Social Network Analysis: Insight into collaboration in the workplace

Annemieke Zonneveld

2007 IBM Corporation

Social network analysis helps to reveal the informal network behind the organizational chart

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is a set of methods and statistics that shows how people collaborate the current patterns of the information-, communication-, knowledge sharing-, decision-making networks within a particular organization or group

2007 IBM Corporation

Agenda
Social Network and Innovation: 3 introductory questions Business collaboration is changing Business value of social networks Overview of social networks Case Study Future Trends

2007 IBM Corporation

Social Network and Innovation: 3 introductory questions

Did you ever consider this? Who has the key expertise in your organization? How are these persons / is this group connected to the others? The risk of under-utilization of expertise or innovation potential

2007 IBM Corporation

Social Network and Innovation: 3 introductory questions

Did you ever consider this? What are the informal networks in your organization, how are groups connected? What is the intensity and character of these relationships? Innovation often emerges on the interface of groups

2007 IBM Corporation

Social Network and Innovation: 3 introductory questions

Did you ever consider this? What are the most innovative groups? What are the networks of these groups? Understanding these networks might contribute to learning processes

2007 IBM Corporation

Agenda
Social Network and Innovation: 3 introductory questions Business collaboration is changing Business value of social networks Overview of social networks Case Study Future Trends

2007 IBM Corporation

Business collaboration is changing, because

The workforce is changing The workplace is changing The nature of work is changing

2007 IBM Corporation

Agenda
Social Network and Innovation: 3 introductory questions Business collaboration is changing Business value of social networks Overview of social networks Case Study Future Trends

2007 IBM Corporation

Social Network Analysis (SNA) applies to a broad range of business issues

Improve innovation. Why are some departments of business units more innovative then others?
Example: This can be found out by conducting a SNA of the knowledge and information sharing patterns; is the key knowledge and expertise inside and outside the network being leveraged effectively?

Enhance responsiveness. Why are some departments or business units more responsive to changing markets or their client then others?
Example: This can be found out by conducting a SNA of the information patterns: does information runs smoothly within the given network? Are there information hubs, where are decisions getting blocked. Do departments of business units interact appropriately with each other in taking their services to the market or to the client?

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2007 IBM Corporation

Social Network Analysis (SNA) applies to a broad range of business issues (2)
Increase efficiency. Why are some departments or business units more successful then others?
Example: This can be found out by conducting a SNA: is there too much overlap between networks of group members? Are there too many brokers doing the same thing? And where are networks lacking?

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2007 IBM Corporation

Benefits of Social Network Analysis

Understand collaboration: Helps managers develop an
accurate understanding of how collaboration is occurring

Optimize knowledge sharing: Improves efficiency by

enabling the location and distribution of knowledge across the organization

Integrate M&As: Provides an effective tool to assess group

integration

Retain critical resources: Helps to systematically identify

central people who represent risk if they leave

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2007 IBM Corporation

Aspects of someone's social network

Person As contacts with Person Bs Frequency of contacts Importance for executing tasks Importance for strategic / political support Importance for new information Accessibility Added value of intensifying contact Energy maker or energy taker High or low trust
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Outcome of Social Network Analysis

Diagrams of social networks Consciousness of where networks are effective, where networks are strong, where they are vulnerable
Diagrams should be available for all Findings should be shared It is the first step towards improvement

Actions
Organizational, e.g. repositioning of units, development of c.o.p. Technology, e.g. jam sessions People, e.g. development, repositioning of key players

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2007 IBM Corporation

Agenda
Social Network and Innovation: 3 introductory questions Business collaboration is changing Business value of social networks Overview of social networks Case Study Future Trends

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2007 IBM Corporation

 Breakdowns in information flow and collaboration occur most often at one of these common boundaries: Functional: Breakdowns between teams or business units Geographic: Breakdowns between geographically separated locations Hierarchical: Breakdowns between employees of different levels Tenure: Breakdowns between long time employees and new employees Organizational: Breakdowns among leadership networks

Example SNA can pinpoint cross boundary breakdowns in information flow and collaboration Case Example: Functional Boundaries

Case Example: Geographic Boundaries

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2007 IBM Corporation

Example SNA can reveal if knowledge is shared between team members

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13

12

5
5 4

7 2

10
11

8 1
7 10 2

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2007 IBM Corporation

Agenda
Social Network and Innovation: 3 introductory questions Business collaboration is changing Business value of social networks Overview of social networks Case Study Future Trends

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2007 IBM Corporation

How Social Network Analysis was helpful for our global retail client
What we did Collected and analyzed Social Network Analysis data from 73 people across 11 groups (direct reports of the board) Held 10 interviews with people across the groups

The Social Network Analysis reveals The Information network Communication Political Importance Accessibility Communicate more - Knowledge (awareness) network - Energy network,
19 2007 IBM Corporation

Key findings SNA

The board is very central in all the networks Much activity is concentrated within the groups resulting in the same set of people providing up to date information, share knowledge and communicate mostly to others within their same group There is little communication across the different groups Most of the network diagrams shows the same picture regarding the primary processes: Sales and Commercie are not located in the centre of the networks There is no relative strong connection between Sales, Supply Chain, Commercie Efficiency, Supply Chain are consequently located at the periphery of the network

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2007 IBM Corporation

Key Findings SNA

There is no group completely isolated There is always at least one person per group (broker) who connects between groups Sometimes these brokers differ by network, but regarding the core processes we identify particularly one and the same broker per group People know many others People responding to the survey knew, on average, 31 of the 73 other people Strategic decisions ask for high consensus (there is a high need for political buy-in)

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2007 IBM Corporation

Group level Communicate: How often do you communicate

about work collaboration?
Position of the groups Central: Directie is especially central in the communication network, followed by Finance Periphery: Effiency, Supply Chain, Sales & Services and Commercie Small distance between: Directie & Finance Supply Chain, HR Sales and Franchise Core processes: in general not very close, relatively most connected are: Commercie en Sales

Distance between nodes is a function of agreement with the statement; the shorter the distance the higher the agreement (shown for strongly disagree to strongly agree) 22 2007 IBM Corporation

Team level Energy: Please indicate the extent to which you agree
with the following statement, "Communication with this person is energizing

The primary source of energy is the Directie group. With Directie removed there are no sources of energy (outbound links). 23 2007 IBM Corporation

Individual level Political: Please indicate the extent to which you

agree with the following statement:"It is strategically/ political wise to ask "buy in" of this person before I take an important decision.

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2007 IBM Corporation

Discussion topics
The implications of .. the central key role of the board disconnection of business model and main communication lines the overall strong internal focus of teams the strong demand for buy-in / concensus model

Op Sup Dir Com

Fr Teams Circel of brookers Hr Directie

Etc Fin

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2007 IBM Corporation

Agenda
Business collaboration is changing Overview of social networks Business value of social networks Case Study Future Trends
2007 IBM Corporation

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The Evolution of Communities

Community 0.0 (geographically co-located)

Community 1.0 (Web interface)

Web was about computers connections allowing information availability

Community 2.0 (social computing)

Web Sites are social, allowing user interaction, using the Web as a platform. Members of the community are in control. Leverages the power of communities in content creation and the development process by using Blogs, Wikisand Social Bookmarking.

Content production and publication is only made by the owner of the site.

Communities

Professional development Collaboration Education

Blackboards Conference Virtual conference In-person Tele-conf Video Conf

Community of Practice IM Jam Virtual Univ

E-meetings

Classroom Distance E-learning

Peer-to-peer learning

Increased Digitization
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To sum up
Innovation: networks matter! SNA is easy to analyze your informal networks, to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these networks and to improve these networks

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2007 IBM Corporation