Title: Social network structure and performance of improvement teams

Authors: Jar-Der Luo

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, Yuan-Ze University, No. 132 Far-East Rd., Chun-Li, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan

Abstract: There is a kind of knowledge, possessed by groups, that is more than the aggregation of individual knowledge. Nahapiet and Ghoshal call it intellectual capital. How does social structure, in a project team, influence collective knowing capability? In this study, several conclusions are made. First, a project team with a median centralisation of power has a good evaluation. Second, a team structure with fully connected cliques has a significant impact on group performance. It is also found that only consultative ties are related to knowledge exchange and combination, while friendship ties have nothing to do with the team|s performance.

Keywords: social network structure; knowledge creation; social capital; intellectual capital; project teams; teamwork; team performance; group performance; continuous improvement; tacit knowledge; group knowledge; social relations; cooperative actions; social structure.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBPM.2005.006491

International Journal of Business Performance Management, 2005 Vol.7 No.2, pp.208 - 223

Published online: 14 Mar 2005 *

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