Summary
Analyses of performance gaps usually look at the attributes of performers and of the environments in which they work. This article argues that relationships among performers matter as much: who seeks information from whom, who trusts, mentors, or depends on whom. Most performance in organizations is a social act carried by a web of such relationships.
Written for human performance technologists, the article introduces social network analysis (SNA) as a technique for analysing these relationships. It is an explanatory piece and does not report a new empirical study. Using two small examples, such as a five-person team’s pattern of seeking client-related information, it shows how a social network can be described in a table, drawn as a graph, and summarized through metrics, which become the more useful summary as networks grow large.
The article also provides a list of commercial and open-source software for analysing social networks, and summarizes five examples of the influence of social networks on performance.
Citation
Passmore, D. L., Baker, R. M., & Chae, C. (2019). Networks for performance. Performance Improvement, 58(3), 20–25. https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.21838
Indexed in: SCOPUS
Citation
@online{2019,
author = {},
title = {Networks for {Performance}},
date = {2019-03-01},
url = {https://chadchae.github.io/posts_publication/2019-03-01-networks-for-performance/networks-for-performance.html},
langid = {en}
}