Chi GUO
(This is not for the 2nd module
of the course)
Background
For the purpose of maintaining competence
in the future, world leading companies (most of them are multinational
companies) invest in building talent pools. One of the talent building programs
is called Leadership Development Program which is aimed to recruit talents from
top business schools (Fletcher is on the list). This is a comprehensive talent
developing program. Once the high potential people are recruited, they will
have much better opportunities than normal staff inside the companies. In this
program, they have holistic training programs, one-on-one mentors and high
exposure to top management. The time periods of this program vary; generally
speaking, it is from 18 months to 36 months. Companies build a community
for these people, and hold events to encourage the knowledge sharing among
these groups. Companies highly appreciate the network among these members, and
want leverage advantages of the network the help these talented people have
better working performance. However, things are not going as their expectation.
The new hires stay very tight in this network, but as time pass by, their
connections of this network become loose. Thus, I want to study how the networks
decay year by year; what are the most effective activities to bring people
together; whether the networks help them in terms of career development.
Research Goals
1.
General network shapes
How the networks decay year by year? What factors impact on the
decay? Could it be functions, regions?
2.
What kind of activity drives
the success of social networks among them?
3.
Whether the networks help them
in personal development? For new comers, do the networks help them quickly
engage in the new working environment? For the same career interest groups, do
the networks help them for the knowledge sharing?
4.
Identify the key individuals in
the networks, such as isolators, bridge connectors etc. Also, understand what are
the hidden reasons driving them become the roles in the networks.
Research Methodology
It could be easier to conduct the research
after being one member of this programJ. I am
thinking to conduct the social network survey combined with post-survey
interviews. Social network analysis can provide enough information to analysis
the first two questions; post-survey interviews provide more information to
answer question 3 and question 4.
Ø Survey questions:
Top three people contact in the network
Year to join the program
Current job function
Career interests
Region
Country
City
Gender
Interest in community activities
Social network importance to their job
……
Ø Interview participants
New comers
Same career-interest group
Key
individuals
1 comment:
As we discussed, this seems like a worthwhile idea, but it needs some further thinking. You point out that looking at the rate of decay would be interesting. While that is evident, what might be more interesting is how good these people become at forming new networks within the company, and what position within the network they occupy. Reformulating your question: do people brought into a company in a networked cohort tend to become leaders (or founders) of information networks in the company?
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