Methodological Issues in Studying Effects of Networks in Organizations

Three methodological issues are discussed that are important for the analysis of data on networks in organizations. The first is the two-level nature of the data: individuals are nested in organizations. This can be dealt with by using multilevel statistical methods. The second is the complicated nature of statistical methods for network analysis. The third issue is the potential of mathematical modeling for the study of network effects and network evolution in organizations. Two examples are given of mathematical models for gossip in organizations. The first example is a model for cross-sectional data, the second is a model for longitudinal data that reflect the joint development of network structure and individual behavior tendencies.

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