The University of Exeter Centre for Social Networks (ECSN) and Exeter Centre for Leadership Studies (EXCL) have partnered together with the Strategic Leadership Systems (SLS) team to offer this network mapping opportunity to UK organisations.

ESCN and EXCL are dedicated to studying social networks in organisations and how leaders can best enable themselves and their organisations to evolve to achieve the most impactful outcomes. COVID-19 has brought forth numerous changes, providing organisations with challenges as to how best to adapt. Senior leaders — including the CEO and other members of the ‘top team’ — are recognising that they alone cannot set and implement their organisation’s strategy. They must engage individuals and groups across organisational levels in strategic conversations as part of a coordinated strategic leadership system. Leadership is no longer the confines of a few formal positions. Instead plural forms of leadership work through informal networks of influence that drive organisational success. An organisation’s ability to adapt to today’s challenges is enhanced by diagnosing strategic and network vulnerabilities and improving the effectiveness of their strategic leadership systems. If left unaddressed, these vulnerabilities can undermine strategic decision-making and organizational success by disrupting communication and influence among members of the ‘top team’ and the broader system of strategic leaders and groups in the organization. Strategic Leadership Systems’ (SLS) research finds that organisations are most likely to be successful when leaders and the teams they lead are committed to a shared strategy and actively collaborating to achieve that strategy. However, the way work gets done rarely follows the ‘formal’ organizational structure. The project opportunity we present here, as a partnership between the University of Exeter Business School and SLS uses social network analysis to reveal how leaders and teams really collaborate, communicate, and make decisions that impact organizational performance.

The opportunity: 

We would like to offer you an opportunity to work with us, at no financial cost to you, in a way that will provide you with valuable personalised insights to strengthen your business right now, contribute to an international research project and build our research data allowing us to have a wider impact in the future.

You can benefit from our academic experts through taking part in a personalised social network analysis of your senior leadership team to understand how decision making happens within your organisation. We work with you to personalise a short diagnostic tool for your organisation and then provide you with a full report and debrief outlining our insights.  

Our Expertise:

Professor Alexandra Gerbasi and Dr Michelle Mahdon from the University of Exeter join with the US team led by Dr. Kristin Cullen-Lester and Dr. Dorothy Carter. Together our team consists of network specialists, organisational psychologists, sociologists and leadership management experts across multiple global institutions. Our expertise combines deep academic knowledge with tried and tested practitioner experience drawing on our experience of working with over 100 organisations to implement our research insights in practice and improve the functioning of their networks, including strategic leadership systems.

Benefits to your organisation:

1. A detailed personalised insight report and debrief about the networks connecting upper and middle-level managers in your or organization

2. Personalised insights and recommendations to improve strategy development and implementation 

How the research team benefits:

1. Data from different organisations is collected and then compiled anonymously to allow us to grow our research insights and impact for our students, practitioners and the wider community

2. An opportunity to strengthen our relationship with you

Your input:

1. Set up and understanding strategy: 60 min for key senior contact to meet with the research team to allow us to gain insights to personalise the survey to meet particular areas of interest to your organisation. We will work with you to approve and adjust the survey. If necessary an additional 30 mins with the CEO or senior managers to give us an understanding of your strategy and decide together who needs to participate in the survey.

2. Invite: A communication sent from you to announce the survey and encourage participation. We will work with you to send reminders as necessary to achieve desired participation rates.

3. Survey: 25 minutes for each senior manager to complete a survey.

4. De-brief and insights: 60-90 minutes with your senior leader or management team for a debrief with personalised insights.