Digital Relationships
Why do so many organizations fail to mobilize the social networks of employees to respond to disruptions, innovate, and change? In Digital Relationships, Jason Davis argues that individual and organizational interests about networking can come out of alignment such that the network ties that individuals form are organizationally sub-optimal for achieving their most ambitious goals. Developing a new perspective about networks and organizations, he explains through network agency theory how network problems emerge, the role of digital technology adoption by organizations in amplifying misalignment, and the capacity of managers and function of the executive to resolve agency problems and mitigate their impact. Drawing on over a decade of qualitative research in US, Asian, and European "big tech" companies and new analytical and computational modeling, this book offers new interpretations and solutions to the pathologies that emerge from organizationally detrimental networking behaviors and in the face of managerial interventions.
"Rarely does a book come along that so completely rewrites what we thought we knew. Digital Relationships is just such a book. It's a 'must-read' for academics and executives who want to understand why social networks are so challenging. By probing the deepening chasm between individual and organizational interests, Digital Relationships will re-shape your conception of how social networks work. And more often, don't."—Kathleen Eisenhardt, S. W. Ascherman Professor, Stanford University; co-author of Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World
"Digital Relationships, whose technology-focused title understates its broader implications, marshals an impressive combination of field observation and computational modeling to apply, examine, and elevate both theory and practice."—David Obstfeld, Administrative Science Quarterly
