Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 328
Your network is not your organization
Homophily shows why a homogeneous communication network cannot be interpreted responsibly until leaders distinguish similarity, available contacts, selection, influence, and closure
Premise
A network can become homogeneous without anyone explicitly choosing exclusion. Reporting lines, location, professional pipelines, prior ties, referral practices, and repeated interaction all shape who is available to whom before personal preference enters the picture. Homophily names the patterned tendency for social ties to connect people who are similar on relevant characteristics.
For executives, a homogeneous advice network is only the starting observation. The operating question is whether the pattern reflects the available pool, excess same-group selection, influence after ties form, or structural processes that repeatedly route similar people together.
What the model is: Homophily in Knowledge →
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- FamilyModel
- CategoryEffects, Biases & Phenomena
- DomainMedia, Publics & Society
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Effects, Biases & Phenomena
Identifies a bounded pattern in judgment, behavior or communication and the conditions under which it appears. Naming the pattern makes a recurring difficulty recognizable; it does not make the pattern inevitable or supply a complete explanation.
- KnowledgeHomophily