Social Networks and Group Effectiveness: The Role of External Network Ties

This research explores the relationship between group effectiveness and social networks. Through a five-month ethnographic observation within three work groups employed in one of the major Italian fashion firm, we recorded all interactions occurring within the groups and outside the groups’ boundaries, thereby deriving the enacted communication network. Then, by means of structured inter-views, we collected evaluations of group effectiveness. The evaluations given to the three groups differ and such difference cannot be traced back to the amount of communication network activated nor to the level of group members’ competencies, nor to their internal network structure. The field evidence suggest that the better evaluation received by one group relates to the quality of the relationships it sets up with external actors. This group assumes a coordinating role in the whole product development process: in particular, it spontaneously triggers, through reciprocal interactions, modalities of collaborative design, not formally required, which are rewarded by organizational members’ higher evaluations. The study has implications for social network research by pointing to the importance to grasp the actual content of network relationships, thus going beyond the assessment of their presence and/or strength, in order to fully comprehend how network ties really influence organizational members’ perceptions and actions.