Resting together, foraging apart: Network structure of foraging bats is not explained by energy expenditure or foraging efficiency

Group foraging animals may change their spatial relationships in response to the resource landscape. The strength of social network ties across foraging groups could then reflect the energy balance of individual group members through their effect on foraging efficiency. To test this, we tracked individuals in three social groups of Phyllostomus hastatus (greater spear-nosed bats) in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Phyllostomus hastatus seasonally feed on balsa flowers, and group-specific social calls are hypothesized to coordinate social foraging. We found that bats commuted alone but then joined group members in small foraging patches with high densities of flowering balsas, approximately 25 km from their roost. Their estimated energy expenditure was not related to their proximity social network, and network strength did not predict foraging efficiency. Bats in the same foraging patch did not coordinate foraging movement, but close proximity among individuals increased resting bout duration and synchrony. Bats across all social groups used the same resting areas, potentially due to the resting site's physical characteristics, proximity to abundant food resources or predation avoidance. These results indicate that factors other than increased feeding efficiency may structure network relationship of group members while foraging.

Leveraging Emergent Social Networks to Reduce Sedentary Behavior in Low-Income Parents With Preschool-Aged Children

This study tested the hypothesis that parents participating in a pediatric obesity intervention who formed social network ties with a parent in the intervention arm would engage in more daily physical activity and less sedentary behavior (after controlling for participant covariates). Data were collected at baseline, 12 months, and 36 months from 610 low-income parent–child pairs participating in an obesity prevention intervention for 3- to 5-year-old children. A network survey was used to identify social network ties among parents and accelerometers were used to measure parental physical activity and sedentary time. Longitudinal regression analyses tested effects of social network ties on parents’ physical activity and sedentary behavior. Compared with parents without a social network tie, having a tie with an intervention group participant was associated with a clinically meaningful 11.04 min/day decrease in parental sedentary behavior that approached statistical significance (95% confidence interval [CI] = [−22.71, 0.63], p = .06). Social network ties among parents in a pediatric obesity prevention intervention were not clearly associated with reduced sedentary behavior among those parents at the traditional level of p = .05. The large effect size (over 77 min per week improvement) suggests there might be potential importance of promoting new social networks in community-based health promotion interventions to elicit and support behavior change, but further examination is needed.

Impact of task characteristics on employee agility: the moderating effect of enterprise social media visibility

PurposeThis study aims to explore whether and how task characteristics affect employee agility in the context of enterprise social media (ESM).Design/methodology/approachAdopting the social network ties perspective, this study examines how task characteristics (i.e. task complexity, task interdependence and task non-routineness) affect employee agility by promoting their social network ties (i.e. instrumental ties and expressive ties) and how ESM visibility moderates their relationships. Data gathered from 341 ESM users in workplaces were analyzed using Smart-PLS 3.2.FindingsFirst, task complexity, task interdependence and task non-routineness have positive effects on instrumental and expressive ties, which in turn influences agility; Second, instrumental ties have a stronger effect on employee agility relative to expressive ties; Finally, ESM visibility positively moderates the effects of task complexity and task non-routineness on social network ties.Practical implicationsThe findings provide guidance for organizational managers on how to use task characteristics and ESM to improve employee agility, as well as insights for social media designers to optimize ESM functions to improve agility.Originality/valueThis study provides empirical evidence to explain the roles of task characteristics and social network ties in influencing employee agility, thus clarifying the inconsistent findings in extant research. The moderating effects of ESM visibility on the relationships between task characteristics and social network ties are also examined, thus providing further insights on the positive role of ESM in organizations.

Social network ties before and after retirement: a cohort study

Social networks are associated with individual’s health and well-being. Working life offers opportunities to create and maintain social networks, while retirement may change these networks. This study examined how the number of ties in social network changes across the retirement transition. The study population consisted of 2319 participants (84% women, mean age 63.2 years) from the Finnish Retirement and Aging study. Information about social network ties, including the number of ties in the inner, middle and outer circles of the social convoy model, was gathered using annual postal surveys before and after retirement. Three repeat surveys per participant covered the retirement transition and the post-retirement periods. Mean number of network ties was 21.6 before retirement, of which 5.6 were situated in the inner, 6.9 in the middle and 9.1 in the outer circle. The number of ties in the outer circle decreased by 0.67 (95% CI − 0.92, − 0.42) during the retirement transition period, but not during the post-retirement period (0.11, 95% CI − 0.33, 0.12) (interaction period * time, p = 0.006). The pattern of change in these ties did not differ by gender, occupational status, marital status, number of chronic diseases and mental health during the retirement transition period. The number of ties in the inner and middle circles overall did not decrease during these periods. The number of peripheral relationships decreased during the retirement transition but not after that, suggesting that the observed reduction is more likely to be associated with retirement rather than aging.

Friend of a Friend with Benefits ontology (FOAF+): extending a social network ontology for public health

Background Dyadic-based social networks analyses have been effective in a variety of behavioral- and health-related research areas. We introduce an ontology-driven approach towards social network analysis through encoding social data and inferring new information from the data. Methods The Friend of a Friend (FOAF) ontology is a lightweight social network ontology. We enriched FOAF by deriving social interaction data and relationships from social data to extend its domain scope. Results Our effort produced Friend of a Friend with Benefits (FOAF+) ontology that aims to support the spectrum of human interaction. A preliminary semiotic evaluation revealed a semantically rich and comprehensive knowledge base to represent complex social network relationships. With Semantic Web Rules Language, we demonstrated FOAF+ potential to infer social network ties between individual data. Conclusion Using logical rules, we defined interpersonal dyadic social connections, which can create inferred linked dyadic social representations of individuals, represent complex behavioral information, help machines interpret some of the concepts and relationships involving human interaction, query network data, and contribute methods for analytical and disease surveillance.

Guanxi social-network ties: Predicting graduate employment with internship host-organisations in China

Globally internships are utilized to enhance the university learning experience and improve graduate employment. The expanding application of internships in the graduate recruitment and selection process has traditionally received less attention in the literature, and whilst this trend has crossed national borders, the transferability of this practice has largely been assumed rather than empirically substantiated. Hence, this study investigates how a culturally specific form of social-networking, namely guanxi, impacts on employment outcomes from internships, for graduates within the Chinese context. This study involved the collection of longitudinal data at two time intervals from intern-supervisor dyads (N=303), in order to determine the role of guanxi in predicting the conversion of an intern into an employee with their internship host-organisation. These findings highlight the role of cultural context in shaping and potentially undermining desired graduate employment outcomes from Work-Integrated Learning initiatives such as internships.

Tangled Roots: Personal Networks and the Participation of Individuals in an Anti-environmentalism Countermovement

We focus on the personal networks of members of an anti-environmentalism countermovement in a small town in Canada (Port Alberni, B.C.) that mobilized against the environmental movement. Drawing primarily from social survey data, we investigate the effects of network-based mobilization processes, and contending-movement ties (ties to the environmental movement), on level of participation in the countermovement. We add to the literature on networks and social movements, and movement-countermovement dynamics by 1) comparing network processes amongst a counter movement with those amongst a corresponding social movement, and 2) comparing personal network structures and mobilization processes between countermovement members and the general public. We find a similar pattern of network-based micromobilization processes amongst movement and countermovement participant networks. We find both similarities, and key differences between the counter movement and the general public in terms of activism and social network ties. Theoretical predictions have suggested that individuals who have ties to opposing groups will moderate their participation in a social movement. However, in this study of a community countermovement organization in a small town in Canada that mobilized against the provincial environmental movement we find that the number of contending movement ties (the range of ties to environmental organizations) held by individuals in the countermovement has a significant positive association with countermovement activism, and is the strongest statistical predictor of countermovement activism. Drawing upon both theory and substantive information we discuss the implications of this novel finding.

Social Network Ties and Symbolic Management

In this chapter we examine social network ties among firm leaders as a key determinant of symbolic management. After reviewing extant theory about the role of board interlock ties in symbolic management, we explain how other kinds of ties between firm leaders facilitate various forms of symbolic action and decoupling, including (1) director ties between informal groups of firm leaders, (2) social exchange ties between leaders, (3) personal friendship ties between leaders, and (4) mutual ties to management consultants. In suggesting how network ties facilitate decoupling, we also reveal a separation between appearances and reality with respect to the social structure of corporate leadership, wherein corporate stakeholders tend to underestimate the prevalence of social connections among firm leaders, and the resulting frequency of leader communication, cooperation, and collusion.