The Network Perspective in Organization Studies: Network Organizations or Network Analysis?

Abstract

ABSTRACT The 'Network Perspective' has emerged as an important influence in organization and management research over the last few decades. The perspective in this context has no specific definition; instead it generally encompasses the notion of and the techniques of analysis, both of which have long histories in sociology. In this paper we examine empirical articles which use a perspective in organization studies to see how the use of analysis and how the concept of 'network organizations' is addressed. It is argued that the use of analysis and the concept of 'network organizations' have little overlap in the literature. The findings show that the use of analysis techniques is firmly established, however it is not used in investigating organizations. The literature addressing organizations is largely theoretical with only a few qualitative empirical studies. Several reasons for the lack of empirical research on organizations are proposed. INTRODUCTION The notion of a and the use of analysis have a long and established history in sociology and have been adapted and adopted by other disciplines. In the last few decades many scholars studying organizations and management have used a perspective in their research. We consider the 'network perspective' as investigating organizations and/or using analysis. In this paper we will examine the use of a perspective in organization and management research. Background information on analysis is presented first. This includes a brief discussions about the basic concepts, history and types of analysis. In the next section two aspects of the perspective in organization and management research are explored. Specifically the use of analysis and the concept of a 'network organization' are addressed. Next a structured review of the literature is presented in order to examine the use of a perspective in organization research. The conclusion drawn from this review is that the prevalent aspects of a perspective, analysis and the 'network organization', are virtually mutually exclusive in the literature. The paper concludes with a discussion of this issue and some possible explanations. NETWORK ANALYSIS Network Analysis (NA) can most generally be construed as an approach to the study of social structure. As such, it seeks primarily to describe concrete relations and patterns of relations among social - where actors can mean individuals or groups of individuals. It is secondarily (and more ambitiously) concerned with describing the behavioral effects of such patterns of relations (Galaskiewicz & Wasserman, 1 994). The origins of contemporary NA are in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and graph theory (Holland & Leinhardt, 1979). It is a relatively new area (late 50's) with much activity since the mid 70's. Indeed its adherents now regard it as a paradigm. However, the conceptual roots of a network can be traced quite far back to Simmel's conception of a formal sociology (Simmel, 1 950), Durkheims social morphology, and more recently to Moreno's sociometry, as well as others (Turner, 1991). Much criticism has been leveled at Network Analysis (see Mizruchi, 1994 for a brief review). Chief among these criticisms is that NA is long on mathematics and methods, but short on theory and substance. However this has not stemmed the volume and range of work utilizing the approach. Studies of social systems as networks are growing rapidly in many areas in social science. Indeed NAs empirical emphasis and use of sophisticated mathematics gives it a kind of rigorous grip on social structure (and hence a legitimacy) that is absent in much social theory. But it also may be true that these same qualities make it unattractive to many in the field. …