DIGITAL > Social Networks Reveal How Employees and Companies Operate

WHARTON: What do Wharton faculty members and the workers who spy for the National Security Agency have in common? More than you might think. The Wharton scholars aren't analyzing links among billions of telephone calls to identify terrorists, a controversial NSA activity that caused a stir after it was disclosed recently in news reports. But they, too, are interested in mapping social networks.


Social networking is a hot topic. Ordinary Internet users take advantage of networks when they turn to well-known websites like MySpace and Friendster to link up with other people. But more serious interest in social networks can be found among academics, consultants and corporations seeking to deepen their knowledge of how companies operate; how employees and board members interact; how key employees can be identified; and how relationships can be better understood to improve productivity and the dissemination of ideas.


Technically, social network research is an offshoot of graph theory in mathematics. Graphs -- a set of dots connected by links -- are used to map relationships. At its most basic, research on social networks underscores the veracity of some of the truisms one hears all the time: "It's a small world." "It's not what you know, it's who you know." "Birds of a feather flock together."