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

In today's flatter organizations, collaboration in employee networks has become critical to innovation and to both individual and companywide performance. Executives spend millions on new organizational designs, cultural initiatives, and technologies to promote the sharing of knowledge and expertise across functional, hierarchical, and divisional lines. Yet these efforts have achieved disappointing results.

Rob Cross and Andrew Parker argue that's because most managers have little understanding of how their employees actually interact to get work done. In fact, formal "org charts" fail to reveal the often hidden social networks that truly drive--or hinder--an organization's performance. In this eye-opening book, Cross and Parker show managers how to find, assess, and support the networks most crucial to competitive success.

Based on their in-depth study of more than sixty informal networks within organizations around the world, Cross and Parker show how managers can implement a wide range of specific and inexpensive actions-from bridging strategically important disconnects in a network to eliminating information "bottlenecks" to recognizing key connectors-that will enhance the powerful impact networks can have on performance and innovation.

In recent years we saw (and I read) half a dozen books on the emerging science of networks (Linked, Six Degrees of Separation; from the management consulting Nexus, Living Networks); the language of The Tipping Point tipped into the vernacular; and social networking sites (LinkedIn™, tribe.net, Spoke, VisualPath) climbed the "hype cycle" by promising value in gaining access to powerful people just three degrees away. The jury is still out on the latter, but the genie is out of the bottle: organizations and individuals are making the shift to an understanding that social networks shape our lives and our work, and that we can learn how to identify, assess, and manage these networks.

This book is the first fully practical, actionable work on social network analysis in organizations. Cross and Parker are among a handful of professionals who have worked deeply in organizations to analyze existing social networks, position these networks within the context of the strategy, culture, and promise of organizations and recommend specific, positive steps that can alter the dynamics of the networks that exist.

For example, one of the themes explored is that of central connectors: people who, by virtue of their relationships with people in different organizations serve as boundary spanners (moving information and context from one group to another) or bottlenecks (impeding the flow of information and context). The authors develop the reader's understanding of this phenomenon by presenting the concepts of social network mapping, how the analysis of a network reveals the central connectors, the impact of these people on an organization, and, finally, the actions a manager can take to either (1) acknowledge and recognize these people or (2) shift the work patterns to alleviate the bottlenecks.

All the network maps in the book are from real cases - and they are universal as well. You'll not have a difficult time recognizing your own organization (or those you've worked with) in most of these examples. The "before and after" maps are illuminating and inspiring. The descriptions of the methodology are straightforward and useful. I'll say it again: this book is actionable, for both senior managers who want to understand and support networked organizational dynamics and for consultants (internal and external) who want a practical guidebook that establishes the standard for the practice of social network analysis.

Full disclosure: I am a practicing consultant who uses social network analysis in my work. When I first heard Rob Cross talk about social network analysis at an Institute for Knowledge Management workshop in Santa Fe four years ago, I knew that this was work that I needed to do in my organization. I had the good fortune to work with Rob and Andrew Parker on several projects, and to learn the method described in this book from them. I inherited, through their teaching and mentoring, the enthusiasm for bringing stunning insights to managers about their organizations as revealed in an analysis of their networks, and a strong sense of the ethics and responsibility in managing analysis projects. I've been waiting almost a year for this book to come out so that I can share it with my clients.


Book for consultants   June 14, 2004
SciConnects (Midwest USA)
21 out of 22 found this review helpful

There are many network books out there -- this is the only one that focuses on networks inside business organizations. Being a management consultant who has applied Social Network Analysis to organizational issues since 1987 this book mostly fits my experience.

This book is an excellent introduction for the internal or external consultant considering their first social network analysis project. Cross & Parker provide many examples, and discuss both network mapping and measuring. They focus on the network methods and metrics that are understandable by common business people -- no PhD required, an MBA will do fine.

Coming from a research organization, the authors don't always go into great deatil on how to apply network analysis in solving business problems. A couple of stories of before/after networks are shared. Yet, how they apply interventions and solutions is often glossed over. The last few chapters delve into this with more detail, but it may be too late in the book for some readers. Several of the the network examples could have used more details to provide the reader a better context of what was happening in the organization.

The Appendix is great -- how to get started in a social network analysis project. This section alone may be worth the price of the book for many hands-on consultants.

As business schools start to teach social network analysis, this book will make an excellent textbook for both undergraduate and MBA students.


Knowledge is Power   August 18, 2008
Retired Reader (New Mexico)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Although the authors do not say so, this book is really about knowledge based organizations as either independent entities or as part of a larger organization. Information is the essential raw material for all knowledge based organizations. This book then is really about how information flows through such an organization and how information based decisions are developed by means of social networking.

Social networking has long been identified by sociologists as the indispensible inter-personal relationships for group cohesion and effectiveness. Cross and Parker have taken this concept one step further and demonstrate that the acquisition and flow of information in a knowledge based organization is dependent on such social networking. Indeed they maintain that by reconstructing existing corporate social networks it is not only possible to identify the real production flows, but also those individuals who expedite or impede that flow. Along the way they identify such personality types as `energizers' and `de-energizers' as well as bottle necks and uneven distribution of tasks and responsibilities. They also identify peripheral individuals and groups that often become ineffective because they become too isolated from the main flows of information. Perhaps the most important point they make is that for a `knowledge based enterprise' information sharing and collaboration are absolutely essential for the successes of the enterprise. Again although they do not specifically discuss this, reconstructing a social network also identifies an organization's real leaders as opposed to notional leaders. Indeed they point out an organization's formal organization chart (beloved by bureaucrats everywhere) often has nothing to do with work flows or actual relationships. But it should be noted that Cross and Parker describe social networking as it occurs within a hierarchical framework, with an identifiable decision making system is in place. Their concept is closer to the information driven Network Centric Warfare (as developed by the U.S. Military) than the free wheeling networked type of organizations as described in the book, "The Starfish and the Spider" (Penguin, 2006). Yet perhaps a networked type of organization may be what their concepts of social networks will eventually create. This is abook well worth reading.



VIVIDLY REVEALS A KEY DIMENSION OF ORGANIZATIONAL SUCCESS!   April 23, 2005
Gerry Stern (Culver City, CA United States)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

This book is about how employees actually interact through networks to get work done, how such social networks function, how to analyze these networks, and ways to build and strengthen them. The major focus is on information flow and collaboration. The authors have found that a highly effective and pragmatic approach to analyzing and developing networks need not be highly complex. Their focus is on improving organizational performance by both understanding and promoting vibrant networks. The book concentrates on the factors that make a network effective and how, in practice, managers can foster the potential of a social network within and between units of organization. The discussion of factors that infuse energy into a network is excellent. So too are sections on the elements used to promote network connectivity and the six steps for conducting a social network analysis, including example questions. Based on considerable research and real-world experiences in private and public sector entities, the book is outstanding in revealing a key dimension of organizational success. It is well written, makes main points clearly, and delves into the substance of its subject. For anyone with an interest in, or engaged in, organization analysis, design, development or leadership, this book is must-reading!


Understanding How Work Really Gets Done is Organizations   July 23, 2005
GirlThinker (Indianapolis, Indiana)
11 out of 16 found this review helpful

Well written book with helpful insights that one can apply to the work world. By becoming conscious of the power that these networks yield we can better harness their potential energy and creativity force.

Things that may hinder or break social networks.
1) Reward Systems
2) Splintering work groups
3) Poor job design
4) Watch for creating bottlenecks reliant upon specific people in the organization.
5) Redundacy, having involve everyone in the decision

Common Social Network Applications
1)helping in the collaborations of partnerships and alliances
2) improved strategic decision making
3) streamling core processes
4) promoting innovation
5) developing communities of practice
6) introducing change
7) spread learning and communication

Some attributes of that can affect social networking
1) Tenure in the organization
2) Encourage of mentoring
3) Ability to get new folks intergrated quickly
4) Gender, Age, Ethnicity, Education
5) Organizational Culture -> view of external contractors
6) Opportunities for projects to allow cross fertilization
7) Employee status
8) Task Interdependence
9) Physical Distances
10) Hierarchical levels
11) Organizational silos