Academic Article Review: Networking Beyond Organizational Boundaries:

Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe the first President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria once said, "Originality is the essence of true scholarship. Creativity is the soul of the true scholar." This is an interesting quote I pulled some years ago. My original interest lay in the creativity aspect of it. However now, with more learning behind me I find me seeing this line again in a new light. A scholar is interested in learning, learning new and original information, the scholarship. Yet a scholar also is an artist, an artist with information whereas they take that original data and rethink it, argue it and create to create something new.

An Academic Article is written by scholars for scholars. A scholar being someone who is a learned person, one who studies within a specialty field for advanced education. A scholar is a student. As a student I believe most students, in higher education, have a specific topic they gravitate to in their educational goals. As fun as it would be to be omniscient, most of us have areas of interest that intrigues us more than others. The author of an Academic Article is a student of a particular topic of interest not only to him/herself but to others as well.

In writing an Academic Article one should review what they know, why the topic is of important, how it relates and what needs to be learned. This informed argument is analytical in nature. Personalization of the material can often be seen in a negative light to others who already hold a strong knowledge and experience in the topic area.

Udo Staber wrote the article Networking Beyond Organizational Boundaries: The case of Project Organizations for Creativity and Innovation Management. Staber holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University and has taught at several universities and is currently (at the time of the article writings) a Professor of Organizational studies with research interests in social and interfirm networks, regional studies and organization theory (Staber, 2004). I believe the basis of this article can be identified with one sentence found within the abstract. "...there is some debate on the question of whether social networks are more useful for innovation if they provide social cohesion through close interaction or access to diverse and novel sources of knowledge through more distant relationships" (Staber, 2004).

Strengths;

Starting off with a brief of common misconception about project companies Staber moves into three questions he feels have been unanswered from previous research on the topic area. The questions of what, how and to what extent does it effect? Knowing, from NBC's Saturday morning commercials as a kid, told me that knowing is half the battle. Knowing what to ask as the research/author and knowing what is being discussed in the article as a reader is a great strength.

I find that in reading this article I am thinking about business today. Get the readers thinking is a strength that I often enjoy. If you make me think while reading your work, then you are doing your job. Here, I am finding relationship of his project organizations structure to be very similar to current and newly forming structures of group-work. It may be a topic worth further discovery at another time.

"Innovation is embedded in ongoing social relations that may facilitate or derail the necessary exchanges" (Staber, 2004). This one statement shows strength in the knowledge that it may or may not help. Though it is not that black and white per-say, for the word 'necessary' allows us to take precaution to identify the type of communication that is beneficial against those that are not. In other words, what people in the network have no affect on the outcome? Useless communication in social networking relationships is one of the most devastating aspects of this tool. Reciprocity is an important aspect within the networks to facilitate successful exchanges.

Staber lays his case about social networking in organizations and offers three hypotheses. The third being the one to be tested; what he is looking for, "A high level of organizational social integration enhances the influence of cohesive external networks on innovative behavior" (Staber, 2004). Following the steps of an Academic Article Staber has listed what is known, why it is important, and now what he needs to learn. The next section of the article offers his research and findings into this hypothesis.

The detail illustrated in how the data was going to be measured and weighed gives considerable strength in the ideas, concepts being tested. The author took his time in reviewing measurements of other similar types of tests and created his system from the older methods as well as adding in control variables based off of employment length and organizational age.

Weaknesses;

The argument of structural holes and weak connections can be a bit confusing to some readers. In this argument it describes how the weak ties facilitate a stronger network of original knowledge transfer. However the explanation of how exactly is loosely put together and may be overlooked. Staber offers the following hypothesis in this section "Cohesive external social networks will have a stifling effect on project workers' innovative behavior" (Staber, 2004). The common thought is an organization wants a cohesive structure in all areas. I find the explanation of this hypothesis to be lacking in clarity.

In explanation of the empirical findings I found that the overly technical and algebraic analysis to be a bit confusing. With actual formulas missing or difficult to identify following this section is befuddling. Yet, at the conclusion of this section the author discusses how the managers identify the importance of external social networking and the benefits it can give to the organization but remain in the same place of not knowing how to handle/structure it. This makes me wonder what exactly was uncovered with this research.

I also tend to find Staber a bit heavy worded. His writing style in my opinion offers many words to say very little. This heavy use of words may lead to confusion for the reader. When discussing a particular area of the topic material the author may bounce within another area before returning and thus leaves the reader having to reread the material to find out what happened. Along with this heavy worded article the author repeats himself several times which can wear down the reader's attention. The thought of 'we know this, just move on' comes to mind.

Lastly, this weakness, some may think of as strength is how in the authors conclusion he degrades everything the reader has just reviewed. Staber discusses the limitations of the research, the narrow view of one type of organization in one industry and the inability to control task contingencies and contextual conditions. He also mentions the lack of available data in examining the complete network and relations as well as the enhanced benefits of it for innovation (Staber, 2004).

Personal Thoughts;

"Building and nurturing social relationships for knowledge creation and transfer are an important aspect of organizing processes" (Staber, 2004). As we move into the digital era in business this statement becomes more and more important to organizations and their internal structures.

In reading this article it allowed me to think more about my own area of focus. Giving me food for thought and opening up other creative ideas to mull over within the field. I keep saying that this idea is important to organizational structure. Yet, why is it important? Moving social networking away from a Marketing exclusive area as it has been in into the actual structure of the organizational process is an interesting journey so far.

This article focuses on the new-media industry. This industry survives on short-term projects; the more in less time the better for the organization. When the author discussed how similar the internal relationships are of the responders and how much they differ with external social networking it got me reviewing my own creative relationships.

As a Photographer I have a close niche group of other like-minded individuals within my social network. Some of these individuals have specific tasks that are beneficial to the end product while others seem to just take up space. The Author touched on this briefly when he was discussing the quality of external social communication and the actual value X connection may have during the current project. Internally we are all on the same page of what needs to be accomplished however separately we conduct our own research to facilitate the success of our individual efforts. The makeup artist may research a new technique or product needed to achieve a particular effect. The lighting specialist may review reflection/absorption of light within the given scene and so on.

My mind also floats back to my experiences with CTU-Online whereas each course required a group project. In this group project a number of individuals were put together to create a solution for a problem. Internal communication was as to be expected, however what was the external social communications that facilitated the internal? The author discusses how these short-term project groups are put together quickly to accomplish the task at hand. The parallels from this particular industry started to become apparent to more common placed organizations.

External social networking and the effect on innovation, are employees more apt to be innovative if they have a wider knowledge pool to draw from? Yes and no. Organizations need to have a system in place to be able to take this external knowledge and bring it into the internal organizational system. The author calls it a "firm's internal social fabric" in which they need to integrate the gained knowledge (Staber, 2004).

This article appears to be a strong example of an Academic Article within my subject field of social media in organizations. The arguments and research to solve a question is present. However I feel the research was incomplete and in essence was not able to successfully prove or disprove the hypothesis. However, the information presented does offer food for thought and possible future consideration.

References

Staber, U. (2004). Networking Beyond Organizational Boundaries: The Case of Project Organizations.