Dynamic network theory: how social networks influence goal pursuit
"New advances across the social sciences are highlighting social networks as phenomena that can motivate people and change lives. But what the literature has not addressed is what gives social networks such power. How do they facilitate and regulate change? Parsimoniously answering these questions from a scientific perspective is not as simple as one may think. In fact, relatively few theories have attempted to comprehensively explain how social networks influence goal achievement and performance across situations from a metatheoretical perspective. Although numerous books and articles have nicely focused on social networks, motivation, goals, leadership, and organizational behavior, few have developed a unified theory that explains behavior across these domains. In response, this volume introduces a new dynamic network theory of goal pursuit to explain how social networks influence goal achievement, performance, and behaviorally related processes at various levels of analysis. This original theory goes beyond traditional social network analyses by directly infusing goals and network regulation processes into social networks, an approach that has not been sufficiently addressed, theoretically or empirically, in social psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, or management science. This volume uniquely combines the new theory with new methodologies to address the complexities of social network action at individual, group, organizational, and international levels of analysis"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
