The Hidden Power of Social Networks

Appendix A

Conducting and Interpreting a Social Network Analysis

THERE ARE TWO APPROACHES to conducting a social network analysis: personal (egocentric) and group (bounded) network assessments. The personal network approach requests a person to identify other people who are important for a given function or task (such as learning or information) and then answer a set of questions regarding each of these people. Relationships in a personal network can come from any and all walks of life, including employees in the same business unit, colleagues elsewhere in the organization, people in entirely different organizations, or friends and family members.

An important advantage of the personal network approach is that it uncovers all relationships that ...