Social Network Analysis

The Leadership Quarterly 21 (2010) 600–619

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The Leadership Quarterly
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / l e a q u a

Social network analysis and the evaluation of leadership networks
Bruce Hoppe a,⁎, Claire Reinelt b
a b

Connective Associates LLC 1281 Massachusetts Ave., Suite 3, Arlington, MA 02476,United States Leadership Learning Community, 1203 Preservation Park Way #200, Oakland, CA 94612, United States

a r t i c l e

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a b s t r a c t
Leadership development practitioners are increasingly interested in social networks as a way to strengthen relationships among leaders in fields, communities, and organizations. This paper offers a framework for conceptualizing differenttypes of leadership networks and uses case examples to identify outcomes typically associated with each type of network. Evaluating leadership networks is a challenge for the field of leadership development. Social network analysis (SNA) is an evaluation approach that uses mathematics and visualization to represent the structure of relationships between people, organizations, goals, interests, andother entities within a larger system. In this article we describe core social network concepts and the application of them to illuminate the value of SNA as an evaluation tool. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Leadership networks are a response to a rapidly changing world that is increasingly interconnected — one requiring greater learning and collaboration for solvingcomplex problems. Leadership networks provide resources and support for leaders, and increase the scope and scale of impact leaders can have individually and collectively. Nurturing and catalyzing leadership networks is increasingly a focus of leadership development efforts, especially those that seek to develop leadership with a capacity to influence policy and bring about social and systems change.Thus, understanding the nature of networks and changes in them is an increasingly important aspect of leadership development evaluation. In this paper we examine four types of leadership networks: peer leadership networks, organizational leadership networks, field-policy leadership networks, and collective leadership networks. These types of networks are commonly the focus of leadership developmentefforts. Social network analysis (SNA) is used to increase the awareness of leaders about the power of networks, to further catalyze relationships and connections, and to strengthen the capacity of the network to act collectively. In this article we focus on understanding and measuring the difference leadership networks make. We begin by describing our classification of four different types ofleadership networks. We then provide an overview of network metrics that can be used to examine leadership networks and the general categories of questions that can be used to explore various dimensions of leadership networks. Each type of leadership network, including its defining characteristics, its value, appropriate evaluative methods, and examples are then described. We conclude by discussingissues and risks of SNA and leadership network evaluation, and outlining areas for future research. Before proceeding it is important to note our research approach. We actively co-design research projects with our clients to answer their questions about initiatives (Ospina, Schall, Godsoe, & Dodge, 2002). This approach does not conform to research studies that test hypotheses about leadershipnetwork development with experiments and control groups. However, our approach leads to a rich understanding of networks in context. We hope that our study will provide a framework that can be tested and further developed through additional research.

⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: bruce@connectiveassociates.com (B. Hoppe), claire@leadershiplearning.org (C. Reinelt). 1048-9843/$ – see...