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Emergence of multidimensional social networks
Abstract
Organizational communication as a field of study has grown tremendously over the past thirty years. This growth is characterized by the development and application of communication perspectives to research on complex organizations in rapidly changing environments. Completely re-conceptualized, The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Communication, Third Edition, is a landmark volume that weaves together the various threads of this interdisciplinary area of scholarship. This edition captures both the changing nature of the field, with its explosion of theoretical perspectives and research agendas, and the transformations that have occurred in organizational life with the emergence of new forms of work, globalization processes, and changing organizational forms. Exploring organizations as complex and dynamic, the Handbook brings a communication lens to bear on multiple organizing processes.
Supplementary resource (1)
... From a network structural perspective, ego-level reciprocity is defined as balanced indegree and outdegree connections for individuals. This concept emphasizes the interactions between the ego and their direct social connections, analyzing how often favors, support, or even representational or performative communication (Shumate & Contractor, 2013) are exchanged between egos and alters. Ego-level reciprocity is crucial for understanding the dynamics of social support and the balance of interactions within personal networks (Wasserman & Faust, 1994). ...
... There are two problems. First, because of the robustness, over time and circumstance, of the finding that there can be quite significant differences in flow as observed and as perceived, Schumate and Contractor (2013) include that distinction as a fundamental dimension in their important analyses of flow. They argue that perceived flow, like perceived networks, should be treated analytically as subjects different in kind from those that are observed. ...
This chapter analyzes the history of the meaning of the word "flow" as a means of grasping all of the implications of the importance that this word has come to play in thinking about the Internet and all aspects of digital information flows in the 21st century.
... In his analysis of alliance building in the online network of 55 British health campaign groups, Simpson (2015) draws most explicitly on network theory to show how shared multiplex ties to third parties contribute to triadic closure and the activation of alliances. Drawing more or less systematically on the organizational studies literature on alliances (Kenis and Knoke 2002;Shumate and Contractor 2014), these discussions also significantly overlap with analyses of coalition building, so popular in social movement research As alliance building is explored elsewhere in this volume (see Chapter 14 by Brooker and Meyer), here we will focus on the role of activists in generating, through their involvement in multiple organizations and activities, an important relational level within collective action fields. Building on Simmel (1955) and his revisiting by Breiger (1974), we can detect both ties between individuals and ties between organiza tions. ...
This chapter reviews some of the key literature on networks and movements. The first section looks at the issue of networks and mobilization, asking why and how networks can either facilitate or inhibit mobilization and exploring their importance for the diffusion of movement goods. This is followed by a discussion of the role of networks in recruitment. The second section looks at social movements as a peculiar network form, usually embedded in larger organizational settings. It charts the development in social movement research since the 1970s of approaches looking at collective action fields or related concepts such as areas, sectors, etc. Then it illustrates the variety of network patterns through which collective action may be coordinated within fields. The chapter concludes with a few remarks on how to bring a time dimension into the analysis of movement networks.
... The SSM (Shumate & O'Connor, 2010b) conceptualizes the set of B2N partnerships as a representational communication network. Shumate and Contractor (2013) describe four different types of communication networks: flow, affinity, semantic, and representational. At the interorganizational level, flow networks describe the transmission of messages, information, or resources among actors. ...
Using the symbiotic sustainability model as a framework, this research investigates how many and with which businesses top nonprofit organizations report partnerships. We examined the websites of the 122 largest, most recognizable U.S. nonprofits. These websites included information about 2,418 business–nonprofit (B2N) partnerships with 1,707 unique businesses. The results suggest key differences with previous research on how U.S. Fortune 500 companies report B2N partnerships. Leading nonprofits report more B2N partnerships than U.S. Fortune 500 companies do. Furthermore, nonprofits do not maintain industry exclusivity in reporting B2N partnerships, like their business counterparts do. Finally, social issue industries do not exert the same isomorphic pressures on B2N partnerships that economic industries do. New propositions that extend the symbiotic sustainability model are presented to account for nonprofits’ unique goals for capital accumulation in B2N partnering and the industry characteristics.
... In his analysis of alliance building in the online network of 55 British health campaign groups, Simpson (2015) draws most explicitly on network theory to show how shared multiplex ties to third parties contribute to triadic closure and the activation of alliances. Drawing more or less systematically on the organizational studies literature on alliances (Kenis and Knoke 2002;Shumate and Contractor 2014), these discussions also significantly overlap with analyses of coalition building, so popular in social movement research As alliance building is explored elsewhere in this volume (see Chapter 14 by Brooker and Meyer), here we will focus on the role of activists in generating, through their involvement in multiple organizations and activities, an important relational level within collective action fields. Building on Simmel (1955) and his revisiting by Breiger (1974), we can detect both ties between individuals and ties between organiza tions. ...
Since the interest in social movements started to develop in the 1960s, the relation between networks and movements has been analyzed from two perspectives. By far the most popular one has treated networks as important facilitators of individuals' decisions to become—and remain—involved in collective action (e.g., McAdam 1988; Kitts 2000). This reflected, on the one hand, the need to stress the social embeddedness of movement participants, in contrast to their earlier characterizations as marginal and disorderly personalities (McAdam 2003: 281–284), on the other, the interest in identifying the mechanisms behind people's commitment to collective causes, contributing to the debate inspired by Mancur Olson's seminal work on The Logic of Collective Action. At the same time, analysts have looked at social movement networks as the structure of the links between the multiplicity of organizations and individual activists, committed to a certain cause. From this perspective, movement networks have been treated as the consequence, rather than the precondition, of collective action, a specific instance of the broader processes through which actors modify social structures through agency. More specifically, looking at the configuration of movement networks has provided observers with a clue to grasp the logics by which movement actors choose their partners, thus generating broader and complex organizational fields (e.g., Diani 1995).
Organizational political ideology has recently received research attention, as more organizations engage in political activities to influence public policy and political regulation. However, there lacks a focus on interor-ganizational relationships as part of an organization's political agenda. This study investigates political ideology as a mechanism of interorganizational relationship-building through politically active organizations' agenda-building efforts. The study measures organizational political ideology through political donations, and investigates how it affects organizational relationship-building through press releases. We adopt a social network approach to examine interorganizational relationships predicted by the political ideology of the organization and the CEO at both the nodal and structural levels. After a computational analysis of 174,118 press releases by top political organizational donors, the findings show that an organization's political ideology affected the mentions it received (i.e., in-degree), whereas its CEO's political ideology affected its mentions of other organizations (i.e., out-degree). Value homophily did not significantly influence interorganizational representational networks, but mutuality and transitivity affected distinct patterns of connections among politically active organizations.
NGOs are important civil actors in societies’ emergency and disaster responses, and they come together on social media to identify prominent issues and coordinate issue responses. This research explores how U.S. NGO form topic-driven communities on social media to discuss and build representational strategic networks around issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing from Issue Niche Theory, we examined how NGOs’ networks and discourse evolved before and after the general public paid great attention to the COVID-19 issue and how such patterns changed across the whole issue niche and sub-issue niches. We analyzed the evolution of Twitter-based networks and discourse of 2,588 NGOs in the first five months of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. Our analysis revealed important factors that shape tie formation patterns in the NGOs’ communities in this novel issue niche. We also found that NGOs’ discourses help to orient the organizational community to identify most salient issues. Finally, we found that changes in the discourse patterns reflected changes in the communication networks in the NGO community.
Grounded in the theoretical frameworks of the alliance theory and the collective action theory, this study examines the global network structures of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and their cross-sector relationships on social media and explains the predictors of the relationships. More specifically, we conduct a network analysis to examine the network structure of international communication organizations and their cross-sector relationships on Twitter. This study found that INGOs and IGOs are more likely to establish following relationships on Twitter with the same type of organizations. Furthermore, educational level and cultural context influence their cross-sector relationships. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are also discussed.
The concept of relationships is one that is central to numerous subfields within communication, including interpersonal, organizational, and public relations. This conceptual paper investigates the notion of relationships and proposes a framework to understand and explicate corporate-community relationships (CCRs), a specific type of organization-public relationships (OPRs). In developing this framework, we draw upon existing literature and our experiences in Liberia related to natural resource management (NRM) as part of a multi-year collaborative peacebuilding initiative. We advance a framework of CCRs that (a) helps develop further empirical research and knowledge about these relationships and (b) contributes to the practice of more transformative relationships between Western and Asian multinational corporations (MNCs) and local communities in West Africa and beyond. This framework puts forth our conceptualization of CCRs as (a) constituted by the communicative, (b) dynamic, constantly influenced by macro and micro factors, and (c) complex. Drawing on our framework, we also advance some guiding questions for a research agenda in this area.
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