As Social Network Analysis (SNA) is relatively new to organizations, some concerns and questions about its usage naturally arise. One concern I have as organizations adopt SNA is the usage of it “in a vacuum”. I believe SNA can be a very valuable part of a larger analytical toolset, yet not used in isolation. Using it with other research methods in both qualitative and quantitative arenas will help overall conclusions from the analysis and thus better decision-making.
Another concerning unknown with SNA is as organizations grow, how often does one need to do the actual analysis? Academic readings on this subject nearly all describe relational networks as constantly changing and evolving, and we can likely see this clearly with new hires, promotions, terminations, re-organizations, and other structural changes. Since there is never really a single moment in time that can display the “full truth” of the organizational network, how might organizations leverage SNA to track the evolutions in an economical way? Economies of both resource-hours and monetary investment of the analysis tool must be developed for this type of analysis to be used in large-scale, specifically matrixed, organizations.
I am also curious to learn about how SNA is used in the fields of mergers and acquisitions (M&A). M&A’s often bring culture to the forefront of the discussion, as they typically involve one company adapting to the other company’s culture, or some sort of blend of the two cultures. That, in combination with analyzing two social network maps together and seeing how they merge to become one unified network map seems to be a very complex undertaking. At first blush, individuals or even groups with a high degree of centrality (and thus social capital) may, post-merger, find themselves with more distance, less reciprocity, or less reachability with the connections they previously had (2014, Hanneman & Riddle). Unifying an organizational culture no doubt includes creating and fostering new relationships, so SNA may be a useful tool to consider in tandem with the typical hierarchical organizational charts that often do drive M&A decisions.
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Hanneman, R.A., & Riddle, M. (2014). Concepts and measures for basic network analysis. In Scott, J. & Carrington, P.J. (Eds.). (2014). The SAGE handbook of social network analysis (pp. 340-369). London: Sage.
