Knowledge Management and Human Resource Development: An application in Social Network Analysis Methods

This article describes how social network analysis (SNA) can contribute to theknowledge management (KM) efforts of human resource development (HRD)professionals in organizations today. The suggested contributions of SNA are basedon literature review of 5 referenced articles. The author first provides anintroduction to the people-to-people strategy of today’s KM efforts. A detailed lookat some common HRD challenges is introduced. Next, an introduction to SNAmetrics and techniques is given, and a description of how they can be used to helpunderstand HRD challenges is outlined.The author then provides three cases to illustrate how SNA can aid HRD analysisand interventions involving (a) knowledge creation and innovation, (b) knowledgetransfer and retention, and (c) knowledge associated with job succession planningand the SNA method used to identify these concerns in a case study of IranianCompany.The author concludes by discussing the implications for HRD of utilizing SNA inthe organization.

Keywords:

social network analysis , knowledge management , HRD , innovation