SNA and Leadership Networks

Claire Reinelt and I are pleased to share our paper, "Social Network Analysis and the Evaluation of Leadership Networks, " which is due for publication in a special issue of Leadership Quarterly (Elsevier) on the topic of evaluating leadership. Look for it on news stands in early 2010.

Social Network Analysis and the Evaluation of Leadership Networks (PDF)

Bruce Hoppe, PhD Connective Associates LLC

Claire Reinelt, PhD Leadership Learning Community

Abstract
Leadership development practitioners have become increasingly interested in networks as a way to strengthen relationships among leaders in fields, communities, and organizations. This paper offers a framework for conceptualizing different types of leadership networks and uses case examples to identify outcomes typically associated with each type of network. One challenge for the field of leadership development has been how to evaluate leadership networks. Social Network Analysis (SNA) is a promising evaluation approach that uses mathematics and visualization to represent the structure of relationships between people, organizations, goals, interests, and other entities within a larger system. Core social network concepts are introduced and explained to illuminate the value of SNA as an evaluation and capacity-building tool.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1
Classifying Leadership Networks	3
Introducing Social Network Analysis	4
Evaluating Leadership Networks	8
Peer Leadership Networks	10
Organizational Leadership Networks	14
Field-Policy Leadership Networks	19
Collective Leadership Networks	24
Issues and Risks of SNA	28
Future research	33
Conclusion	36
Bibliography	37

Full Paper here.

It has been great to work with Claire on this paper, and we are grateful to the folks at Leadership Quarterly for providing us with helpful editorial suggestions and generous permission to post this version of the paper.

Stay tuned for posts about specific excerpts & themes of the paper...

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License and is copyrighted (c) 2009 by Connective Associates LLC except where otherwise noted.

Evil-Doers at Sunbelt in San Diego

Tomorrow I fly to San Diego to attend Sunbelt, the annual SNA extravaganza.

The keynote address, by Phillip Bonacich, is "Using Social Networks for Evil":

"Many uses of the network approach in sociology involve pro-social behavior.... Yet, individuals use the networks they are involved in for their own selfish and malign purposes....

"As those who have studied social dilemmas have demonstrated, anti-social behavior can be fun and profitable.

"What I wish to explore in this talk is one form of anti-social behavior, one that I have been thinking about recently - the exploitation of the weak and dependent in networks of social exchange and violations of the norm of reciprocity."

I am looking forward to hearing more about that! And perhaps I will meet some of you (readers) in San Diego this week.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License and is copyrighted (c) 2009 by Connective Associates LLC except where otherwise noted.