When social scientists talk about social
networks and individual performance, they are referring
to performance in terms of the consequences of network membership and social
network characteristics that provide access to
other individuals, information, resources, and choices, such as choices regarding new
job opportunities. As you know, social capital includes all the resources - such as
ideas, information, money, and trust - that you are able to access through your
social network. Therefore, network-based performance is performance due to
social capital.
You are probably familiar with the term six degrees of
separation - though you may be less certain about the term's origins
(no, it was not Kevin Bacon). Let's go back for a moment to Stanley Milgram's research
on small-world social networks:
In the 1960s, the American psychologist, Stanley Milgram, conducted an
experiment to find an answer to what is known as
the small-world problem. The problem is this: how are human beings
connected?... Milgram's idea was to test this question
with a chain letter. He got the names of 160
people who lived in Omaha, Nebraska, and mailed each of them a packet. In the packet
was the name and address of a stockbroker who worked in Boston and lived in
Sharon, Massachusetts. Each person was instructed to write his or her name on the packet
and send it on to a friend or acquaintance, who he or she thought would get the packet
closer to the stockbroker. If you lived in Omaha and had a cousin outside of Boston,
for example, you might send it to him, on the grounds that - even if your cousin did
not himself know the stockbroker - he would be a lot more likely to be able to get to
the stockbroker in two or three or four steps. The idea was that when the packet
finally arrived at the stockbroker's house. |
