OK, that’s a bit unfair but the question is are there the correct number of them and are they in the most effective relationships within the organisation’s social network? Having recently been seeking a new role I’ve been asked “tell me about a time there was conflict” a few times and many of the examples that come to mind have involved an outsourced arrangement or two. This made me think what is fundamentally going wrong and can Social Network Analysis help? My first thought is that perhaps the organisations were not well understood in the first place and so, when the outsourcing structure was designed, the wrong number of relationship managers were put in the wrong place. An analysis of the organisation before outsourcing will reveal the structure of, and most importantly between, the proposed ‘retained’ and ‘outsourced’ groups.
Take a look at my earlier blog post for more.