Incompatible Expectations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Luis Small
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Weak Ties ◽  
Strong Ties

This chapter suggests that the graduate students sometimes approached weak ties because they were avoiding strong ones, and that the heart of their reservations lay in the possibility of incompatible expectations—in the potential discordance between different roles that those they were close to might expect to perform. It begins by explaining that the students maintained different kinds of strong ties and confided in people with whom they had different kinds of relationships. The former can be classified by their degree of institutional mediation; the latter, by the extent of emotional reciprocity. Institutional mediation introduced additional expectations to a relationship; emotional reciprocity, when it was lacking, created the possibility of ambiguity. Both factors shaped how reluctant students were to approach those to whom they were close when they needed to discuss particular topics.

Confidants

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Luis Small
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Weak Ties ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Strong Ties ◽  
The Subject

This chapter reviews the literature that probed people’s decisions about whom to turn to when they need a confidant and discusses reasons for considering an alternative. It first provides a historical overview of research on the subject before analyzing how the claim that people will turn to those they are close to when they have important matters to discuss is linked to the ideas about the differences between strong and weak ties. It also cites three reasons to doubt the notion that people will turn to strong ties when seeking confidants as consistently as they say they do. The chapter concludes by explaining the rationale for studying the experiences of graduate students who were forced to make decisions about whom to talk to when they needed someone to talk to.

Someone To Talk To

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Luis Small
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
First Year ◽  
Weak Ties ◽  
Strong Ties ◽  
Large Scale Network ◽  
Scale Network

When people are facing difficulties, they often feel the need for a confidant—a person to vent to or talk things through with who will offer sympathy or understanding. How do they decide on whom to rely? In theory, the answer seems obvious: if the matter is personal, they will turn to a spouse, a family member, or someone otherwise close. In practice, what people actually do often belies these expectations. This book follows a group of graduate students as they cope with the stress of their first year in their programs, probing how they choose confidants over the course of their everyday experiences and unraveling the implications of the process. The book then tests its explanations against data on national populations. It shows that rather than consistently rely on their “strong ties,” people often take pains to avoid close friends and family, because these are too fraught with complex expectations. People often confide in “weak ties,” as their fear that their trust could be misplaced is overcome by their need for one who understands. In fact, people may find themselves confiding in acquaintances and even strangers unexpectedly, without much reflection on the consequences. Amid a growing wave of big data and large-scale network analysis, the book returns to the basic questions of who we connect with, how, and why, and upends decades of conventional wisdom on how we should think about and analyze social networks.

Theoretical Generalizability

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Luis Small
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Structural Theory ◽  
Weak Ties ◽  
Strong Ties ◽  
Rule Of Thumb

This chapter examines the extent to which theories that the book has proposed to explain the graduate students’ behavior can be applied to other situations. It first considers the structural theory on which the rule of thumb about the separate benefits of strong and weak ties is based. It then highlights the theory’s limitations and offers an alternative. It shows that most of the book’s propositions can be organized around three core principles, none of which is reducible to the characteristics of the network structure. It also relates these principles to three key findings: the avoidance of strong ties, or people who might otherwise seem to be good confidants; the pursuit of cognitive empathy from weak ties; and the prevalence of incidental and spontaneous decisions about whom to confide in. Finally, it looks at other contexts where similar principles are at play.

Beyond Named Confidants

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Luis Small
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Weak Ties ◽  
Strong Ties

This chapter examines whether the graduate students, when talking about their serious personal worries, actually approached their newly named confidants or stuck, instead, to old ones. Three possible expectations about what the students did are discussed: the students will reserve their serious worries for old confidants, or strong ties; they will approach both old and new confidants, strong and weak ties, with their serious worries; or they will not necessarily reserve their serious worries for either old or new confidants, approaching even people they did not name as confidants. The chapter shows that, when faced with their own most serious worries, the students turned to old named confidants, to new ones, and even to people not named at all.

Weak ties matter: Social network dynamics of mobile media multiplexity and their impact on the social support and psychological well-being experienced by migrant workers

2021 ◽  
pp. 205015792110011
Author(s):  
Piper Liping Liu ◽  
Tien Ee Dominic Yeo
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Weak Ties ◽  
Mobile Media ◽  
Strong Ties ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Multiplexity ◽  
Mobile Ict

This study investigates the contextual and relational characteristics that underlie people’s information and communication technology (ICT) use and the implications for their well-being. We contextualize this investigation according to migrants, because they are faced with disruptions to their personal networks in the migration process that may attenuate the availability of social support and negatively affect their mental health. Migrants tend to be proficient in using mobile ICT to connect with different social ties to fulfill their needs, which potentially makes a difference to their psychological well-being. Through a survey of 504 internal migrant workers in China, we examined the social network factors that underlie multiple mobile ICT use and the attendant influences on social support and psychological well-being. Redressing the overemphasis on the importance of strong ties in extant literature, this study highlights the salience of mobile media multiplexity (i.e., the use of multiple mobile communication channels for social interactions) in weak tie communication and the greater contribution of weak ties toward social support and psychological well-being than strong ties. Our findings suggest that mobile-mediated communicative relationships with newer and more distanced social connections outside their immediate circles enhance the well-being of migrants. We contend that media multiplexity vis-à-vis weak ties underscores the reconfiguration of migrants’ communicative relationships following the separation from original ties and facilitates rewarding interactions with new ties.

Community-based disaster communication: how does it become trustworthy?

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 478-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dwie Irmawaty Gultom
Keyword(s):  
Disaster Response ◽  
Information Diffusion ◽  
Weak Ties ◽  
Network Ties ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Strong Ties ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Disaster Communication ◽  
Disaster Information

Purpose – Trust in disaster communication is significant because a lack of trust will prevent the transformation of information into usable knowledge for an effective disaster response. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how the culture and network ties of an affected community can encourage trust and participation in disaster communication. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative case study of Jalin Merapi (JM) was conducted by interviewing 33 research participants in the Mt Merapi surroundings. Findings – The findings indicate that culture-embedded disaster communication plays important roles in increasing the effectiveness of disaster information and encouraging trust in the authenticity of locally based disaster information at the individual level. The findings also identify that strong ties and weak ties play different roles in disaster communication. The strong ties are more effective in facilitating information diffusion and encourage trust and community participation within the affected community. Furthermore, the weak ties are more effective in disseminating information to wider audiences, and have an indirect influence in encouraging trust by extending the offline social network owned by the affected community. Originality/value – Most literature on disaster communication focusses on the construction of disaster messages to encourage effective disaster response. Less attention has been paid to the information receivers regarding how disaster information is considered to be trustworthy by the affected community and how it can increase collective participation in community-based disaster communication.

scholarly journals Protest engagement: weak vs strong social ties

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-33
Author(s):  
Ruslana Moskotina
Keyword(s):  
Social Ties ◽  
Threshold Model ◽  
Computer Experiments ◽  
Weak Ties ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
Strong Ties ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Agent Based Modelling ◽  
Strength Of Weak Ties ◽  
The One

This article dwells upon the importance of finding methods and ways of studying protest behaviour that can explain its emergence. Protest behaviour is considered as the result of protest engagement. It is assumed that there are social ties between individuals, potential protesters. M. Granovetter proposes to distinguish strong ties and weak ties. Strong ties tend to form closed and cohesive groups but weak ties can be the bridges that match groups and/or individuals. The author of this article conducts a research with applying a method of agent-based modelling. Its aim is to test the Granovetter’s thesis about the strength of weak ties towards protest behaviour. In this research the linear threshold model is used. Our research with applying method of the agent-based modelling includes the computer experiments (simulations) with the social networks. There are generated five networks, three of which contain only strong ties and the rest of the networks contain only weak ties. Simulations with the networks allow us to determine the number of inactive agents that are involved in the protest, the speed of the protest engagement and the effectiveness of overcoming the resistance of inactive agents. It is found that both weak ties and strong ties can determine protest behaviour. Strong ties contribute to a quicker protest engagement. Weak ties can better overcome the resistance of inactive agents. At the same time weak ties slow down the process of the protest engagement and strong ties are generally less effective in overcoming the resistance of inactive agents. Agent-based modelling helps us to conduct the fundamental research. On the one hand we test Granovetter’s thesis about the strength of weak ties towards protest behaviour. On the other hand we cannot draw conclusions about protest behaviour in Ukraine. But we can conduct an empirical sociological study in order to test the results of our research and understand its relevance towards protest behaviour in Ukraine.

How does the strength of ties influence relationship quality in Chinese megaprojects? The mediating role of contractual flexibility

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhibin Hu ◽  
Guangdong Wu ◽  
Xianbo Zhao ◽  
Jian Zuo ◽  
Shicong Wen
Keyword(s):  
Relationship Quality ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Weak Ties ◽  
Strong Ties ◽  
Process Flexibility ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Indirect Influence ◽  
Strength Of Ties

PurposeThis study aims to explore the influence of the strength of ties (strong ties and weak ties) on contractual flexibility (term flexibility and process flexibility) and relationship quality among stakeholders in a megaproject network.Design/methodology/approachThis study, via a questionnaire survey, collected 380 valid responses from megaproject professionals (including project managers, department managers and project engineers). The data were analyzed using least squares structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results show that both strong ties and weak ties have positive effects on relationship quality. The introduction of contractual flexibility can help improve relationship quality by combining the positive effects of the strength of ties. Interestingly, the indirect influence of strong ties on relationship quality is mainly due to term flexibility. However, the influence of process flexibility is not significant, while weak ties have an indirect influence through term flexibility and process flexibility.Research limitations/implicationsThis study, while helpful to megaproject management both in theory and practice, is nevertheless subject to several limitations. First, this study only considers the impact of the strength of ties on contractual flexibility and relationship quality; other factors, such as environmental uncertainty, are not explored. Second, the sample data are limited to just a few regions of China. Future research should cover other influencing factors, in order to make the model more substantial; data should also be collected from different cultural and industrial sources, thereby extending and further verifying the results.Originality/valueThis study makes three contributions to extant megaproject literature. First, this study provides a deep and nuanced understanding of the strength of ties. With the distinction between strong ties and weak ties clearly explained, this research furnishes a subtler understanding of relationship governance than has previously been achieved. Second, by precisely identifying the mechanism of how contract flexibility improves contract control and coordination functions, this research offers a complementary view of how contractual flexibility positively contributes to cooperation and relationship quality. Third, this study identifies which dimension of the strength of ties is more influential. This brings a new explanation for the previous controversy and offers some insight into the determinants of how to improve relationship quality in Chinese megaprojects.

scholarly journals Exploiting Weak Ties in Incomplete Network Datasets Using Simplified Graph Convolutional Neural Networks

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neda H. Bidoki ◽  
Alexander V. Mantzaris ◽  
Gita Sukthankar
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Convolutional Neural Networks ◽  
Centrality Measures ◽  
Weak Ties ◽  
Original Graph ◽  
Convolutional Network ◽  
Strong Ties ◽  
Network Nodes ◽  
Node Removal ◽  
Selection Of

This paper explores the value of weak-ties in classifying academic literature with the use of graph convolutional neural networks. Our experiments look at the results of treating weak-ties as if they were strong-ties to determine if that assumption improves performance. This is done by applying the methodological framework of the Simplified Graph Convolutional Neural Network (SGC) to two academic publication datasets: Cora and Citeseer. The performance of SGC is compared to the original Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) framework. We also examine how node removal affects prediction accuracy by selecting nodes according to different centrality measures. These experiments provide insight for which nodes are most important for the performance of SGC. When removal is based on a more localized selection of nodes, augmenting the network with both strong-ties and weak-ties provides a benefit, indicating that SGC successfully leverages local information of network nodes.

scholarly journals Informal Network Structure and Knowledge Sharing in Organizations: An Empirical Study of a Korean Paint Manufacturing Company

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Woojin Yoon ◽  
Jaeyun Jeong ◽  
Kyoungwon Park
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Network Size ◽  
Weak Ties ◽  
Strong Ties ◽  
External Knowledge ◽  
Final Sample ◽  
Manufacturing Company ◽  
Network Strength ◽  
Relationship Of

This study investigates the potentially different roles of informal social networks in promoting knowledge sharing. Specifically, it aims to examine the effects of the focal subgroup’s between-subgroup network size and strength on knowledge sharing with other subgroups and the moderating effect of within-subgroup network strength on the relationship of between-subgroup network size to knowledge sharing. Two different online surveys were conducted to assess social networks and knowledge sharing at a paint manufacturing company located in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. The final sample consisted of 536 employees in 58 teams. The team-level regression results showed that the focal subgroup’s between-subgroup network strength has a significant effect on knowledge sharing with other subgroups, indicating that strong ties among subgroups are more advantageous to external knowledge sharing than weak ties. The results also demonstrated that the focal subgroup’s within-subgroup network strength negatively moderates the effect of its between-subgroup network size on knowledge sharing, indicating that higher levels of between-subgroup network size are positively related to external knowledge sharing when within-subgroup network strength is weak and negatively when within-subgroup network strength is strong. The study’s findings suggest that strong ties among subgroups and weak ties among subgroup members are advantageous to external knowledge sharing.

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