ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces social networks as a socially constructed organizing process that can be observed and measured as organized forms that create, sustain, and connect social collectives, including formal organizations. Networks are generated through communication that connects actors such as humans and organizations relative to a shared interest or boundary condition. Organizations are both comprised of networks (e.g., departments, teams, informal employee relationships) and embedded in networks (e.g. professional associations, supply chains). This chapter introduces foundational network concepts, and demonstrates how the mechanisms and processes that create networks lead to outcomes such as power, influence, and access to resources for both the individual actors that make up a network, and the functioning of the overall network. Special attention is paid to how ICT has impacted the ability to organize across time and distance, altering the processes that underlie network formation and the nature of organizational communication and development.
