The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations

by Robert L. Cross, Andrew Parker

A powerful, visual framework helps managers discover how employees really communicate and collaborate to get work done - and helps them identify ways they can influence these social networks to improve performance and innovation. In The Hidden Power of Social Networks, Cross and Parker, experts in "social network analysis"—a technique that visually maps relationships between people in large, distributed groups - apply this powerful tool to management for the first time. Based on their in-depth study of sixty informal employee networks in well-known companies around the world, Cross and Parker show managers how to conduct a social network analysis of their organization.

Genres: Business, Management, Nonfiction, Leadership, Social Science, Psychology, Economics

229 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 2, 2004

Reviews

[Eric Mesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a must read for anyone in supervision or management. It will change the way you look at your employees' interactions and the relationships they form. There may be hidden networks that are hindering your work. Conversely, there may be hidden networks where the loss of just one person would cause the whole thing to crash like a house of cards.

I appreciated the fact that it was short and kept redundancies to a minimum. It gets to the point and gives you the tools you need to run and evaluate a social network analysis in the appendix. It is full of anecdotes rather than research and helps the manager understand without the boredom of the research.

Strongly recommend to anyone with employees working in teams.

[Eugene Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend anyone looking at understanding what social networking's value to businesses really are (vs. simple "Facebook for the Enterprise" thinking).

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

from the library c2004
pages to copy: vii, 3,


Harvard Business School Press c2004
Rob Cross is an assistant prof at the U of Virginia's school of Commerce and a research consultant to IBM's Knowledge and Organizational Performance Forum, and Babson College's Working Knowledge group

Andrew Parker is also from IBM's Knowledge and Organizational Performance Forum

Part one How work really gets done in Organizations
ch1 the hidden power of social networks
good quote on first page--- from a commercial lending org!!

ch2 across the great divide
ch3 knowing what we know
ch4 charged up

Part two How managers manage social networks
ch5 pinpointing the problem
ch6 building bridges
ch7 breaking the mold
ch8 uncharted territory

App A Conducting and Interpreting a social network analysis
App B Tools for network connectivity

[Dawne · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent practical text on how to leverage people networks in effective organizational development. As Cross & Parker note, "information does not flow unchanged through a human network as it does through Internet routers. People add context, interpretation, and meaning as they receive information and pass it along." Their approache to network analysis in organizations can improve information flow, creative exchange of ideas, and cooperation. Another illustration that the most critical resource of any organization is its people and those who can leverage their skills best are the most successful.

[TK Keanini · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned about this book from Strategy+Business magazine. Very good book.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readable and provides lots of food for thought, but ultimately comes across more like a brief academic survey of social network analysis than a practical guide. Still, it does offer a few exercises for analyzing one's own networks, which I'll probably give a try.

[Cheryl Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-reading this one....

[Anniricous]

bumbum

[Willis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read on how social networks can be studied in business organizations. Not much detail on how to actually do network analysis as this is more of a discussion of some potential applications of network analysis and how you might use the results of network analysis to drive action. A little limited because the focus is on smaller networks with fewer than 100 people as they don't really discuss how to analyze larger networks than that.