If Ever the Twain Shall Meet: Graph Theoretical Dimensions of Formal and Informal Organization Structure

Hunter, Starling David

doi:10.11114/ijsss.v4i10.1872

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…That such a reconciliation is both advisable and achievable is not in dispute. The two perspectives do, after all, have overlapping conceptual vocabularies (Hunter, 2016), common theoretical foundations (Gulick & Urwick, 1937), and a shared concern with patterns of interactions which, in practical terms, manifest in a variety of similar "relationships" (Tichy, Tushman, & Fombrun, 1979). According to McEvily, Soda, and Tortoriello (2014), the "missing link" is "an integrated theoretical understanding of organizational functioning in which the formal organization and the informal social structure are conceived of not in isolation, but in combination" (p. 303).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the “missing link” between formal organization and informal social structure

Hunter

Bentzen²,

Taug³

2020

J Org Design

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Over the last 40 years, organizational scholars have repeatedly called for more research to reconcile formalist and social network approaches to the intraorganizational structure. The former has primarily been concerned with the reporting relationship which manifests as the chain of command while research on the informal social structure relegates the reporting relationship to a wide and varied range of instrumental and affective relationships such as advice-seeking, knowledgesharing, trust, and friendship which span the boundaries that the chain of command defines. In this study, we employ the chain of command distance-the length along the chain of command of a path connecting a pair of organizational actors-as the basis for formulating and testing hypotheses about how the formal organization and the informal social structure influence one another. First, we argue that whereas the formal structure affords only one, often very lengthy, path between any pair of actors, the combination of formal and informal structures results in a greater number of significantly shorter paths between actors. Next, we consider one effect of the formal organization on the informal social structure. In particular, we argue that there is an inverse relationship between the chain of command distance and the likelihood of a social or informal connection forming between a pair of actors. We test our hypotheses with demographic data collected from a public sector provider of health, education, and welfare services in rural Norway.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the “missing link” between formal organization and informal social structure

Hunter

Bentzen²,

Taug³

2020

J Org Design

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“…The organization's structure deeply affects whether certain team members have a working relationship (which could be negative) or not, or how new ideas propagate through teams and eventually organizations. There is a large body of literature on the study of business organizations where graph and network theory has been applied [20]. However, it is disconnected from engineering projects and product development.…”

Section: Background and Literature Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the Effect of Organization Structure and Cognitive Profiles on Engineering Team Performance Using Agent-Based Models and Graph Theory

Estes,

Pandey

2023

Mathematics

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In large engineering firms, most design projects are undertaken by teams of individuals. From the perspective of senior management, the overall project team must maintain scheduling, investment and return on the investment discipline while solving technical problems. Various tools exist in systems engineering (SE) that can reflect the value provided by the resources invested; however, the involvement of human decision makers complicates most types of analyses. A critical ingredient in this challenge is the interplay of the cognitive attributes of team members and the relationships that exist between them. This aspect has not been fully addressed in the literature, rendering many studies relatively oblivious to team dynamics and organization structures. To this end, we propose a framework to incorporate organization structure using a graph representation. This is then used to inform an agent-based model where team dynamics are simulated to understand the effects of cognitive attributes and team member relationships. In this work, we aim to understand team dynamics in the context of product development. The organization is modeled using the Barabasi–Albert scale-free network. The information regarding member relationships can be acquired through graph metrics such as the various centrality measures associated with the members and the distance between them. This is then used to model the dynamics of the members when they work on a technical problem, in conjunction with their other cognitive attributes. We present some results and discuss avenues for future work.

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“…The social structure of organizations has two components, formal and informal (Boorman and White, 1976; Casciaro, 1998). While formal structure includes relationships related to the reporting and authority, informal structure is related to social relationships that stem from advice seeking, communication, trust, knowledge sharing and friendship (Hunter, 2016). These structures strongly impact the information flow or resources allocation within the organizations (Burt, 2009; Tsai, 2001, 2002).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of the social structure of hospitality management literature: 1960-2016

Köseoğlu

2019

IJCHM

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Purpose This study aims to address how the social structure of the hospitality management field has evolved from 1960 to 2016. Design/methodology/approach The informal social structure of the hospitality management literature was analyzed by collecting authorship data from seven hospitality management journals. Co-authorship analyses via network analysis were conducted. Findings According to the findings, throughout the history of hospitality management, international collaboration levels are relatively low. Based on social network analysis, the research community is only loosely connected, and the network of the community does not fit with the small-world network theory. Additional findings indicate that researchers in the hospitality management literature are ranked via degree centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality. Cliques, which contain at least five researchers, and core researchers are identified. Practical implications This study helps both scholars and practitioners improve the informal structure of the field. Scholars must generate strong ties to strengthen cross-fertilization in the field; hence, they collaborate with authors who have strong positions in the field. Specifically, this provides a useful performance analysis. To the extent that institutions and individuals are rewarded for publications, this study demonstrates the performance and connectivity of several key researchers in the field. This finding could be interesting to (post)graduate students. Hospitality managers looking for advisors and consultants could benefit from the findings. Additionally, these are beneficial for journal editors, junior researchers and agencies/institutions. Originality/value As one of the first study in the field, this research examines the informal social structure of hospitality management literature in seven journals.

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If Ever the Twain Shall Meet: Graph Theoretical Dimensions of Formal and Informal Organization Structure

Abstract: Formal and in be fully resolv approach that to this end. Th from the two r graphs of both Keywords: o network analy Introductio

Cited by 8 publications

References 32 publications

On the “missing link” between formal organization and informal social structure

On the “missing link” between formal organization and informal social structure

Investigating the Effect of Organization Structure and Cognitive Profiles on Engineering Team Performance Using Agent-Based Models and Graph Theory

Evolution of the social structure of hospitality management literature: 1960-2016

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