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

Robert L. Cross (Author), Andrew Parker (Author), Rob Cross (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2004 | ISBN-10: 1591392705 | ISBN-13: 978-1591392705

A powerful, visual framework helps managers discover how employees really communicate and collaborate to get work done - and helps them identify ways they can influence these social networks to improve performance and innovation. In "The Hidden Power of Social Networks", Cross and Parker, experts in "social network analysis"—a technique that visually maps relationships between people in large, distributed groups - apply this powerful tool to management for the first time. Based on their in-depth study of sixty informal employee networks in well-known companies around the world, Cross and Parker show managers how to conduct a social network analysis of their organization.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

That organizational charts rarely describe functional hierarchy is obvious to any employee who’s ever tried to adhere to one. Instead, survival often depends on incorporating oneself into unofficial social networks that allow one to gain access to necessary information and to collaborate with the colleagues who can actually get things done. In this dense but useful volume, Cross and Parker-both consultants with IBM’s Knowledge and Organizational Performance Forum-give readers insight into how such unofficial networks form and function. They also share their methodology for rendering these basically unseen networks visible to managers. By literally mapping information flow and collaboration patterns among the people who make up a department or firm, they can pinpoint individual bottlenecks, essential employees and those who have been pushed to the periphery or whose expertise is underutilized. Their analysis enables managers to adapt their strategies to exploit and support these now visible networks and improve overall productivity. Rather than using their book as a forum to garner new consulting business-with a ‘kids don’t try this at home’ approach-they encourage readers to pursue network analysis at their own organizations by arming them with step-by-step instructions through two appendixes. The authors present their material in the nitty-gritty style of an evening business course, with lots of charts and examples. They take their mission of arming managers with a substantive strategic tool very seriously. In this way, theirs is unlike many management books that are high on concept and lacking in application-Cross and Parker provide a guide that is directly applicable to improving the functionality of any organization.
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Review

"Cross and Parker offer managers suggestions for improving their organizations' social networks." -- CIO Magazine, June 1, 2004

"When networks organize themselves, they can drain coordination, learning and performance. The solution...is to make the network visible." -- Time Magazine, June 21, 2004

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press (June 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591392705
• ISBN-13: 978-1591392705
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.9 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #149,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 63 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and practical May 12, 2004

By Patricia Anklam

Format:Hardcover

The Hidden Power of Social Networks provides the most complete treatment of the subject of applying the understanding of social networks to organizations as you will find. It includes the insights from the many, many cases that the authors facilitated and it provides insight into the methodology itself. As such, it is a good book for both executives who have had inklings that there is something useful for them in all this "social network" hype, and for HR/organizational development specialists and consultants who want to understand the nuts and bolts of the method.

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. Read more ›

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Book for consultants June 13, 2004

By Valdis Krebs

Format:Hardcover

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars In support of the Social Enterprise May 11, 2012

By Laurent Pacalin

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Having designed and deployed social enterprise applications for several years, I read "The hidden power of social networks" a second time to contrast my own experiences against others. I was compelled to recognize that many if not most of Cross and Parker's insights are still very valid today. Their focus on developing a sense-and-respond organizational capability, as well as, creating energy in organizations is dead-on. With the benefit of hindsight, I would say that the power of social networks is no longer hidden and that even greater attention should be placed on the "networked" rather than the "network" itself. Today, applications like Linkedin, Jive and Lithium are enabling much more dynamic, portable and adaptive networks, allowing spontaneous "natural hierarchies"!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Knowledge is Power August 18, 2008

By Retired Reader

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

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. Read more ›