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Driving innovation in new product development, R&D, or market-facing functions. SNA can isolate how and where leveraging expertise in a network will either support or impede innovation efforts.Promoting lateral coordination throughout an organization. SNA can help identify opportunities in networks that span functions, geographies, or process steps.Improving effectiveness of functions or business units. SNA can help leaders assess the extent to which collaborations throughout their unit are aligned with strategic objectives and generating measurable business value.
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In The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations, Rob Cross and Andrew Parker describe the benefits of using SNA, including: SNA can be used to identify people who are linked, but who may not be part of a formal community. These people can be invited join a community relevant to them. In a KM implementation plan, identify all groups that need to connect, and include boundary spanning as a required knowledge flow. The higher the level of connectedness you can achieve, the more knowledge will flow between groups. You can use social network analysis to help determine the current state of social networks and to identify boundary spanning opportunities. Social network analysis (SNA) can be used to improve communities, identify missing links, and improve connections between groups. SNA provides both a visual and a mathematical analysis of human relationships. The nodes in the network are the people and groups, while the links show relationships or flows between the nodes. Social network analysis is mapping and measuring relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, computers or other information/knowledge processing entities.