Influence of organisational changes on social networks - A longitudinal study of knowledge sharing and cooperation of PhD. students

Abstract

Knowledge sharing and co-operation within groups are to some extend the result of social capital as studies have shown. One reason is that due to trust the risks of opportunistic behaviour are minimized. Shared norms, values and understandings are other reasons, as Social Capital is defined as the outcome for individuals from networks which fulfil these criteria. Other conditions are proximity, the quality of relationships in psychological, cultural, social and physical dimensions which influences quality and quantity of communication and common target, areas of interest and expertise. Another criterion is space, as networking needs real, virtual or mental space to develop and spread. Informal networks, which are a powerful source of collaboration and a gateway for information and knowledge, always depend on communication, as the development of trust is highly influenced by unconscious artefacts (e. g.: body language). Therefore the design and architecture of offices play a vivid role for the creation of informal intra-organisational networks. As a result changes to the items that influence social networks will also affect knowledge sharing and co-operation within groups. The aim of this paper(1) is to evaluate the thesis that organizational changes have an effect on informal social networks, especially relations focused on information exchange and knowledge sharing. On the basis of a longitudinal survey of a group of PhD students at the Faculty of Management and Economics at Tomas Bata University this topic will be analysed. Via online questionnaire data about the social relations prior to and after organizational changes, which include relocation of offices, implementation of joint meetings and unofficial gatherings, has been collected. The special characteristic about this group of students is that almost a third of them are from different countries other than the Czech Republic. The lack of integration of those students, due to linguistic and cultural barriers made organisational changes necessary for the benefit of both, the local students and the foreign students. In an online questionnaire to all full-time Ph.D. Students, the respondents were asked to declare specific relations they had to their colleagues, such as professional and private communication, office sharing and joint-publication activities. Based on Social Network Analysis of whole networks using Ucinet and netdraw, the findings showed that there is positive effect of specific organisational changes on knowledge-sharing and co-operation of students as well as productivity in terms of publication outputs.