Organizational network management — new quality in strategic management of research-development units

Market organizations apply multi-channel communication with clients, analyse and use signals from their clients to support development of products and services. Leading companies manage relations with employees in a similar way. This is particularly beneficial in organizations employing knowledge-workers. Employees, carrying out their tasks, as a result of interaction with clients and internal limitations, along with formal organizational structure spontaneously create a "fast reaction" network. Thanks to the analysis of the network of internal relations and visualization of data in online platforms organizations can investigate the methods of work and cooperation of teams and employees' behaviours. Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) is a new field, which provides strategic knowledge - about cooperation in an organization, the role of its units and particular employees, allocation of resources, relational potential and barriers for development. Online visualization of the network of relations accesssible for employees allows them to learn about the organization and better carry out their tasks, providing them with information about people with similar knowledge, or knowledge necessary for the employees, about cooperation of people and teams, flow of information and decisions. The analysis of organizational networks serves the purpose of diagnosing an organization and conducting continuous HR processes, e.g. codification of knowledge, identification of talents, organization of trainings and development, it delivers data for the decision-making process and communication and knowledge management. Using the example of the Polish participatory platform "Mapa organizacji" (Organization map) the author shows how to collect and use analytical data for the purpose of managing talents of an organization in an optimum way. Thanks to the visualization of this data, in a network you can highlight employees with various profiles e.g. sources of field knowledge, organizational and project talents, brokers of information, opinion leaders, or e.g. various styles of functioning of managers. Observing and measuring cooperation within teams and between them it is possible to plan and monitor the effects of activities facilitating communication and to efficiently manage knowledge and change e.g. by locating and breaking down silos. The application allows business owners and HR teams to manage talent the processes of "soft HR" with the use of analytical data, among others: induction of new employees, internal mobility and succession, identifying employees who could potentially drop out, internal trainers and mentors, developing cooperation where it's missing and reducing its excess, building communities of practice and project teams.