LESSON #2 – 15TH OF SEPTEMBER
TOPIC #2 ZOOMING INTO INTER-PERSONAL NETWORK PART I
Chap 4, 7
Introduction
Often times organizations fail to understand the social structure in organizations and
its consequences. Networks can help understand organizational behavior
E.g. At an organization, bomb threats, shootings, and vandalism threatening the
future of the company were investigated by partisans of a lower-ranking manager
who had systematically recruited family, friends, and neighbors over 30 years. This
manager became very important and when something happened about the manager,
his all network supported him, to the point where the organization became at risk.
Why was everyone supportive of this manager? Because the company was located in
a district with a high rate of unemployment. Finding jobs was really difficult, so the
people that got a job thanks to this manager were very grateful and loyal
It is important for would be leaders to accurately perceive the network relations that
connect people, and to actively manage these network relations. Why?
o To avoid conflicts between people (hate-network)
o Anticipate the reactions
o Let the flow of information
o Be more efficient: people that go along with each other work more efficiently
o Make sure that the gatekeepers are not blocking the information
These are the benefits of being able to have a leader that can foresee this network
Leadership: network acuity
We can look at network acuity from two points. One is network accuracy, and the
other one is network schemas
Leadership: network accuracy
It is about the leader’s cognition/impression about social networks affect the ego
networks that surround each leader. Because these networks shape behaviors and
how behaviors are built. Therefore, if you are able to visualize the structure of the
network, then your behavior will match that of the network
, According to cognitive network theory, people shape their social ties to others to be
congruent with their expectations about how relationships should be structured
Let’s image that you are a leader and you believe you have a high betweenness
centrality, which makes you behave like a gatekeeper. Now, let’s introduce the
assumption asking what if you behave as a gatekeeper, but you don’t have a high
betweenness centrality? Then, the person you are keeping away from information
can get mad and reveal you she doesn’t need your help. To avoid that, your behavior
has to match your network position, otherwise you can be penalized
It is important for leaders to understand the existence, nature and structure of
network of individuals because then we can use those (direct and indirect) ties to
spread information, to foster collaboration, etc.
Social networks in organizations go beyond hierarchy
o In practice, people don’t stick to the organigram. We can be friends with
people that don’t have the same management level, or in the same team
o Actually, the people that have friendships in other organizations can have
advantages since they will get access to other types of information
Why does network accuracy matter for leadership?
The leader can have a better perception of the network, which can allow them to
forge successful coalitions
Allows the leader to hold strategic positions in the organization’s network
Not an easy task: in an organization of 50 people, maximum 2450 (= 50x49) possible
ties!
Leadership: schemas
Schemas is about the characteristics of the people that are connected to one another
The problem with schemas is that it is typically a wrong perception of how network
look. Sometimes, because of biases, leaders can think that people with the same
characteristics are more likely to be connected with one another. Ex: all the French
people in the Belgian company are friends
This is where schemas can play a role and can lead to leaders not being able to
accurately visualize the network
Some individuals might be more prone than others. I.O.W. some people could
depend on the schemas more easily than others
Why do schemas matter for leadership?
Being able to perceive networks correctly improves power perception of the leader
Important when seeking to span across structural holes
Important to know if network actor’s perception of a leader’s position in the network
= self-perception
Measures
If we think about networks and measurements, leaders could be interested to
characterize how networks looks. We can rely on measures of co range, of cohesion
and of density
o Density: how connected everybody in the ego-network is connected to
everybody else
, The more connections within the ego-network the more similar
attitudes and values toward the leader of organization
E.g. let’s image you are ego and we have friends. If your friends are
also friends with each other, it is because you have a lot of attitudes or
values in common. But if your friends are not friends with one
another, it means that the values are not really shared among your
friends
o Range refers to how diverse the friends of ego are. Why is it important? That
is because of ego network that has high range of friends, is an ego-network
that has a high diversity and diversity means different points of view.
By having a diverse network, we have access to these different points
of view
As a leader, we want to pay attention to this density, but also on the
range of ego-network
o Cohesion refers to actors that are both directly and indirectly tied
Leadership: boundary spanning
Boundary spanning is the idea of bridging across borders.
Gatekeepers/leaders should go behind the boundaries, go across borders
o E.g. a student is not limited to have friends in management but can go to the
medicine faculty to meet friends. It goes against the notion that dividing is not
good, you don’t want to disconnect.
Structural holes: node A has a high betweenness centrality and many structural
holes. This means that there are two nodes that are not connected to one another,
which makes it a hole. The more holes A has, the more access A has to different
information
What we want in leadership is to build boundaries spanning, so we want people to fill
in the holes. We don’t want our network to be divided
Leadership: boundary spanning and alliances
Boundary spanning can be formed through
o Inter-personal connection (aka becoming friends)
o Formal ties: between one organization and another one
e.g. High-tech companies collaborating with finance companies
Why does it matter?
This matter because as a leader, we need to manage social relations.
Starting out with cognitions in the mind of the leader concerning the patterns of
relationships in the ego network, the organizational network, and the
interorganizational network, social ties are formed and maintained, initiatives are
launched or avoided, and through these actions and interactions, the work of the
leader is accomplished
Firm survival, growth, innovation
Extra
Can a boundary spanner become a gate keeper? Yes, it can
