Organizational Network Analysis through the lens of historical events
Have you ever wondered how power and influence are distributed among a group of individuals in an organization? One way is to look at the organizational chart that is published by Human Resources (hierarchy), the alternative is the informal way that things get done (networks).
This comes from one of my favorite authors, Niall Ferguson (fully acknowledging my biases). His book ,The Cash Nexus and the Ascent of Money, played an influential role in how I thought about the financial markets so I was eagerly excited when he released The Square and the Tower back in 2018.
By nature Niall is a historian and in this book he takes a fascinating look at the power dynamics between formal and informal networks. He has stated that the inspiration for this book came from the research he was doing for his book on Henry Kissinger. As Naill was researching, he realized that Kissinger saw the world moving away from mid-twenty century hierarchies into a new world where networks would be more important. In fact there was an article in 1973 that stated he was the most connected man in the world! Below is an example of how the Nixon-Ford network was connected and where Kissinger was positioned. It illustrates how he was positioned in both power and connectivity to others. When companies do this exercise, it is called an Organizational Network Analysis.
Read the full articles about this book on Clairmont Advisors website by Shad Rogers.