For this week's blog post, I have chosen to comment on the following two articles:
"Six Myths About Informal Networks - and How To Overcome Them" [MIT Sloan Management Review]
&
"The People Who Make Organizations Go-or-Stop" [Harvard Business Review]
The first article discusses how corporate executives fail to nurture informal networks due to strongly-held myths about how to make these networks more effective. A number of interesting points were presented. To build a stronger informal network, people should connect and communicate, not with everyone but, with those who provide relevant information. Instead of changing technical infrastructure to promote collaboration, organizations can assist informal networks by modifying their formal structure, work management practices, employee management practices, and their cultural values. To avoid information bottleneck at a central person, organizations can distribute information and decision-making responsibilities to others. It is also important for organizations to understand how informal networks function to get work accomplished so that corporate executives can strategically support these networks to benefit the organizations.
The second article discusses the importance of social networks and the four key role-players - central connector, boundary spanner, information broker, and peripheral specialist. The central connector, also known as the go-to-person, serves as the main source of information for the whole network. The boundary spanner links the central connector in multiple external networks so that they can share information as well as various types of expertise. The information broker connects various sub-networks within an organization in large information network to promote information sharing. The peripheral specialist serves as an expert for the network in special information or technical knowledge. He or she is not integrated in the network so that he or she can focus on advancing his or her area of expertise.
The thing that sparked my interest the most was the social network analysis - a powerful tool that corporate executives use to identify employees' social relationships within an organization. This allows the organization to help its employees to build more social relationships as needed.
I recommend both of these articles to everyone since it is informative and easy-to-read.
Images:
Social Networking. Digital image. Web. 16 Jan. 2010. http://muktiweb.org/images/social-networking.jpg.
The thing that I thought that was really interesting about both of these articles is the discussion of the freedom that implementing social networks into a business structure offers. Because social network analysis allows experts to begin to examine the relationships and roles that participants have, it is possible to foster connections that benefit the business most. I see this having a huge role in the lives of business people in the future. Who knows? Maybe job descriptions will require a certain necessary degree of social networking abilities soon.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that both articles seem to highlight the importance of a central connector and their ability to distribute information to a wide amount of people. I think as businesses implement social networking and integrate it into their systems, the central connector will be even more vital to communications as networks grow.
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