Intra-organizational Networks Research Articles

"Interorganizational Collaboration, Intraorganizational Networks, and Firm Innovation"

This study investigates how firm innovation is jointly influenced by two levels of collaboration. At the interorganizational level, collaboration via interfirm alliances and joint ventures is an important method for accessing external knowledge and information. At the intraorganizational level, intrafirm collaboration among R&D scientists is a significant mechanism for knowledge transfer and diffusion. Both forms of collaboration are known to influence firm innovation, but little is known about their joint impact. I argue that interorganizational collaboration provides an opportunity for absorbing new knowledge while intraorganizational collaboration networks shape a firm's ability to use and exploit this information. A longitudinal study on almost fifty medical device firms over a fifteen year period shows that the positive effect of interfirm R&D alliances on firm innovation is stronger for firms with better connected intrafirm collaboration networks, whereas the presence of strongly-connected groups within a firm weakens this relationship. These results suggest that firm innovation is the outcome of a multilevel network process in which interfirm ties are complemented by intrafirm networks.

"The Network Base of Social Identification: Tie Contents, Network Structures and Boundary Conditions"

This paper explores from a conceptual point of view the relationship between intra-organizational networks and organizational identification process. In particular, we develop a model and propositi...

Intra-Organizational Social Networks: Integration in Multinational Organizations in Brazil

The purpose of this paper is to analyze cross-functional integration in six organizations located in Brazil, using network analysis. These industrial companies were selected because of their effort...

Employee Responses to Organizational Demise: The Influence of Network Embedding

This conceptual paper considers how embedding in types of social network influences the employment-seeking actions of individuals affected by organizational demise. Three kinds of likely action, related to different embedding influences, are characterized: collective direct action, individual direct action and individual indirect action. The paper shows how decisions to engage in these forms of action are influenced by embedding in intra-organizational, professional and community social networks. Additional moderating factors that add a layer of complexity to social network influences on action are also identified and considered, in order to arrive at theoretical insights in the form of seven propositions. Practical implications and suggestions for further research that build on the theoretical insights are also developed.

The Dark Side of Brokerage: Conflicts Between Individual and Collective Pursuits of Innovation

Many studies have shown that brokers---actors who have disconnected contacts---have better performance. Far less is known about the implications of brokerage for those other than the person in the broker role. The absence of research in this area is surprising because by definition brokerage involves the broker and two other people. Do these other individuals benefit from their mediated connection? If they do, then how do their returns compare to the broker's? I address these questions with data on the intraorganizational networks of over 18,000 inventors at 37 pharmaceutical firms. To help disentangle causality, I use a novel estimation technique based on propensity score weighting that is unbiased if the specification is correct for either the exposure or outcome equations. Furthermore, in tests of the effects of having a connection to a broker, I focus on changes among existing contacts, where the decision to connect is exogenous because it was made prior to when the contact became a broker. Consistent with the idea of negative spillovers to brokerage, I find that becoming a broker has a positive effect on performance but the opposite is true for having a connection to one.

Resistance to Change: Formal Reorganization and the Effect on Informal Relationships

This paper considers how a formal reorganization affects organization members’ ability to maintain the relationships in their intraorganizational networks. We consider how the structural qualities of a relationship – the extent to which the relationship is embedded in the surrounding network and the relational dependence within the relationship – affect the maintenance of intraorganizational relationships following a formal change. We test the hypothesized relationships on sample of 884 internal relationships of 96 partners in a global professional services firm following a change in the product-market focus of the firm. Our findings suggest that maintenance of those relationships that are more embedded in the firm’s social structure is likely to become easier following a formal reorganization. In contrast, maintenance of those relationships that have high relational embeddedness is likely to be unaffected following a formal organizational change. We argue that relational embeddedness may even work to counter the normative pressures of structural embeddedness and in effect allow organization members to resist a formal change. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Knowledge Sharing in Organizations

We examine the conditions under which knowledge embedded in advice relations is likely to reach across intraorganizational boundaries and be shared between distant organizational members. We emphasize boundary-crossing relations because activities of knowledge transfer and sharing across subunit boundaries are systematically related to desirable organizational outcomes. Our main objective is to understand how organizational and social processes interact to sustain the transfer of knowledge carried by advice relations. Using original fieldwork and data that we have collected on members of the top management team in a multiunit industrial group, we show that knowledge embedded in task advice relations is unlikely to crosscut intraorganizational boundaries, unless advice relations are reciprocated, and supported by the presence of hierarchical relations linking managers in different subunits. The results we report are based on a novel Bayesian Exponential Random Graph Models (BERGMs) framework that allows us to test and assess the empirical value of our hypotheses while at the same time accounting for structural characteristics of the intraorganizational network of advice relations. We rely on computational and simulation methods to establish the consistency of the network implied by the model we propose with the structure of the intraorganizational network that we actually observed.

Creative Interaction and Multiplexity in Intraorganizational Networks

In line with the emphasis on the social and collaborative aspects of creativity, this study examined the local structural patterns of embeddedness between creative interaction ties and three different types of existing relations among employees. Results based on sociometric network data from an advertising agency revealed that significant multiplexity exists, with advice ties being the most strongly associated with creative interaction, followed by knowledge ties and friendship ties. Furthermore, the structure of multiplexity shows that employees were likely to have reciprocal ties across multiple relations, to seek multiple types of resources from a single source, and to form embedded ties within the same work unit. Implications for the theory of embeddedness and practical implications for promoting organizational creativity are discussed.

Innovation despite reorganization

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how to nourish innovation during the course of a downsizing event. Drawing from an array of intra-organizational network studies, we show how management can use its understanding of the existing formal and informal networks to rewire connections between employees. Downsizing always leaves scars. Yet tough choices need to be made in tough times. In such times, innovation efforts are easiest to cut since their returns are uncertain and will only arrive in the future. Innovation is known to suffer. Cutting on innovation however may simply postpone the inevitable by poorly equipping a firm for future survival let alone competitive positioning. Design/methodology/approach – The insights presented in this article are based on research and consulting work over the past years with a number of leading companies in industries varying from financial and information technology services, to engineering, trading and professional service firms (a.o. Atos Origin, Equen...

Organizational groupings and performance in project-based organizations

Purpose – This study aims to empirically evaluate the impact of interorganizational groupings on corporate performance in project-based organizations. Design/methodology/approach – The study develops and tests a theoretical model whereby groupings include project team, community of practice (CoP), community of interest (CoI), and knowledge network (KN). Organizational performance is supported on financial, process, internal, and cultural aspects. Based on a questionnaire, data was obtained from a sample of 142 companies in North America. The measurement model was tested and confirmed by using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings – The results confirm the positive effects of knowledge networks and communities of interest. However, the impact of project teams turned out to be negative, and communities of practice were not shown to affect corporate performance. Additionally, the results underscore the importance of organizational networks in creating conditions favorable to a firm's success. Practical implications – It was verified that knowledge networks and communities of interest affect the measures of organizational performance, including financial, process, internal, and cultural performance. This is useful for researchers and executives looking for appropriate outcomes through the implementation of knowledge management initiatives. Furthermore, this study provides a starting point for further research on the role of inter- and intraorganizational networks in project-based organizations. Originality/value – This study claims that a key to performance for project-based organizations is development and management of organizational networks in the form of knowledge networks and communities of interest.

The Transfer of Knowledge in Intra-Organizational Networks: A Case Study Analysis

Abstract `Background: In today’s business environment, a company is able to maintain its competitive position if it constantly generates knowledge and disseminates this knowledge within the organization, as well as transforms it into new competences. The ability to transfer knowledge becomes one of the key factors in the improvement of a company’s competitive position. This hypothesis is applicable particularly in the case of cooperation within networks, as they are an excellent opportunity for mutual learning between partners. Objectives: The purpose of the paper is to analyse the process of knowledge transfer in intra-organizational networks. Method: Due to the specificity of the research object, the case study method has been chosen. In order to make an in-depth analysis of the case study, we selected a group of several criteria based on the theory which we believe to be fundamental to the effectiveness of knowledge management in networks, and compared them with the situation in the ArcelorMittal Group. Results: Our research show that ArcelorMittal Group has met almost all the criteria of effective knowledge management in its intra-organizational network. Some exceptions, albeit merely to an extent, are mostly the result of historical circumstances, , i.e. the process of growth through acquisitions, and the acquisition of companies at different stages of organizational development, as well as organizational culture. Conclusion: Based on theoretical assumptions, the study analysed in details the components of knowledge management applied by the corporation in question. Therefore this study might be utilised to formulate a refutable hypothesis and verify them on a larger group of companies from different sectors of the economy. The main limitations of the paper are mostly related to the inherent approach therein

When Acquaintances or Friends Leave: Turnover Embedded in Instrumental and Expressive Networks

This research investigates the relationship between quitters from ego's intra-organizational networks and ego's retention. Delineating interpersonal ties as instrumental and expressive, in this pap...

Learning Foci and the Reproduction of Social Relations

Recent research has shown that formal organizational activities are a significant factor in the formation of interpersonal ties within intraorganizational networks. Working together on a specific task or working together on the same team provides a new focus that can create new ties or enrich existing ones, while the dissolution of a focus jeopardizes the relationships among the members it united. This paper argues that such conclusions are premature, because seemingly formal organizational foci prescribe activities but do not prescribe who performs them jointly with whom, leaving space for members’ matching through social interactions. Little is known about how homophily, propinquity, and preexisting ties operate in foci where joint activities are strictly exogenous to social interactions. We set up an experiment in which individuals and the preexisting ties among them are randomly assigned to new foci of joint learning activities. The experiment takes place in a large Russian retail bank whose leadershi...

The Analysis of Multilevel Networks in Organizations: Models and Empirical Tests

The presence of hierarchically interdependent levels of action is a defining feature of formal organizations. As a consequence multilevel statistical models are being increasingly proposed as uniquely appropriate for understanding networks within organizations. Conventional multilevel models, however, suffer from two main limitations that reduce their analytical value in the study of intraorganizational networks. The first is inherent in the assumption that the sub-units used to classify organizational members (like, for example, subsidiaries, divisions, functions, and teams) are not independent – but linked through multiple relations of hierarchical subordination. The second limitation derives from the fact that conventional multilevel models assume that common membership is the only source of interdependence among members. This assumption is inconsistent with results produced by decades of systematic empirical research showing that social networks among individuals in organizations represent differentiated sources of dependence both within as well as across the boundaries defined around organizational units. The objective of this paper is to show how Multilevel Exponential Random Graph Models (MERGMs) may be specified and estimated to alleviate these limitations. MERGMs are a class of new statistical models that may be adopted to analyze the complex multilevel dependences that networks create within and between organizational units. We illustrate the empirical value of our methodological proposal using data on relations of hierarchical subordination and informal communication between top managers in an industrial group containing five subsidiary companies. We discuss the implications of our results in the context of the current theories of organizations as connected multilevel systems.

Product innovation in SMEs: Formal and informal knowledge integration mechanisms

Past research has revealed that knowledge integration is an important prerequisite for the success of new product development. For this reason, companies deploy a number of formal mechanisms to foster integration across multiple functions and hierarchical levels. In many SMEs, however, such formal mechanisms are complemented or even replaced by informal social networks among managers and employees. Despite the relevance of intraorganizational networks, past research on SMEs, however, was focused mainly on the interorganizational level of analysis. To cover this gap, we map ego networks of senior managers in SMEs and explore their knowledge exchange relationships both inside and across functional and hierarchical boundaries. Our study shows that these social networks are an essential driver of knowledge integration and innovation.

The processes of social capital and employee creativity: empirical evidence from intraorganizational networks

The aim of this paper is to extend and elaborate social capital approaches to organizational creativity by identifying different mechanisms that employees can deploy to promote the development of social capital through social interaction, relationship quality and network ties. The findings, based on data from a sample of 382 employees across different areas of expertise and countries in a multinational manufacturing firm, indicate that relationship quality and network ties play a mediating role between social interaction and organizational creativity. The findings of this study contribute to the development of a conceptual theoretical model for explaining the interrelationships among three mechanisms of social capital and organizational creativity performance.

Opinion transmission in organizations: an agent-based modeling approach

This paper builds a theoretical framework to detect the conditions under which social influence enables persistence of a shared opinion among members of an organization over time, despite membership turnover. It develops agent-based simulations of opinion evolution in an advice network, whereby opinion is defined in the broad sense of shared understandings on a matter that is relevant for an organization’s activities, and on which members have some degree of discretion. We combine a micro-level model of social influence that builds on the “relative agreement” approach of Deffuant et al. (J. Artif. Soc. Simul. 5:4, 2002), and a macro-level structure of interactions that includes a flow of joiners and leavers and allows for criteria of advice tie formation derived from, and grounded in, the empirical literature on intra-organizational networks. We provide computational evidence that persistence of opinions over time is possible in an organization with joiners and leavers, a result that depends on circumstances defined by mode of network tie formation (in particular, criteria for selection of advisors), individual attributes of agents (openness of newcomers to influence, as part of their socialization process), and time-related factors (turnover rate, which regulates the flow of entry and exit in the organization, and establishes a form of endogenous hierarchy based on length of stay). We explore the combined effects of these factors and discuss their implications.

Where do firms' recombinant capabilities come from? Intraorganizational networks, knowledge, and firms' ability to innovate through technological recombination

A firm's innovativeness is driven by its ability to recombine existing technologies. Elaborating on this argument, we contend that there exist two distinct types of recombinant capabilities. First, firms may innovate through recombinant creation, i.e., by creating technological combinations new to the firm. Second, they may innovate through recombinant reuse; i.e., by reconfiguring combinations already known to the firm. We study what drives each type of capability by examining two factors: the degree of integration of a firm's intraorganizational network and the diversity of its knowledge base. We test our theoretical predictions using data on 126 semiconductor firms between 1984 and 2003. Our analyses indicate that factors that favor recombinant creation generally hinder recombinant reuse and vice versa; however, combining an integrated collaboration network and a diverse knowledge base may concurrently enhance both recombinant capabilities. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Who Are All These People? Longitudinal Changes in New Employee Social Networks Within a State Agency

Organizational socialization is the process by which newcomers adapt to their organization and learn how to become productive organizational members. Organizations employ tactics such as classroom training, mentoring, orientation sessions, and on-the-job training to assist new employees in their transition. At the same time, newcomers engage in their own proactive efforts to seek information and establish ties with experienced organizational members who have access to valued resources. While scholarship has noted the importance of both socialization and employee intraorganizational networks within public sector organizations, little research has focused on these areas. This article links the organizational socialization and social network frameworks by examining how the networks of new employees in a state agency change over time. Based on our findings, we offer implications for rewarding core advisors, mentoring programs, and fostering interactions between newcomers and experienced organizational members.

Making the Most of Where You Are: Geography, Networks, and Innovation in Organizations

Drawing on insights from macro- and microlevel research, I develop and test a theory of how the makeup of firms’ local environments influences their ability to generate innovations. I propose that although geographic proximity to industry peers can enhance performance, such effects are moderated by intraorganizational network structures. Data on collaborations among inventors and the geographic locations of 454 US companies active in nanotechnology R&D between 1990 and 2004 are used to show that as proximity to industry peers decreases—and knowledge spillovers become less common—inefficient networks are beneficial because they create and sustain diversity internally. For firms with high proximity, more cohesive network structures that facilitate information processing are desirable.