Social networking in Human Resource Development

Social networking analysis means studying the social relationships between different individuals using the network theory in order to understand their behavior in these structure/ society as a whole not as an individual. Social networking is used in many fields such as management, anthropology, political science, psychology, human resource development etc. Human resource development includes training an individual after they are first hired, providing opportunities to learn new skills, distributing resources that are beneficial for the employee's tasks, and any other developmental activities. Social network analysis can well blend with the human resource practices of an organization to increase the productivity of any employee. The process involves studying the inter-personal relationships between the various employees in the same department or across various departments. The reason behind this is that the behavior or the performance depicted by an employee in an organization very much depends on the influence laid on him/her by the other employees in the organization. Social network analysis can provide the HRD practitioner with an initial assessment of the social structure of the organization and allow them to identify the central employees who may be considered opinion leaders. By the phrase central employee or opinion leader I mean those individuals whose actions and words are followed by other employees. These figures can act as positive force for the organization by directing their counterparts positively or may act as bottlenecks by negatively rein-forcing the employees. Even the best HR practices will fail in the presence of those people. Social network analysis helps in the identification of those individuals by identifying the pattern of information flow. The identification of central actors within the organization will provide direct access to the flow of information, which can be used to disseminate change initiatives if any of the Human Resource department of the organization. Utilizing the SNA approach may help alleviate the resistance to change that is often associated with organizational reconfigurations such as downsizing, lay-offs or restructuring etc. More than that SNA will give an insight to the HR department whether they should or shouldnt introduce any program by forecasting their response before hence. SNA can also help understanding an individual better which will give the HR department how to utilize their human capital, who should their mentor, what type of work should be given to them, how will they respond to any policies or rules introduced by the orgaisation. Other than that, SNA helps in determining the effects of a social environment on the learning participation through the identification of cultural influences and the impact social structure has on an individuals motivation to learn. We can also utilize centrality measures that will help us identify key individuals among groups who, if identified prior to a learning event, may provide support to the transfer of learning obtained through the training. However, for a better analysis of the social networks complete response rates are required to be collected, SNA process is data intensive and requires long surveys and extensive interviews. Moreover in the process of collecting the information about the individuals they will become exposed regarding their positions in the network, also the questions asked in the surveys are sensitive or threatening. Hence we may not get proper response from the individuals taking the survey. But if data is collected by encouraging the individuals by telling him the benefits that they will receive by participating, then the rest of the process can be conducted smoothly expecting to get correct results.