组织研究中社会网络从隐喻到理论的可能

From Metaphors to Theories:Social Networks Study in Organizational Field

社会网络经历了朴素的隐喻构想阶段,之后多学科融汇促成研究技术上的突破性进展,使其成为一种强有力的社会关系结构分析工具。日益复杂的社会需要更为多元的理论解释,科学研究领域多种范式共存。社会网络也已不再是一些概念集合与结构分析工具,转而发展成为经济与组织领域中的一种解释性理论。

This article reviewed studies on social network from historical perspective, and revealed how it estab- lished academic legitimacy in organizational studies field and how it tried to become the dominant trend of research paradigm. Social network experienced from the metaphor to analysis tool after adopting multidisciplinary technique. Complex society needed more explanations from pluralistic theories, so multiple paradigms emerged in the theory field. Social networks were tools for structure analysis and some concepts. It tried to find the possibility of becoming an interpretative theory in economic and organizational fields.