Working the Network

When I walked into work the other day I was faced with many inspiring and encouraging sayings that has been plastered on the walls of our office. Many spouted the merits of working together as a team, however the one that caught my eye was the one on the back of the toilet door (yes the toilet door). It stated “All is connected… no one thing can change by itself”. This statement was accompanied by a picture of a row of dominos about to tumble.
This particular advice got me thinking about how I am connected with the people that I work with, what sort of ties exist and the consequences.
Our organisation is divided into departments and within those departments are units, and of course these are made up of individuals. By virtue of this design we naturally work closely with certain individuals, ie those in our unit. Thus it could be surmised that we are more likely to have strong ties with those we work with closely, forming a cluster of nodes. As a larger organisation it is possible that I will go for weeks without having any contact with certain individuals as we do not sit near each other and our work does not link on a daily basis. This work environment is completely different to my former work place in which it was quite small and I would see everyone everyday even if I did not have a work related task with them. I essentially was a node that had many weak ties. Now with the change in environment and new organisational structure I am a node part of a cluster of strong ties. The difference to my working life is evident as I no longer feel I have my ‘finger on the pulse’. Office gossip, for all of its good and evil, is one of the lifelines of office life. In this environment it no longer spreads like a ‘contagion’ (Watts, 2003: 221). As Duncan Watts notes, “… [networks] are locked into a kind of stasis, each node constraining the influence of any other and being constrained itself” (2003:241). This expresses exactly how I feel in the larger organisation, a node that is almost completely isolated from the other clusters, with no notion of what is going on with the other Departments (or clusters). Although this is slowly changing as ‘bridges’ are starting to form through the weak ties we are beginning to form with the other clusters. Thus in the future it may be possible the office gossip and of course any other innovations will move about with more freedom.

Reference

Watts, D. (2003) ‘Thresholds, cascades and predictability’ in Six Degrees: the science of a connected age, NY and London: Norton pp. 220 – 252.