LEADING THOUGHTS

According to social network theory, people on average are only a few connections away from the information they seek. But in large organizations, this theory falls apart: some employees clearly have longer search paths than others in locating the knowledge they require. Is this simply because they have an inferior network?

Not really, say researchers from INSEAD and Apple University. Singh, Hansen, and Podolny suggest there are two dynamics at play. One, employees who belong to the periphery of an organization — women and those with lower tenure or poor connectedness to experts — have limited awareness of who knows what in an organization and a lower ability to seek help from others best suited to guide the search. Two, when these employees do seek information, they tend to contact colleagues like themselves who are also outliers.

The researchers say employees on the periphery need to cross social boundaries to discover “who knows what,” and that their managers have a role in making this happen.

“We speculate that reliance on interpersonal networks remains crucial when a firm’s knowledge cannot be easily codified and stored in databases, when it changes
quickly (making it difficult to keep track of who knows what), and when it is distributed across people who are not official experts,” the researchers write in their working paper The World is Not Small for Everyone. “This calls for managers to recognize that formal IT systems are rarely substitutes for inter-personal networks. The implication is that managers need to help members on the periphery develop their networks.”

“The World is Not Small for Everyone: Inequity in Searching for Knowledge in Organizations”, by Jasjit Singh, Morten T. Hansen, and Joel M. Podolny; INSEAD working paper 2009/49/ST/EFE

photo credit: Sambhu Sankar

You can see it in the streets and smell it in the air: signs of economic recovery are beginning to emerge in Canada. But according to the latest estimates from the Conference Board of Canada, it will take up to five years for the economy to return to full capacity. For workforce planners with an agenda for change, now is the time to strike.

According to the Conference Board’s Industrial Relations Outlook 2010, “Employers now have a window of opportunity to develop effective workforce strategies before the recovery pushes us back to full employment and the challenges of a tight labour market.”

The report suggests that employers use this time to train and re-skill the workforce and more effectively integrate immigrant and Aboriginal communities.

As for the near term, the Conference Board predicts that the public sector will dominate collective bargaining in 2010, with negotiations involving 750,000 public sector workers. Faced with national deficits, federal workers will feel the need to concede gains. Municipal workers, however, may push for contract improvements.

Factoid: Union density rate in Canada is 29 percent — 71.3 percent in the public sector and 16.1 percent in the private sector

In the private sector, the Conference Board says, employers will continue to focus on controlling costs. The strength of the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar means dampened exports of manufactured goods.

According to the Conference Board, there are two big issues that employers face: one, a continued structural labour deficit; and two, a private pension fund system that requires fundamental change, particularly regarding employer finding.

For their part, unions will continue to be focused on protecting their existing rights and benefits and protecting jobs of existing members.

Given the uncertainty in the private sector and the fiscal deficits in the public sector, the Conference Board says, “universal labour peace is unlikely in the coming year.”

InfoBox: Current Negotiation Issues (Canada)

Management Issues:

1. Wages
2. Productivity
3. Health, pension, and benefits
4. Organizational change
5. Business competetiveness

Union Issues:

1. Wages
2. Employment security
3. Health, pensions, and benefits
4. Employment/pay equity
5. Outsourcing/contracting out

(Source: The Conference Board of Canada union-management survey)

Industrial Relations Outlook 2010: A recovery offering little relief, by David K. Shepherdson; Conference Board of Canada

photo credit: Aaron Magner