ICOA/OSA seminar by Kyosuke Tanaka

On 6 October at 10:00, Kyosuke Tanaka will give a seminar entitled

Knowing is not enough: How network awareness and acuity are associated

Abstract
As Network research has shown that accurate awareness of a social network brings network advantage (e.g., informal power, fast promotion, and high task performance) to members in groups and organizations. This is because it assumes that those who accurately perceive their social network (i.e., high network awareness) can also navigate the social world with more precision, which we call network acuity. However, it is unclear whether this assumption holds true or the reverse causation exists - network acuity impacts network awareness. Here, we test this assumption using cross-lag panel modeling on longitudinal network data from a laboratory experiment where 405 participants who were organized in 23 networks engaged in five rounds of a network routing task. Additionally, we identify who is more likely to be high on network awareness and acuity, respectively. Our results show that in contrast to the existing assumption, high network acuity positively predicts network awareness instead of the other way around. They suggest that effective navigation of their social network shapes an accurate awareness of the network. We also found that women and those who are popular in the network tend to be high on both network awareness and acuity. Whereas high conscientiousness and cognitive ability are only associated with high network awareness, high self-monitoring is related to high network acuity. These findings provide new insights into how people navigate organizational networks to accomplish their tasks and goals.

Everyone is welcome!