Social networks and social capital issues have been combined with organizational behavior scope for decades. Nevertheless, the difficulty of methodology and data collection causes the rareness of related empirical study. In this dissertation, multi-level research structure and hypothesis, including dyadic-level, individual-level, and network-level, are proposed to be examined respectively. 505 questionnaires were collected from 17 companies providing a great deal of support to be analyzed by social network analysis technique of UCINET VI for windows. The following are results and conclusions of each research level: For dyadic level, ¡§cognition-based trust¡¨ and ¡§affect-based trust¡¨ are core variables representing dyadic relationship quality. Similarity/attraction paradigm, self-categorizing, and social identity were used as theory basis to prove the positive effects of antecedents embracing gender, education level, age, and tenure similarity, also the ¡§value fit¡¨ and ¡§cognitive friendship¡¨, on dyadic relationship quality and interaction behaviors. The results demonstrate the higher similarity of education level and tenure between two individuals, the greater level of value fit, friendships, cognitive-based trust, affect-based trust, knowledge sharing, and citizenship behaviors. Cognition and affect trusts between two individuals cause the knowledge sharing and citizenship behaviors for each other. The positive effects of gender differences on relationship quality are discovered unexpectedly. For individual level, the normalized in-degree of centralities of ¡§advice networks¡¨ and ¡§friendship networks¡¨ were measured by social network analysis techniques to be examined as core variables. I draw on the formal organization structure (work flow network centrality and rank), personalities (conscientiousness, high-low self-monitoring, extraversion/introversion, collectivism/individualism), and job characteristics (job inter-dependency and work loading) for the antecedent variables of ¡§advice networks¡¨, ¡§friendship networks¡¨, and personal contextual performance (knowledge sharing and citizenship behaviors). Also treat the ¡§personal social capital¡¨ as the mediate variables among personal social networks and personal contextual performance. The results demonstrate the positive effects of rank, work flow network centrality, conscientiousness, self-monitoring, collectivism, and job inter-dependency on the centrality of advice network. The negative-effects of work loading are also verified. For the centrality of friendship network, the results proved the positive effects of the work flow network centrality, and conscientiousness, also the negative effects of work loading on it. Knowledge sharing behaviors representing the part of personal contextual performance are positively affected by conscientiousness, self-monitoring, rank, work flow network centrality, advice network centrality, friendship network centrality, and personal social capital. Work loading influences the knowledge sharing behaviors negatively. Citizenship behaviors that also represent the part of personal contextual performance are influenced by advice network centrality, friendship network centrality, and personal social capital. The mediating effects of social capital among personal social networks and personal contextual performance are also manifested. For network level, the comparisons among formal organization structure and nine intra-organizational social networks demonstrate the influences of rank and division on social network structural configuration. I also draw on the similarity-attraction paradigm as the theory basis to examine the positive effects of the similarity of department, gender, age, education-level, marriage status, and nine intra-organizational social network matrices on the relational matrices of friendship and affect-trust. MRQAP (Multiple Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure) technique is applied on this analysis. The results verified the positive effects of the similarity of department, gender, and marriage status on friendship and affect-trust between two individuals. In addition, the theoretical and managerial implications, limitations and future research questions based on the findings and suggestions for future research are provided.

One approach to dealing with complexity in a public policy context is horizontality, the act of working across the various ministries and divisions of a government in order to harness the organization’s capacity and resources and direct them towards the addressing of complex problems. And one prominent mechanism for promoting horizontality is greater organization-wide collaboration, knowledge sharing and active knowledge seeking amongst a network of government knowledge workers commonly referred to as policy analysts. The emergent use of Web 2.0 tools and approaches within organizations has raised the possibility that we have entered a new knowledge era - Enterprise 2.0 - that can address the horizontality problem, facilitate the sharing of knowledge between policy analysts and across organizations, and promote transformative governance. This research investigated how policy formulation processes in the government of the Canadian province of British Columbia are being affected by the adoption of Web 2.0 tools internally within the organization as a way to facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration amongst government policy analysts. Semi-structured interviews with members of corporate policy units in the Government of British Columbia were conducted (n = 14), and an on-line questionnaire was completed by Government of British Columbia policy analysts (n = 129). These mixed methods form the basis for a triangulation approach to assessing the research questions. Respondents conceptualized policy analysis as rooted in an apolitical synthesis of evidence and best practices from a variety of sources, leading to a recommendation designed to support decision-making. The diversity and reach of the policy analyst’s organizational social network is related to their length of service in the organization and is an important supplement to the analyst’s knowledge base. There was little evidence that technology networks generally, and Web 2.0 tools specifically, play a prominent role in facilitating the knowledge organization; in fact, policy analysts may refrain from sharing knowledge with colleagues using technology networks in order to avoid contributing to their colleagues' information overload. Following the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991), attitudes, followed by subjective norms, were the strongest and most consistent predictors of the policy analyst’s intention to collaborate and share knowledge with their colleagues. Perceived behavioural control was not a factor, leading to the possibility that while policy analysts may believe and be told that knowledge sharing and collaboration are advantageous, they may not feel they have the authority, latitude or ability to do so. A significant gender result was consistently revealed, that women were found to be less supportive of knowledge sharing and collaboration than men, a result possibly due to a culture dominated by masculine characteristics. The findings have implications for public sector organizations seeking to provide support for knowledge workers to make effective use of the organizational social network, new collaboration technologies and organizational capacity to address complex public policy problems. Interested readers should consult http://jlphdcand.wordpress.com for updated versions of this research, and related work. / Graduate