Building a Networked Organization: Restructuring the it Department at MWH (B)

8 Pages Posted: 23 Jun 2009

See all articles by Robert L. Cross

Robert L. Cross

University of Virginia - McIntire School of Commerce

Abstract

In this first in a series of cases on organizational network analysis (ONA), Vic Gulas, the new head of IT at the engineering consulting firm MWH Consulting, is charged with turning a geographically organized department into one organized by function. He knows that the success of the reorganization will depend on effective collaboration, but he cannot get a sense of what collaborative relationships do and do not exist by looking at a formal organizational chart. Instead, Gulas uses ONA, a method for mapping relationships among people in a group. In the ONA results, Gulas sees a group still fragmented by geography and constrained by hierarchy and other gaps in connectivity. The B case presents the network-building steps Gulas took on the basis of the ONA results and the results of a follow-up ONA Gulas conducted two years after the initial analysis. This second ONA revealed a network that was stronger and more appropriately connected in various ways.

Keywords: leadership, organizational change

Suggested Citation

Cross, Robert L., Building a Networked Organization: Restructuring the it Department at MWH (B). Darden Case No. UVA-S-0153, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1423320 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1423320

Robert L. Cross (Contact Author)

University of Virginia - McIntire School of Commerce ( email )

P.O. Box 400173
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4173
United States
434-924-6475 (Phone)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
222
Abstract Views
1,019
Rank
249,422
PlumX Metrics