Using social networks theory as a complementary perspective to the study of organizational change

• Autor(a) principal: Ferreira, Manuel Portugal
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Outros Autores: Armagau, Sungu
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/6163
• topic: Organizational change; Social networks

This paper contributes to the literature on organizational change by examining organizations as social entities embedded in inter-organizational networks. In contrast with extant research that focuses on macro environmental and internal factors to explain organizational change, we put forth the social network surrounding the firm as a major driver of any change process. Specifically, we examine organizational change as driven by the organizations’ positions and relations in an interorganizational network, and advance a set of theory driven propositions on innovation, imitation, inertia, structural equivalence and structural positioning. Our conceptual discussion demonstrates that inter-organizational networks are important in complementing the macroenvironment and internal organizational factors for the study of organizational changes. We conclude with a discussion on normative implications for organizations and avenues for future research.