Research On Organizational Informal Social Networks From SNA Perspective

Organizational structure has been recognized as one of the factors that influence the effectiveness and efficiency of knowledge management. As the "skeletal system" and "nervous system" respectively, formal and informal organizational structure are interdependent, since they are where the knowledge are flowing, sharing and created. How to discover the informal organizational structure, however, is not easy.Based on the "social" attribute of human behavior, Social Network Analysis regards the relationship among people as networks, emphysizing that the structure of social relations determines the content of those relations; it also provides a series of network indices and quantitative measures in order to map social relations. Therefore, seeing formal organizational structure as formal social network and informal organizational structure as informal social network, Social Network Analysis could discover the structure, characteristics and actors of informal social networks, evaluate its differences from formal social networks, then find the basic factors that influence the knowledge sharing and creation activities. Thus SNA helps researchers and managers to find better and effective ways to coordinate both networks, with the aim to improve knowledge management within the organizations.Based on the former research, this thesis summerizes the theories and measure regarding SNA; analyzes the current problems and misunderstanding about Knowledge Management, especially the informal social networks; provides a general application of SNA in Knowledge Management organizational, both interally and externally; emphysizes on utilizing SNA to discover informal social network, upon which the thesis provides a practical frame, including sample selection, information collection, information storage, information analysis, comparison and evaluation, feedback and improvement.This thesis also applies this frame into a real R&D department in a software company and gives the implications as well as limitations within this case.Last, the author summerizes the thsis and give directions for further research.