Zappa, Paola and Lomi, Alessandro
(2015)
The Analysis of Multilevel
Networks in Organizations:
Models and Empirical Tests.
Organizational Research Methods, 18 (3).
pp. 542-569.
ISSN 1094-4281
Abstract
Studies of social networks in organizations confront analytical challenges posed by the multilevel
effects of hierarchical relations between organizational subunits on the presence or absence of
informal network relations among organizational members. Conventional multilevel models may be
usefully adopted to control for generic forms of non-independence between tie variables defined at
multiple levels of analysis. Such models, however, are unable to identify the specific multilevel
dependence mechanisms generating the observed network data. This is the basic difference between
multilevel analysis of networks and the analysis of multilevel networks. The aim of this article is to
show how recently derived multilevel exponential random graph models (MERGMs) may be
specified and estimated to address the problems posed by the analysis of multilevel networks in
organizations. We illustrate our methodological proposal using data on hierarchical subordination
and informal communication relations between top managers in a multiunit industrial group. We
discuss the implications of our results in the broader context of current theories of organizations as
connected multilevel systems.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
multilevel exponential random graph models; multilevel models; multilevel networks; organizational
networks; social networks; organizational design; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Business |
| Item ID: |
11290 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428115579225 |
| Depositing User: |
Paola Zappa
|
| Date Deposited: |
15 Oct 2019 16:23 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Organizational Research Methods |
| Publisher: |
Sage Publications |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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