The Hidden Power of Social Networks

by Cross, Robert L.

• ISBN13: 9781591392705
• ISBN10: 1591392705
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-04-01
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Pr

Summary

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 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.

Author Biography

Andrew Parker is a research consultant with IBM's Knowledge and Organizational Performance Forum.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgments	xi
PART ONE How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations
1. The Hidden Power of Social Networks	3	(12)
2. Across the Great Divide	15	(16)
Finding and Fixing Critical Disconnects in Organizations
3. Knowing What We Know	31	(18)
Developing a Sense-and-Respond Organizational Capability
4. Charged Up	49	(20)
Creating Energy in Organizations
PART TWO How Managers Manage Social Networks
5. Pinpointing the Problem	69	(22)
Understanding How Individuals Affect a Network
6. Building Bridges	91	(20)
Initiating, Developing, and Maintaining Networks
7. Breaking the Mold	111	(20)
Aligning Organizational Context to Support Social Networks
8. Uncharted Territory	131	(12)
The Future and Challenges of Networks in Organizations
Appendix A Conducting and Interpreting a Social Network Analysis	143	(24)
Appendix B Tools for Promoting Network Connectivity	167	(22)
Notes	189	(8)
Bibliography	197	(8)
Index	205	(8)
About the Authors	213