Ethical Dilemma
It is two days before your performance appraisal. Your
performance this quarter has been less than desirable. You came
close to reaching your sales targets, but you did not meet them,
and you are hoping to still get the merit pay raise to be
determined as a result of your performance appraisal. You do not
really like your manager, but you are hoping to advance in this
company, and being on your manager’s good side may be a good idea
both for your current performance appraisal and for your future in
this company.
- You are now at a meeting with your manager and a group of
employees. Your manager is giving financial information to all
employees about different markets. Yet, some of this information is
inaccurate, which could lead to wrong pricing decisions and loss of
money by the company. If you correct him, though, he would most
likely get upset with you because he does not like being corrected.
Would you correct him? How and when?
- Today is also the day on which your manager’s boss is
collecting information about your manager’s leadership style, so
that they can give him a 360-degree appraisal. They assure you that
your comments about your manager will remain confidential, but the
nature of your thoughts is such that he probably would guess you
are the person who made those comments. Specifically, you think
that your manager takes offense easily, has a bad temper, and could
be more effective in time management. Would you share your thoughts
with your manager’s manager?
- You are now at the coffee shop and grabbing a cup of coffee and
some pastries. You notice that they have almond coffee cake, which
is your manager’s favorite. Would you pick some up for your
manager?
Individual Exercise
Map Your Social Network (Carpenter
& Sanders, 2007; Wasserman & Faust, 1994; Watt, 2003)
- Step 1: Think of a specific objective you have at work or
school that involves other people. Once you have thought of an
objective, jot it down.
- Step 2: Use Figure 13.15 to list 5 to 15 people at your school
or in your professional network who you have regular contact with
and who are relevant to the objective you identified.
- Step 3: Rate how tightly connected you are with the people in
your network by placing a check in the corresponding column (barely
connected, loosely connected, somewhat connected, or tightly
connected) on the right-hand side of their name.
- Step 4: Circle the name of anyone who has introduced you to 4
or more new people since you have known them.
- Step 5: In Figure 13.16, place a check mark in the intersecting
box of people that know each other. For example, if person 1 knows
person 2, put a check mark under the 2 at the top of the table.
Continue to do this throughout the grid (grayed boxes should be
left blank).
- Step 6: Analyze your network using the guidelines on the
following calculations.
- Step 7: Consider ways to strengthen your network.
Figure 13.15

Figure 13.16

Let’s see how your social network adds
up:
Calculating Network Size
The number of people you listed in your own network for this
situation
N =
_____
Calculating Network Density
It is important to understand what the maximum density of your
network is. This refers to how dense it would be if everyone in your network knew each
other.
(N * (N
− 1)/2 = M) or ( _____ * ( _____ − 1)/2 = M)
M =
_____
Total number of checkmarks in Figure 13.16, which represents
number of relationships among people in your network.
C =
_____
Density of your network (will range between 0 and 1)
C / M =
D
_____/_____= D
D =
_____
Network Size
N = number of people in your network. The more people in your
network, the greater the amount of information and possibly access
to greater resources you have. We stopped at 15 people but many
individuals have more people in their network than 15.
Network Strength
The strength of your network is also important. You can talk
about this in terms of percentages of your relationships. What
percentage are very tightly connected? Close? Somewhat connected?
Or barely connected?
- ___% Tightly Connected
- ___% Somewhat Connected
- ___% Loosely Connected
- ___% Barely Connected
For most people, it would be hard to manage a huge network where
all the ties are very close, just by virtue of the amount of time
and energy it takes to satisfy the conditions for closeness.
Identifying Central Connectors
Count how many names you circled in step 4. Each of these
individuals plays a special role in your network as they are
central connectors who serve to expand your network by introducing
you to new people. If you are also a central connector, this can be
a benefit to assessing information as long as you are able to keep
the network from distracting you from your work.
Network Density
Network density is important. When a person’s network density is
1.0 that indicates that everyone in the network knows everyone
else. Whether this is good or bad depends on a few things. For
example, if everyone in your network has additional networks they
belong to as well, you would be playing a central role in their
networks and you would be a boundary spanner. But, if they also
have high network density, the odds are that no new information is
getting introduced into your group. You are basically a closed loop
in which the same people interact with one another, and it is
challenging to assess changes in the environment or to be
innovative.
Social networks change over time depending on your tenure in an
industry or company. The longer you have been in a given industry,
the more likely it is that you will see your network size begin to
shrink and become more dense.
Consider factors relating to power and influence and how you
might go about strengthening and increasing the size of your
network.
What are the pros and cons of doing so?
Group Exercise
In a group, analyze the following individuals in terms of their
potential power bases. The first step is to discuss which types of
power a person with the job listed on the left-hand column could
have. If you can think of an example of them having a type of
power, write the example in that column.
Table 13.1
|
Legitimate power |
Reward power |
Coercive power |
Information power |
Referent power |
Flight attendant |
|
|
|
|
|
Computer programmer |
|
|
|
|
|
Executive assistant |
|
|
|
|
|
Manager |
|
|
|
|
|
Mailroom person |
|
|
|
|
|
Customer service representative |
|
|
|
|
|
CEO |
|
|
|
|
|
References
Carpenter, M.A., & Sanders, W.M. (2007). Strategic Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Education.
Wasserman, S., & Faust, K. (1994). Social network analysis:
Methods and applications. NY: Cambridge University Press.
Watt, D.J. (2003). Six degrees: The science
of the connected age. NY: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd.