A successful organization depends on several factors. The first factor is effective communication. Having an effective communication structure enhances coordination, cooperation and teamwork among employees. Formal communication structures based on professional roles, organizational charts, workflows, and functional boundaries may not reveal complex interactions in the business. Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) Summit 2022 can reveal such a situation.
What is Organizational Network Analysis?
It is a system for mapping, visualizing and analyzing new networks existing within an organization. Employees naturally create systems outside formal and hierarchical structures for problem-solving, information sharing, decision-making, and mutual support. Through these networks, employees can interact informally, achieving maximum productivity and efficiency. Organizational network analysis helps you find and adopt more efficient and results-oriented networks.
Benefits of Organizational Network Analysis
A study by Price Waterhouse Coopers found that employees are more responsive and less resistant to changes initiated and managed through informal structures. This survey encourages organizations to move from traditional formal hierarchical networks to modern informal networks.
Thus, Organizational Network Analysis is important because
- Rivals of the relationship between the actual appearance of the organization’s information flow to identify, assess and streamline the structure.
- Identify the main players and the most influential employees to increase communication flow and improve financial results and performance.
- Identify strategy and innovation groups and help them find key resources to leverage them and increase the business’s competitive advantage.
- Establish new ways to respond better by collaborating and communicating with employees more efficiently. This is especially necessary when starting changes such as the adoption of new technologies and cultures, restructuring, etc.
- The same proof of a company’s endorsable consolidation and the way to improve such consolidation.
Application Organizational Network Analysis
Organizational Network Analysis is appropriate in many areas of the composition. The required application is identified by:
Identification of the leader of the emergence
Traditionally, most companies identify leaders of emergence based on experience, qualifications or historical success. This top-down approach may promote incompetent or unproductive employees at the expense of those essential to organizational success. With a bottom-up approach, you can hear who your employees depend on to make decisions. You can also identify emerging leaders who are trusted to solve problems and motivate other employees. This allows you to select the best leader among your employees.
Secure human resources
It has been reported that employee turnover will be higher if they feel unvalued or unmotivated. With Organizational Network Analysis, you can determine employee-manager relationships, access to personal employee support, and contribution to decision-making and problem solving across more extensive networks. If employees lack access to support, have a bad relationship with their manager, or are unmotivated, they can begin taking corrective action before it is too late.
Employee development
To succeed, strategic leadership must be developed and maintained consistently. Such leaders can achieve results in a matrix environment, collaborate with different functions, and lead without relying on power. A leader’s network must support creativity, positive energy, resilience, influence and execution. With ONA, you can use these elements to determine whether a leader is an effective leader today.
Understanding data within an organization can be complex, especially when it comes to human capital. Transforming your organization is critical to any business. To make the right decisions based on the data you collect using organizational network analysis, you need people trained to understand how to collect information, analyze and interpret it, make accurate decisions, and effectively transform your organization.
How to get started with ONAs
The Connected Commons offers several ways to start quickly with organizational network analysis and the ONA network principles.
Agility Accelerator: This rapid ONA platform provides quick visibility and analysis of communications and collaboration, providing insight into workflows within teams, groups or departments, and most importantly, providing survey-based recommendations to improve quickly. With Agility Accelerator, any business leader can deploy and analyze results in just one week without needing technical or analytical expertise.
Custom ONA project: For larger data collection and analysis, including across employees and regions, we build custom organizational network analysis projects tailored to your needs, providing tools and resources for data deployment, analysis, and response.
Connected Commons membership: Join a consortium of leading organizations to access virtual classes on how to implement ONAs and participate in workshops and meetings to advance and apply the principles of network analysis. You can access Connected Commons through your i4cp membership.
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