Strategic Leadership from the Social Network Perspective

This chapter explains social networks as an important construct when it comes to strategic leadership. The importance of understanding interactions between strategic leaders, organisational members and other important factors encourages the development of discourse that departs from a static, one-dimensional perspective of leadership. There is a myriad of all kinds of forms of social networks that differ by their main characteristics and levels of structural and relational network embeddedness. It is particularly important to understand the concepts of weak and strong ties in a social network and this chapter provides detailed overview of this important constructs. In addition, this chapter explains the structural hole theory and network-based perspective of strategic leadership, concepts relevant for strategic leadership. Strategic leaders need to get involved in important social networks and delve into their essence in order to better influence others and achieve their intentions and goals. If they are well-connected, they are more likely to have greater power in the network. Good position in the network can guarantee that they will need to invest less effort in getting people on board with the direction and patterns of action that they advocate.