19. Research Findings (Sharma)

20. Research Findings (Casciaro & Lobo)
Who Would You Pick?
When people need help completing complex projects, they are likely to select colleagues who are: (question of competence versus likeability)
Competent jerk
Loveable star
Incompetent jerk
Loveable fool

22. Takeaways
Managers are well-served to understand the power of informal relationships in organizations and to leverage this
Understand the ways networks form and use this information to try to improve your relationships with others
Different terms exist to describe network positions, each with their own implications for management
Aim to awaken dormant ties + cultivate weak ties -- rather than only relying on strong ties which reflect similarity to you