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Strategic Connections: Using Social Netw...

Cross, Rob, Hallid...

Case

Strategic Connections: Using Social Networks to Restructure the IT Department at MWH (B)

Cross, Rob; Halliday, Amy; Gulas, Vic; Parker, Andrew

S-0153 | Published January 12, 2008 | 7 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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In this, the second in a case series on organizational network analysis (ONA), Vic Gulas, the new head of IT at the engineering consulting firm MWH Consulting, is charged with turning a geographically organized department into one organized by function. He knows that the success of the reorganization will depend on effective collaboration, but he cannot get a sense of what collaborative relationships do and do not exist by looking at a formal organizational chart. Instead, Gulas uses ONA, a method for mapping relationships among people in a group. In the ONA results, Gulas sees a group still fragmented by geography and constrained by hierarchy and other gaps in connectivity. The B case presents the network-building steps Gulas took on the basis of the ONA results and the results of a follow-up ONA Gulas conducted two years after the initial analysis. This second ONA revealed a network that was stronger and more appropriately connected in various ways.

Introduce students to the field of organizational network analysis. Explore how a business leader can use a network-based view to gain insights that yield performance improvements. Consider various responses to ONA results.