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1 – 10 of over 115000
Book part
Publication date: 14 November 2003

M.A.L.M van Assen

In this study negotiated exchange under the 1-exchange rule is considered in the whole population of 142,660 exchange networks up to size 9. A review shows that 51 of these…

Abstract

In this study negotiated exchange under the 1-exchange rule is considered in the whole population of 142,660 exchange networks up to size 9. A review shows that 51 of these networks have been studied in the literature. Predictions for the whole population of networks are derived by parsimonious versions of power-dependence and exchange-resistance theory. All but 301 networks are classified similarly as equal, weak, or strong power networks by the power-dependence and exchange-resistance theory. Only 4% of the networks is classified as a strong power network, as opposed to the 43% of the networks studied in the literature.

Details

Power and Status
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-030-2

Book part
Publication date: 14 July 2014

Martin Gargiulo and Gokhan Ertug

Weak organizational actors can overcome the consequences of their dependence by securing the control of valuable resources or by embedding dependence relationships into social…

Abstract

Weak organizational actors can overcome the consequences of their dependence by securing the control of valuable resources or by embedding dependence relationships into social networks. While these strategies may not eliminate the underlying dependence, they can curtail the ability or the willingness of the stronger party to use power. Embedding strategies, however, can also have unintended consequences. Because the network structures that confer power to the weak are inherently more stable, they can persist beyond the point of being beneficial, trapping weak actors into unsuitable network structures. The power of the weak can thus become the weakness of the strong.

Details

Contemporary Perspectives on Organizational Social Networks
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-751-1

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 June 2019

Daniel Esene Okojie, Adisa Abdul-Ganiyu Jimoh, Yskandar Hamam and Adebayo Ademola Yusuff

This paper aims to survey the need for full capacity utilisation of transmission lines in power systems network operations. It proposes a review of the N-1 security criterion that…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to survey the need for full capacity utilisation of transmission lines in power systems network operations. It proposes a review of the N-1 security criterion that does not ensure reliable dispatch of optimum power flow during outage contingency. The survey aims to enlarge the network capacity utilisation to rely on the entire transmission lines network operation.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper suggests transmission line switching (TLS) approach as a viable corrective mechanism for power dispatch. The TLS process is incorporated into a constraint programming language extension optimisation solver that selects the switchable line candidates as integer variables in the mixed integer programming problem.

Findings

The paper provides a practical awareness of reserve capacity in the lines that provide network security in outage contingency. At optimum power flow dispatch, the TLS is extended to optimal transmission line switching (OTLS) that indicates optimal capacity utilisation (OCU) of the available reserve capacity (ARC) in the network lines.

Practical implications

Computational efficiency influenced the extension of the OTLS to optimal transmission switching of power flow (OTSPF). The application of OTSPF helps reduce the use of flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) and construction of new transmission lines..

Originality/value

The paper surveys TLS efforts in network capacity utilisation. The suggested ARC fulfils the need for an index with which the dispatchable lines may be identified for the optimal capacity utilisation of transmission lines network.

Details

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology , vol. 17 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1726-0531

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 30 March 2021

Kate McLoughlin and Joanne Meehan

The purpose of this paper is to examine how, and by whom, institutional logics are determined in the action of sustainable organisation. The authors analyse a supply chain network

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how, and by whom, institutional logics are determined in the action of sustainable organisation. The authors analyse a supply chain network structure to understand how multiple stakeholders' perceptions of sustainability emerge into a dominant logic and diffuse across an organisational field.

Design/methodology/approach

Stakeholder network theory provides novel insights into emerging logics within a chocolate supply chain network. Semi-structured interviews with 35 decision-makers were analysed alongside 269 company documents to capture variations in emergent logics. The network was mapped to include 63 nodes and 366 edges to analyse power structure and mechanisms.

Findings

The socio-economic organising principles of sustainable organisation, their sources of power and their logics are identified. Economic and social logics are revealed, yet the dominance of economic logics creates risks to their coexistence. Logics are largely shaped in pre-competitive activities, and resource fitness to collaborative clusters limits access for non-commercial actors.

Research limitations/implications

Powerful firms use network structures and collaborative and concurrent inter-organisational relationships to define and diffuse their conceptualisation of sustainability and restrict competing logics.

Originality/value

This novel study contributes to sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) through presenting the socio-economic logic as a new conceptual framework to understand the action of sustainable organisation. The identification of sophisticated mechanisms of power and hegemonic control in the network opens new research agendas.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 41 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2012

H. Cenk Sozen

Social network theory can help management scholars to understand how the pattern of social ties between employees can lead to unpredictable consequences. Sometimes people…

3932

Abstract

Purpose

Social network theory can help management scholars to understand how the pattern of social ties between employees can lead to unpredictable consequences. Sometimes people occupying lower positions in organizations, like junior‐level secretaries, can be quite powerful and effective. Such consequences appear to be related to their status in the social networks they operate. The aim of this paper is to determine the level of the relationship between the network status and power of junior‐level office secretaries.

Design/methodology/approach

Two different methodological approaches were used to test the basic claims of this study. First, social network analysis was applied to network data gathered from 80 employees working in six academic departments and four administrative units, and then qualitative research techniques were used to explain the findings of the study. Interviews were carried out with 35 academicians.

Findings

The findings suggest that the secretaries have strong positions in terms of brokerage and network centrality. The results of interviews indicate that they use their social connections between academic and administrative departments to create various kinds of dependencies.

Practical implications

This research shows that secretaries may have high power potential in organizations, and those who are aware of their strong positions in a social network can use this for their self‐interests.

Originality/value

Social network theory and methodology have never been used to determine and explain the critical role of secretaries in organizations in the management literature. This study may give management scholars further ideas to explain how some organizational positions can provide advantage to the focal actors to construct social ties in organizations.

Details

Personnel Review, vol. 41 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0048-3486

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 8 November 2010

Marcel A.L.M. van Assen

The present study increases our understanding of strong power in exchange networks by examining its incidence in complex networks for the first time and relating this incidence to…

Abstract

The present study increases our understanding of strong power in exchange networks by examining its incidence in complex networks for the first time and relating this incidence to characteristics of these networks. A theoretical analysis based on network exchange theory (e.g., Willer, 1999) suggests two network characteristics predicting strong power; actors with only one potential exchange partner, and the absence of triangles, that is, one's potential exchange partners are not each other's partners. Different large-scale structures such as trees, small worlds, buyer–seller, uniform, and scale-free networks are shown to differ in these two characteristics and are therefore predicted to differ with respect to the incidence of strong power. The theoretical results and those obtained by simulating networks up to size 144 show that the incidence of strong power mainly depends on the density of the network. For high density no strong power is observed in all but buyer–seller networks, whereas for low density strong power is frequent but dependent on the large-scale structure and the two aforementioned network characteristics.

Details

Advances in Group Processes
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-329-4

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 19 August 2021

Kristin L. Cullen-Lester, Caitlin M. Porter, Hayley M. Trainer, Pol Solanelles and Dorothy R. Carter

The field of Human Resource Management (HRM) has long recognized the importance of interpersonal influence for employee and organizational effectiveness. HRM research and practice…

Abstract

The field of Human Resource Management (HRM) has long recognized the importance of interpersonal influence for employee and organizational effectiveness. HRM research and practice have focused primarily on individuals’ characteristics and behaviors as a means to understand “who” is influential in organizations, with substantially less attention paid to social networks. To reinvigorate a focus on network structures to explain interpersonal influence, the authors present a comprehensive account of how network structures enable and constrain influence within organizations. The authors begin by describing how power and status, two key determinants of individual influence in organizations, operate through different mechanisms, and delineate a range of network positions that yield power, reflect status, and/or capture realized influence. Then, the authors extend initial structural views of influence beyond the positions of individuals to consider how network structures within and between groups – capturing group social capital and/or shared leadership – enable and constrain groups’ ability to influence group members, other groups, and the broader organizational system. The authors also discuss how HRM may leverage these insights to facilitate interpersonal influence in ways that support individual, group, and organizational effectiveness.

Details

Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-430-5

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 January 2014

Anni-Kaisa Kähkönen

This paper aims to analyze the influence of power on the depth of collaboration by discussing the power relations and collaborative relationships between buyers and suppliers in…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze the influence of power on the depth of collaboration by discussing the power relations and collaborative relationships between buyers and suppliers in networks. The aim is to shed light on how power position in a network influences the depth of collaboration.

Design/methodology/approach

The study utilizes a case research as a method and analyzes a network from the Finnish food industry. The empirical data comprises 29 semi-structured interviews conducted among the personnel of four case companies.

Findings

The findings of the study suggest that the network actors' power relations affect the form of the relationships. It seems that power influences the depth of collaboration, which is minimal if the actors do not have balanced power positions. Highlighting the importance of the network context, the results also indicate that the role and position in the network may crucially determine the character of the power relations if the actors are otherwise in balanced positions.

Practical implications

The results have implications for purchasing and supply chain managers and practitioners in terms of shedding light on the relation between power and collaboration. It enhances understanding of how power influences collaboration, and of how a wider network perspective could determine the power relations between the companies. Managers need to be aware of the effects of power on the nature of their relationships and, moreover, on the depth of collaboration. This enhances their ability to determine their positions in relation to other companies, and to develop relationships offering opportunities for deeper collaboration.

Originality/value

The literature review reveals that the issues of power and collaboration in the network context have rarely been connected and discussed in relation to each other. This constitutes a clear and notable research gap given the implication that the relation between power and collaboration, in terms of the influence of power position, is still an unexplored area. Moreover, whereas most previous studies on the phenomenon of power concentrate on analyzing dyadic relationships, this study raises the question of the network context.

Details

Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, vol. 19 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-8546

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 6 September 2019

Samah Abdelsabour Abdelhaey

This paper aims to study individuals in international relations especially private individuals in global politics. Therefore the paper focuses on analyzing the case of Mark…

3813

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to study individuals in international relations especially private individuals in global politics. Therefore the paper focuses on analyzing the case of Mark Zuckerberg the founder and chief executive of Facebook who affects the international arena. The paper illustrates Zuckerberg’s strategies to assert wide influence and power within Facebook’s network and through multiple networks.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper follows new theories of studying the human agent in international relations, concentrating on private individuals as new actors in international relations (IR). Thus, depending on “network making power theory” and the “three-dimensional power perspectives; (discursive, structural and instrumental)”, the paper illustrates the case of Mark Zuckerberg as a private entrepreneur and his authority in the era of social media dominance with a focus on: Zuckerberg's discursive/ideational power strategy. Zuckerberg’s strategy to work as a switcher through multiple networks. The most obvious one is the Facebook network, through which he can assert global influence.

Findings

Formal state officials are not the only type of individuals who can affect international relations. Technological evolution has empowered private individuals as influential actors in international relations (IR). Interdisciplinary approaches became essential tools in studying new actors affecting IR. There are new patterns of power linked to individuals without formal positions. Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook and global philanthropist, is considered an influential actor in IR depending on programming and switching strategies to assert his power in a networked world.

Originality/value

This paper is able to prove that there are new forms of power which belong to private individuals in a networked world.

Details

Review of Economics and Political Science, vol. 4 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2356-9980

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 September 2007

Rachael Addicott and Ewan Ferlie

The purpose of this paper is to show that networks are emerging as a new, innovative organisational form in the UK public sector. The emergence of more network‐based modes of…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to show that networks are emerging as a new, innovative organisational form in the UK public sector. The emergence of more network‐based modes of organisation is apparent across many public services in the UK but has been particularly evident in the health sector or NHS. Cancer services represent an important and early example, where managed clinical networks (MCNs) for cancer have been established by the UK National Health Service (NHS) as a means of streamlining patient pathways and fostering the flow of knowledge and good practice between the many different professions and organisations involved in care. There is very little understanding of the role of power in public sector networks, and in particular MCNs. This paper aims to explore and theorise the nature of power relations within a network model of governance.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper discusses evidence from five case studies of MCNs for cancer in London.

Findings

The findings in this paper demonstrate that a model of bounded pluralism can be used to understand power relations within London MCNs. However, power over the development of policy and strategic direction is instead exerted in a top‐down manner by the government (e.g. Department of Health) and its associated national bodies.

Practical implications

The paper supports the argument that the introduction of rhetoric of a more collaborative approach to the management of public services has not been enough to destabilise the embedded managerialist framework.

Originality/value

This paper uses empirical data from five case studies of managed clinical networks to theorise the nature of power relations in the development and implementation of network reform in cancer services. Also, there is limited understanding of the nature of power relations in network relationships, particularly in relation to the public sector.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 21 no. 4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 115000