Social capital and social networks

Social capital and social networks are not the same thing. Social networks are relationships that create the social capital.

Social networks are not always good. Being too close and therefore unbalanced relationships may for example lead to group think. I think I read that in Scott (1996). Arguably, the advent of consultants could correct the imbalance and lead to new more balanced and therefore more productive relationships.

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Scott, J. (1996) 'A Toolkit for Social Network Analysis', Acta Sociologica (Taylor & Francis Ltd), 39 (2), pp. 211-216. 843

Social network analysis

What is social network analysis?

A social network is a structure of people or organisations linked in some way. It can be depicted as a graph of nodes and connections. Wikipedia gives an example here. And this sketch looks like a network of clients and consultants and others.

Social network analysis explores interactions reported by the people at the nodes and mapping relationships. Graph theory can help analysis. York (California) University has a site that explains lots of IS models including social network theory here. But I'm hoping to have fun messing about with computer models like this game of networks. It may be that the course on maths for research that I went on last autumn will be useful after all.

Theorising engagement

Supervisor #2 has come up with an idea that nicely relates to the way I am thinking about relationships. He suggests that rather than using Actor-Network theory that I consider social network theory. He's come across this paper by Nahapiet & Ghoshal that describes how the structures of social networks can improve social capital and the structure of those networks can also lead to increased intellectual capital {Nahapiet, 1998}. There are three dimensions to creating intellectual capital through social capital:

1. structural dimension: who is connected to whom, i.e. network ties, network configuration, appropriable organisation
2. cognitive dimension: to what extent are there shared concepts between people, i.e. shared codes & language, shared narratives
3. relational dimension: what are the established norms of how people behave, i.e trust, norms, obligations, identification.

Each dimension contributes in different combinations. The combinations and exchange of intellectual capital are:

• access to parties for combining/exchanging intellectual capital
• anticipation of value through combining /exchanging intellectual capital
• motivation to combine /exchange intellectual capital
• combination capability

These combinations and exchanges create new intellectual capital.

Sounds cool!

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Nahapiet, J. and Ghoshal, S. (1998) 'SOCIAL CAPITAL, INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL, AND THE ORGANIZATIONAL ADVANTAGE', Academy of Management Review, 23 (2), pp. 242-266. 842

Reflexivity and research

Is reflexivity like recursion?

You have to go in on yourself to find what the assumptions are, but that assumes an understanding of what assumptions are.

We had a speaker, Ann Cunliffe, from Hull, give a lunch time seminar on the topic. It's a social constructionist approach that questions our notions of reality.

"an unsettling of the basic assumptions, discourse and practices used in describing reality"
{Pollner, 1991}

But, questioning reality means that I question the tools that I have to question with. So let alone not write authoritative accounts, the idea of reflexivity meaning that theories and explanations must be tentative undermines any confidence I have left in my research and analysis.

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Pollner, M. (1991) 'LEFT OF ETHNOMETHODOLOGY: THE RISE AND DECLINE OF RADICAL REFLEXIVITY', American Sociological Review, 56 (3), pp. 370-380. 845

Poster competition

Yesterday the OU research students had a competition to assess the best posters on research. Six of us in the OUBS submitted something, and two of us won, which was nice. One was a blood and gore depiction of the ethics of advertising - the author demonstrated his advertising skill, and deserved to win. The other on acculturation and branding struck the judges because of the impact of its branding logo that immediately indicated what the research was about.

The training had suggested that less is more, to keep it simple, but a lot of those that won seemed to have heaps of small writing, and even included references, which to me is more what you want in a report than in a poster. One particularly striking poster didn't win, which was a shame. Perhaps, it had the same problem that mine had; insufficient methodological detail.

One of the judges afterwards gave me individual feedback. I needed to indicate my hypothesis and show that I'd done a preliminary case study with some quotes from it. She said it was all in my head, but not on my poster. So I'd better redesign it for the OUBS research week at the end of June.

Project management skills

I'd remarked to my supervisors that a project manager doesn't need technical skills, but they have queried it.

Gray says that a project manager needs "only rudimentary technical skills" {Gray, 2008} but goes on to remark that he/she also needs orchestrating skills to get people to make the right decisions at the right time. I want to find some public sector literature that remarks on the skills that a project manager needs. There is probably something on the OGC site and probably something in PRINCE2. The OGC site on project manager gives responsibilities, skills and attributes. It also has a concise diagram of where the PM fits in.

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Gray, C. F. and Larson, E. W. (2008) Project management: the managerial process, (4 Edn), McGraw-Hill, NY. 798

Fun fiddling

• A Third Year Student here researches festivals.
• Festivals include musicians
• Musicians play violins.
• So TYS is learning the violin.

She came in with her violin and the other two students already in noticed it, so she played a little. Then three more of us arrived and listened, so she got a clap. No-one else was in to be bothered. Friday is quiet in the OU.

We have an open plan office so we can be sociable. But we have to be careful not to be too noisy too often because we'll distract each other from work. It's a good atmosphere.