Ajay Mehra

Bio: Ajay Mehra is an academic researcher from University of Kentucky. The author has contributed to research in topics: Social network & Friendship. The author has an hindex of 17, co-authored 30 publications receiving 7986 citations. Previous affiliations of Ajay Mehra include University of Cincinnati & College of Business Administration.

Network Analysis in the Social Sciences

Abstract: Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of interest in network research across the physical and social sciences. For social scientists, the theory of networks has been a gold mine, yielding explanations for social phenomena in a wide variety of disciplines from psychology to economics. Here, we review the kinds of things that social scientists have tried to explain using social network analysis and provide a nutshell description of the basic assumptions, goals, and explanatory mechanisms prevalent in the field. We hope to contribute to a dialogue among researchers from across the physical and social sciences who share a common interest in understanding the antecedents and consequences of network phenomena.

The social networks of high and low self-monitors: Implications for workplace performance

Abstract: This article examines how different personality types create and benefit from social networks in organizations. Using data from a 116-member high-technology firm, we tested how self-monitoring orie...

The Development of Social Network Analysis: A Study in the Sociology of Science

Abstract: There is plenty of evidence to suggest that social network analysis is a flourishing enterprise. Social network analysts have their own international organization, the International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA), which sponsors journals and organizes annual meetings for its burgeoning membership; the field has seen a steady accumulation of standard texts and software programs; there is a growing number of academic centers for network training and research; and the publication of social network articles has become almost routine across a range of elite scientific journals. These signs of vitality and respectability have given rise, naturally enough, to questions about the field’s origins, its development, and the reasons for its apparent success. There are some fragmentary notes in circulation that speak to these questions, but to date there has been no comprehensive account of the origins and development of social network analysis. Nor, apparently, was it Linton Freeman’s intent in this book to provide us with one.

Top Management-Team Diversity and Firm Performance: Examining the Role of Cognitions

Abstract: Demography research rarely examines the black box within which the cognitive diversity of the top management team is assumed to affect firm performance. Using data from 35 simulated firms run by a total of 159 managers attending executive education programs, the current research tested several hypotheses concerned with (a) the relationship between demographic and cognitive team diversity and (b) the reciprocal effects of diversity and firm performance. Results showed that members of high-performing teams tended to preserve multiple interpretations early in the team's life cycle, but that they moved toward greater clarity near the end of the life cycle. These high-performing teams, therefore, exhibited both early interpretative ambiguity and late heedful interrelating. Cognitive diversity in teams affected and was affected by changes in firm performance. Surprisingly, there was no evidence of any effect of demographic diversity on measures of cognitive diversity.

Distributed leadership in teams: The network of leadership perceptions and team performance.

Abstract: This study uses social network analysis to examine distributed leadership in work teams. We used sociometric data from 28 field-based sales teams to investigate how the network structure of leadership perceptions considered at the team level of analysis was related to team performance. We failed to find support for the idea that the more leadership is distributed across the members of a team the better the team's performance: Decentralization of the leadership network (across three different operationalizations of network decentralization) was not significantly related to superior team performance. But we did find support for the idea that certain kinds of decentralized leadership structures are associated with better team performance than others. Our study suggests that distributed leadership structures can differ with regard to important structural characteristics, and these differences can have important implications for team performance.

기독교 사역과 Leadership

Abstract: Building Leadership Effectiveness This program encourages leaders to develop practices that transform values into action, vision into realities, obstacles into innovations, and risks into rewards. Participants will be introduced to the five practices of exemplary leadership: modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart Coaching & Communicating for Performance Coaching & Communicating for Performance is a highly interactive program that will give supervisors and managers the opportunity to build skills that will enable them to share expectations and set objectives for employees, provide constructive feedback, more effectively engage in learning conversations, and coaching opportunities. Skillful Conflict Management for Leaders As a leader, it is important to understand conflict and be effective at conflict management because the way conflict is resolved becomes an integral component of our university’s culture. This series of conflict management sessions help leaders learn and put into practice effective strategies for managing conflict.

Critical questions for big data

Abstract: The era of Big Data has begun. Computer scientists, physicists, economists, mathematicians, political scientists, bio-informaticists, sociologists, and other scholars are clamoring for access to the massive quantities of information produced by and about people, things, and their interactions. Diverse groups argue about the potential benefits and costs of analyzing genetic sequences, social media interactions, health records, phone logs, government records, and other digital traces left by people. Significant questions emerge. Will large-scale search data help us create better tools, services, and public goods? Or will it usher in a new wave of privacy incursions and invasive marketing? Will data analytics help us understand online communities and political movements? Or will it be used to track protesters and suppress speech? Will it transform how we study human communication and culture, or narrow the palette of research options and alter what ‘research’ means? Given the rise of Big Data as a socio-tech...

Statistical physics of social dynamics

Abstract: Statistical physics has proven to be a fruitful framework to describe phenomena outside the realm of traditional physics. Recent years have witnessed an attempt by physicists to study collective phenomena emerging from the interactions of individuals as elementary units in social structures. A wide list of topics are reviewed ranging from opinion and cultural and language dynamics to crowd behavior, hierarchy formation, human dynamics, and social spreading. The connections between these problems and other, more traditional, topics of statistical physics are highlighted. Comparison of model results with empirical data from social systems are also emphasized.