Achieving Performance Enhancement Through Knowledge Networks Using Social Network Analysis - A Case of Pharmaceutical Company in India
Year: 2012
Type: preprint
Abstract: Informal networks inside the organizations have attracted much interest ever since Hawthorne Experiment days. Also, organizations learnt to believe that work in increasingly accomplished collaboratively through these networks. The formal structures supporting organizational charts do not really mirror the actual knowledge flows within the organizations. Most organizations, however, do not know how to manage these networks, as they find them unobservable and unmanageable. But, informal networks are important, because they promote the lateral sharing of knowledge within the organization (Wenger, 1998; Davenport & Prusak, 1998). These informal networks over a period of time become knowledge networks and enable employees deal more effectively with knowledge, which contributes to the performance of the organization (Cross & Parker, 2004; Epple, Argote & Murphy, 1996).For companies, it is important to know whether the knowledge networks in their organization function appropriately. A useful technique to study these knowledge flows has been developed in the field of social science called Social Network Analysis (SNA) (Faust & Wasserman, 1994; Cross et al., 2004) which studies the social interactions between members of a particular group of people. It models the people as nodes and the interactions between people as arcs between the nodes, hence resulting in a social network. An extension to social network analysis is developed and is known as Knowledge Network Analysis (Helms & Buijsrogge, 2005). Thus, we study knowledge networks instead of social networks.The present case aims at studying the knowledge flows through these informal networks and knowledge maps are developed to illustrate the actual knowledge flow in a pharmaceutical company in India which has a global presence. In a nutshell, it applies SNA to develop knowledge maps using a real-life example. A case study based on a leading organization is then used to illustrate how SNA is applied to develop knowledge maps.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Author: Prageetha G. Raju
Institution: ICFAI Business School
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems and Management
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2248479858