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

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.

Rob Cross is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce in Charlottesville. Andrew Parker is a Research Consultant with the IBM Knowledge and Organizational Forum in Cambridge.