Sarah F
Consultant, author, speaker, facilitator, educator at Sarah Fraser & Associates Ltd
Why do social network analysis?
What's the benefit to an organisation for carrying out social network analysis, especially when they are really busy with other things, like financial stuff, performance reports, production issues etc?
I've been pondering this for a while and am a bit ambivalent about the technique when it comes to the application. In theory it sounds great, though applying it and getting true results is something else.
Has anyone got examples of having used Social Network Nalaysis (SNA) and had useful results (or an interesting story of where it didn't work).
I write a short piece in my blog today with my three reasons for doing SNA.
http://spreadgoodpractice.blogspot.com
Thanks, in anticipation
Sarah
Good Answers (1)
Sal R
Senior partner, im21 (innovation/measurement 21st. century)
Best Answers in: Organizational Development (1)
My experience in using SNA methodologies with clients has taught me:
1. That the visual representation of data through SNA analysis consistently reveals a surprising picture
2. That the process always provides an ability to ask more informed questions
3. To encourage new and more appropriate measurements
In one instance, a global team generating considerable revenue with a business partner did not really understand how many people were actually responsible for that outcome. The perception of who was responsible as opposed to the reality was dramatic.
And, when a "density of communication" measurement was used as part of the SNA, it showed that this global team was only communicating at 5% of their capability for sharing knowledge.
I have learned much of this from working with experts in the field.
The disappointment comes when organizations, in spite of having a clear picture in front of them, still remain loyal to silo or jurisdictional behaviors.
The value of SNA is that you discover information that you can act on quickly. Not all organizations are willing to do that.
In addition, too many discussions of SNA and related topics are minimalized. It is deeper than people often describe. Understanding requires a commitment to confront the meaning of exclusive work place conditions and why too many people are left out of critical conversations.
I hope this is helpful.
Sal Rasa
im21(innovation/measurement21st century)
www.im21stcentury.com
More Answers (4)
First of all my experience is, that organisational network analysis (ONA) should only be conducted with an intended purpose. Conducting an ONA/SNA only because you can, while it might be fun and interesting, will only create disturbance and insecurity within the organisation.
As an example I have experience using ONA in order to improve collaboration, knowledge management, and bonus structures within a consulting department. ONA provided a great tool for optimisation.
With a goal in mind an ONA can be extremely beneficial as a change management tool helping to facilitate change, create baselines, ensure sponsorship, etc.
Further ONA is a valuable management tool for improving processes. It can reveal where and how the improvement initiative should focus. This is relevant looking at collaboration, organisational flows, decision networks, knowledge management, innovation, and more. Any process where human interaction is an important part, I will argue that ONA is beneficial.
Moreover bounded ONAs can be useful for management and development of groups. Both the visualisation and the data based measurements provide valuable input making ONA a great management tool in modern organisations.
Hope it was useful input,
/Nikolaj
Ricardo A
Founder and Business Developer of MBUintelligence LION, TopLinkedin, OpenNetworker
Great question. Every escuse for not doing well some work is to say "I don't have time to do it..." If everybody is too busy... something goes wrong with that company...
The value for social networking is not measurable. For me is huge, but for you can be close to zero. You need to find the KPO (key process object) that asures you that what you are doing has a focus and a goal.
Regards,
Ricardo
Links:
Clarification added May 8, 2008:
Excuse me for the "escuse"
I have conducted a SNA for my Master Thesis project at a fast growing company in the Netherlands and the main argument for using is was making relations visible. Using the SNA made visible that density in the network was mainly at the level of departments.
Members of multidepartmental teams within the company did not rely on each other as a source of knowledge and this was made extremely clear through the use of the SNA.
In academic literature I have found this article very usefull:
Cross, R., Parker, A., Prusak, L., and Borgatti, S.P. (2001). Supporting Knowledge Creation and Sharing in Social Networks. Organizational Dynamics, 30(2), 100-120.
I hope this provides an answer to your question.
There are good commercial reasons to do it, but you have to be focused.
For instance, in telecommunication services there are individuals who function as influencers of other people's purchase decisions. Therefore if they come to your service they have a good chance of bringing others with them. Conversely if they churn from your service they may stimulate churn among other clients in their network. Particularly for operators with highly differentiated on-net/ off-net tariffs there is a very significant economic network effect. I have done several projects there where I have show that the economic value of losing a customer may be (for instance) 1.000 USD annually, but the follow-on effect because of his or her network may be an additional 200 - 300 USD.
This is described mathematically in Metcalfe's law, where he showed that the economic value of a network is a geometric function of the number of units in the network. Social networking analysis shows that not all units are equal, however - that some influence the network effect more than others. For instance, in the projects I mentioned earlier you see that as customer attrition increases, the incremental loss from network effects accelerates as well.
I think many areas are susceptible to this kind of analysis (financial systems, auction houses, realtors ...). People are getting a bit too precoccupied with a narrow definition of explicit, self-selecting online communities like MySpace or LinkedIn, and forgetting that the same principles have been used for decades in much more highly monetized service categories.
