Leaders in organizational communities of practice

Cartoon by Rosemary O'Neill from http://www.smallshopsocial.com/collection/cartoons

My research, consulting practice and personal interest are linked to people learning, sharing information, ideas and knowledge. My recent study focuses on virtual communities where social learning and knowledge sharing are happened organically or have to be managed.  One of courses of my doctoral program, “Leadership,” that I am taking right now triggered my interest in the aspect of leadership in such virtual communities. Informal networks or communities are present at any large organization. Even in the most bureaucratic organizations, informal social networks provide an important source of information and resources (Blau, 1955) for their members. Socialization, power relationships, and identity building happen not only within the borders of an organizational chart. Some ties are independent of the individuals occupying particular positions and underlined by the personal relations between individuals. Strong informal ties of friendship and social support are likely to reflect interpersonal attraction and trust, weak ties are also beneficial as a source of information and resources. Social network increases the power of formal manager, but it also creates emergent informal leaders. As a consultant for virtual communities of practice, I understand the importance of informal social relationships for the formation of social capital, knowledge transfer, organizational learning, communication, but I would like to learn more about their role in the distribution of leadership and power.
      The social processes that are happening within these informal social networks are similar to formal organizations. However, there are also differences. For example, the process of leadership, or the process of social influence in which one person can persuade or inspire a group of people to collaborate toward a particular goal, is altered compared to the same process in formal organizations with formal managers and formalized power/authority relationships. The term leadership usually refers to the traditional top-down model of centralized control. During the study of leadership, I attempted to find research on informal leaders and the process of leadership in communities of practice or informal organizations.
     Informal leaders or emergence of leaders in organizational social networks have been discussed with scant attention in the literature. The majority of studies examine the emergence of informal leaders and role of leaders in a small group or work team. Network theory examines the notion of an informal organization and demonstrates the importance of people's networks of relationships (Burt, 1995; Krackhardt & Kilduff, 1990). Leader-member-exchange (LMX) research describes the relationship between formal leaders and informal networks and demonstrates the importance of informal relationships. Researchers assert that a large part of the work in an organization is done through social relationships and not by directives from formal managers. In a network society, with organizations that are getting flatter, practitioners and consultants question the need for an autocratic leader or the traditional transactional leader. 

      Members of informal groups or networks expect and accept leaders, facilitators, not managers. Leadership itself is less directive and more collaborative. The emerging leaders are primarily thought leaders and experts or good communicators who are able to engage people in conversation or stimulate ideas spread. With the introduction of new types of social communication tools and particularly social networking systems into corporations, a new type of the managers was born – an internal community manager. They are not supposed to be “on the top of network” (Mintzberg, 2004, p.141). They are facilitators, empowering people and stimulating learning and information exchange. Usually a community manager is not a leader, but the one who support “shared leadership” by bringing forward people with great ideas, connecting people and creating activities where other can lead. In a recent article in Forbes magazine Enrique Dans (2014) discusses the job of a community manager. He writes about external community managers that manage online communities of companies’ clients and customers, not internal community managers who work with company employees. However, some of his observations are relevant if we consider the role, management and leadership style of internal community managers. Dans (2014) urges community managers adopt new philosophy and management/leadership model. It should not be about control or the bombardment of employees with messages from C-suite, and it is not about spreading the right message, it is about listening to employees, empowering them, giving them a voice and encouraging the trust, transparency and knowledge exchange while building relationships.

References

Blau, P. M. 1955. The dynamics of bureaucracy:A study of interpersonal relationships in two government agencies. Chicago, IL:University of Chicago Press.

Dans, E. (2014, May, 26). Who manages the community manager that manages your community? Forbes online. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com

Hunt, J. (1996). Leadership: A new synthesis. NY: Sage

Mehra A, Smith B, Dixon A, Robertson B. (2006). Distributed leadership in teams: The network of leadership perceptions and team performance. The Leadership Quarterly, 17, 232-245.

Mintzberg, H. (2004). Leadership and management development: An afterword. Academy of Management Executive, 18 (3).

Morgeson FP, DeRue DS, Karam EP. (2010). Leadership in teams: A functional approach to understanding leadership structures and processes. Journal of Management, 36, 5-39