Networks for Social Impact

Networks for Social Impact
Author: Michelle Shumate
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2022-01-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0190091991

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A broad review of how nonprofits, businesses, and governments work together to tackle social problems Networks for Social Impact takes a systems approach to explain how and when networks make a social impact. Michelle Shumate and Katherine R. Cooper argue that network design and management is not a one-size-fits-all formula. Instead, they show that the type of social issue, the mechanism for social impact, environment, and resources available each determine appropriate choices. Drawing on research from public administration, psychology, business, network science, social work, and communication, this book synthesizes what we know about how to best design and manage networks. It includes illustrations from thirty original case studies which describe groups of organizations addressing issues such as gender-based violence, educational outcomes, senior care, veterans' services, mental health and wellness, and climate change. Additionally, the volume examines critical issues that leaders address in creating and managing networks, including social issue analysis, network governance, securing and managing funding, dealing with power and conflict, using data effectively, and managing change. Each chapter includes tools for network leaders to use to handle these issues. This book is neither an overly idealistic, pro-collaboration account of the benefits of network approaches, nor is it a critical view of these efforts. Instead, this clear and concise volume highlights the opportunities and challenges of networks.

Impact Networks

Impact Networks
Author: David Ehrlichman
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2021-10-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 152309169X

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This practical guide shows how to facilitate collaboration among diverse individuals and organizations to navigate complexity and create change in our interconnected world. The social and environmental challenges we face today are not only complex, they are also systemic and structural and have no obvious solutions. They require diverse combinations of people, organizations, and sectors to coordinate actions and work together even when the way forward is unclear. Even so, collaborative efforts often fail because they attempt to navigate complexity with traditional strategic plans, created by hierarchies that ignore the way people naturally connect. By embracing a living-systems approach to organizing, impact networks bring people together to build relationships across boundaries; leverage the existing work, skills, and motivations of the group; and make progress amid unpredictable and ever-changing conditions. As a powerful and flexible organizing system that can span regions, organizations, and silos of all kinds, impact networks underlie some of the most impressive and large-scale efforts to create change across the globe. David Ehrlichman draws on his experience as a network builder; interviews with dozens of network leaders; and insights from the fields of network science, community building, and systems thinking to provide a clear process for creating and developing impact networks. Given the increasing complexity of our society and the issues we face, our ability to form, grow, and work through networks has never been more essential.

Connecting to Change the World

Connecting to Change the World
Author: Peter Plastrik
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014-09-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781610915328

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Something new and important is afoot. Nonprofit and philanthropic organizations are under increasing pressure to do more and to do better to increase and improve productivity with fewer resources. Social entrepreneurs, community-minded leaders, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropists now recognize that to achieve greater impact they must adopt a network-centric approach to solving difficult problems. Building networks of like-minded organizations and people offers them a way to weave together and create strong alliances that get better leverage, performance, and results than any single organization is able to do. While the advantages of such networks are clear, there are few resources that offer easily understandable, field-tested information on how to form and manage social-impact networks. Drawn from the authors’ deep experience with more than thirty successful network projects, Connecting to Change the World provides the frameworks, practical advice, case studies, and expert knowledge needed to build better performing networks. Readers will gain greater confidence and ability to anticipate challenges and opportunities. Easily understandable and full of actionable advice, Connecting to Change the World is an informative guide to creating collaborative solutions to tackle the most difficult challenges society faces.

Networks for Social Impact

Networks for Social Impact
Author: Michelle Shumate
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2021
Genre: Business networks
ISBN: 9780190092023

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"Network for Social Impact is a broad review of how nonprofits, businesses, and governments work together to tackle social problems. The book takes a systems approach to explain how networks make a social impact, and when they are unlikely to do so. It argues that network design and management is not a one-size-fits-all formula. Instead, the type of social issue, the mechanism for social impact, environment, and resources available each determine appropriate choices. Drawing on research from public administration, psychology, business, network science, social work, and communication, it synthesizes what we know about how to best design and manage networks. It includes illustrations from thirty original case studies; they describe groups of organizations addressing issues such as gender-based violence, educational outcomes, senior care, veterans' services, mental health and wellness, and climate change. Additionally, the volume describes critical issues that leaders address in creating and managing networks, including social issue analysis, network governance, securing and managing funding, dealing with power and conflict, using data effectively, and managing change. Each chapter includes tools for network leaders to use to handle these issues. This book is neither a Pollyannaish, pro-collaboration account of the benefits of network approaches, nor is it a critical view of these efforts. Instead, it highlights the opportunities and challenges of networks"--

Driving Results Through Social Networks

Driving Results Through Social Networks
Author: Robert L. Cross
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2009-01-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0470392495

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Driving Results Through Social Networks shows executives and managers how to obtain substantial performance and innovation impact by better leveraging these traditionally invisible assets. For the past decade, Rob Cross and Robert J. Thomas have worked closely with executives from over a hundred top-level companies and government agencies. In this groundbreaking book, they describe in-depth how these leaders are using network thinking to increase revenues, lower costs, and accelerate innovation.

The Oxford Handbook of Social Networks

The Oxford Handbook of Social Networks
Author: Ryan Light
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 697
Release: 2020-11-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0197520618

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While some social scientists may argue that we have always been networked, the increased visibility of networks today across economic, political, and social domains can hardly be disputed. Social networks fundamentally shape our lives and social network analysis has become a vibrant, interdisciplinary field of research. In The Oxford Handbook of Social Networks, Ryan Light and James Moody have gathered forty leading scholars in sociology, archaeology, economics, statistics, and information science, among others, to provide an overview of the theory, methods, and contributions in the field of social networks. Each of the thirty-three chapters in this Handbook moves through the basics of social network analysis aimed at those seeking an introduction to advanced and novel approaches to modeling social networks statistically. They cover both a succinct background to, and future directions for, distinctive approaches to analyzing social networks. The first section of the volume consists of theoretical and methodological approaches to social networks, such as visualization and network analysis, statistical approaches to networks, and network dynamics. Chapters in the second section outline how network perspectives have contributed substantively across numerous fields, including public health, political analysis, and organizational studies. Despite the rapid spread of interest in social network analysis, few volumes capture the state-of-the-art theory, methods, and substantive contributions featured in this volume. This Handbook therefore offers a valuable resource for graduate students and faculty new to networks looking to learn new approaches, scholars interested in an overview of the field, and network analysts looking to expand their skills or substantive areas of research.

A Networked Self

A Networked Self
Author: Zizi Papacharissi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2010-09-10
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1135966168

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A Networked Self examines self presentation and social connection in the digital age. This collection brings together new work on online social networks by leading scholars from a variety of disciplines. The volume is structured around the core themes of identity, community, and culture—the central themes of social network sites. Contributors address theory, research, and practical implications of the many aspects of online social networks.

Global Action Networks

Global Action Networks
Author: Steve Waddell
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2010-12-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0230300464

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The world's governments are overwhelmed with climate change, war and unrest, the global financial crisis and poverty but there is a promising invention in Global Action Networks (GANs). GANs mobilize resources, bridge divides and promote the long-term deep change and innovation work that is needed to address the global challenges.

The Hidden Power of Social Networks

The Hidden Power of Social Networks
Author: Robert L. Cross
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2004-06-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1633691535

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A powerful, visual framework helps managers discover how employees really communicate and collaborate to get work done - and helps them identify ways they can influence these social networks to improve performance and innovation. In The Hidden Power of Social Networks, Cross and Parker, experts in "social network analysis"—a technique that visually maps relationships between people in large, distributed groups - apply this powerful tool to management for the first time. Based on their in-depth study of sixty informal employee networks in well-known companies around the world, Cross and Parker show managers how to conduct a social network analysis of their organization.

Social Networks at Work

Social Networks at Work
Author: Daniel J. Brass
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2019-11-26
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 135133204X

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Social Networks at Work provides the latest thinking, from top-notch experts, on social networks as they apply to industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology. Each chapter provides an in-depth review along with discussions of future research and managerial implications of the social network perspective. Altogether, the volume illustrates the importance of adding a social capital perspective to the traditional human capital focus of I/O psychology. The volume is organized into two groups of chapters: the first seven chapters focus on specific network concepts (such as centrality, affect, negative ties, multiplexity, cognition, and structural holes) applied across a variety of topics. The remaining eight chapters focus on common I/O topics (such as personality, creativity, turnover, careers, person–environment fit, employment, teams, and leadership) and examine each from a network perspective, applying a variety of network concepts to the topic. This volume is suited for students and academics interested in applying a social network perspective to their work, as well as for practicing managers. Each topic area provides a useful review and guide for future research, as well as implications for managerial action.