The Strategically Networked Organization: Leveraging Social Networks to Improve Organizational Performance

by Hanna Lehtimaki

Overview

This book demonstrates to managers the strategic significance of intra-organizational social networks. It argues that strategic management is embedded in the complexity of social relations that shape the strategic direction of a company. Currently there are few tools available to systematically collect information about the social functioning of an organization. This book fills this gap by shifting attention to the social relations that contribute to strategic advantage and that build on relationships that provide unique resources and create value for the business. It considers three perspectives on how social networks have a strategic function: first, social networks constitute everyday strategic action; second, social networks convey cultural meanings; and third, how social networks depict social processes that continually illustrate what the organization is and what it can become. The book shows top and upper-middle management how cultivating an understanding of intra-firm social relations can help them to build unique strategic advantage and make use of the day-to-day knowledge that emerges in the social connections and interactions within an organization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786352927
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Publication date:	12/08/2016
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

Hanna Lehtimaki (Ph.D. School of Management, University of Tampere) is a professor of innovation management at the University of Eastern Finland. Her research has examined strategic management, leadership, social networks, organizational renewal, and stakeholder management. She has worked as a Senior Fulbright scholar at the George Mason University, USA and as a visiting scholar at the University of Toronto, Canada

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

1 Introduction 1

2 How is Organization Strategic? 7

3 Social Network Analysis for Strategically Networked Organization 35

4 Social Structure in Strategizing 53

5 Social Relations 99

6 Social Interaction and Strategic Transformation 137

7 Social Networks in Strategy Making 167

8 Guidelines for Networked Strategy Making 175

References 179

Index 189

Editorial Reviews

Lehtimäki presents readers with a comprehensive examination of the power of intra-organizational social networks, arguing that strategic management has to be embedded in complex social relations. She covers the strategic nature of organization, social network analysis for strategically networked organizations, social relations, social interaction and strategic transformation and several other related subjects over the book’s eight chapters. The author is a faculty member of the University of Eastern Finland.

Annotation ©2017

Lehtimäki presents readers with a comprehensive examination of the power of intra-organizational social networks, arguing that strategic management has to be embedded in complex social relations. She covers the strategic nature of organization, social network analysis for strategically networked organizations, social relations, social interaction and strategic transformation and several other related subjects over the book’s eight chapters. The author is a faculty member of the University of Eastern Finland.

Annotation ©2017