Uncovering & building social capital

Question 1

Social capital (power)

Answer 1

Relationships with others- friends, colleagues, and more general contacts through whom you receive opportunities to use your financial and human capital

Question 2

Capital

Answer 2

Resource that enables people and organizations to create value, get things done, and achieve goals

Question 3

Financial capital

Answer 3

cash in hand, reserves in the bank, investments coming due

Question 4

Human capital

Answer 4

health, intelligence, charm, looks

Question 5

Benefits of Social Capital

Answer 5

Timing- knowing important information before competitors

Access- receiving valuable information

Referrals- getting your name to the right people at the right time

Diversity- knowing different types of information

Question 6

Social Capital is not a free lunch

Answer 6

• is not idle
• not exclusively yours
• add value
• actively managing social capital

Question 7

Types of Ties

Answer 7

Strong or weak

Question 8

Strong tie

Answer 8

• Interact frequently
• Similar interests, attitudes, demographic, characteristics
• Know each other well
• Closely related

Question 9

Weak tie

Answer 9

• Rarely interact
• Not similar to each other
• Don’t know each other well
• Not closely related

Question 10

Benefits of Strong Tie

Answer 10

• Trust
• Emotional support
• Promotes cohesion

Question 11

Benefits of Weak Tie

Answer 11

• Diverse information
• Diverse talent
• Shortens path lengths

-Often can help you get a job

Question 12

Milgram’s Test (1967)

Answer 12

Most chains found their way through a small number of intermediaries

1. Letters got to Boston much quicker than Milgram had theorized
2. Letters disproportionately went through a few really well connected people

Most chains found their way through a small number of intermediaries

Question 13

What makes the world small?

Answer 13

Even when most of our connections are local, any pair of people can be connected by a fairly small number of relational steps (few degrees of separation)

Question 14

Fully connected network

Answer 14

All direct, path length=1

Question 15

Star network

Answer 15

Only one central connection, path length=2

Question 16

Characteristics of Dense Networks

Answer 16

• Everyone in the network tends to know the same information
• everyone in the network tends to have the same perspective on the world
• Cohesive group, with power to motivate and monitor its members
• These characteristics can be both good (foster trust) and bad (tough to reinvent yourself, lack of diversity of thought)

Question 17

Characteristics of sparse networks

Answer 17

• More contacts who don’t know each other
• Limited number of strong ties, many weak ties
• Greater diversity of contacts
  - Across parts of your firms
  - Across hierarchical levels
  - Outside of your firm

Question 18

Why are there so many benefits to sparse networks?

Answer 18

Structural holes are opportunities
information benefit + control benefit

Anytime a network is not connect to another network there is a structural hole

Because you have control, you can be an information broker

Question 19

Evolution of typical netowrk

Answer 19

Eventually grows flabby– everyone is connected

Question 20

Targeted network expansion

Answer 20

Most networks tend to have too much closure and not enough brokerage – lean network

Question 21

Why do dense networks occur?

Answer 21

1. Self-similarity principle

2. Proximity principle

Question 22

Self-similarity principle

Answer 22

We are inclined to form ties with people who have similar backgrounds, interests, training, and experience

Question 23

Proximity principle

Answer 23

We are inclined to form ties with people who are in the same departments, units, and teams as ourselves

Question 24

Shared activity principle

Answer 24

A diverse, cross-section of people engaged in the same activity

Question 25

Potent networks

Answer 25

• Not forged through casual interactions
• But rather through relatively high-stakes or high-passion activities that connect you w/ diverse others

Maximize the benefits of both types of networks

Question 26

Network traps

Answer 26

• focusing on having a “big” network
• only networking up or becoming very dependent on the few
• idle social capital “absent ties”
• Social Media