Weak Ties Are Important
(https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/26/weak-ties-matter/)
You have ‘ties’ or connections with people in your social network. This article discusses the importance of ‘weak ties’ – our subsidiary relationships with acquaintances or friends of friends. The author of the article discusses Mark Granovettor’s interviews about job placement and his discovery that jobs with higher compensation and levels of happiness surprisingly come from weak tie connections. The article goes on the apply this theory to a Silicon Valley tech company recruiting new employees. Silicon Valley companies tend to consist of mostly white cis male engineers and have problems with implementing diverse staff members. White male engineers tend to have networks consisting of primarily strong ties to other white male engineers, so recruiting strategies such as referrals tend to attract only more similar people. The author argues that companies who want to build a diverse team must tap into and engage weak tie networks. These weak ties act as bridges to new networks with new diverse candidates.
The concept of weak ties was discussed in class and readings. The course textbook discusses Mark Granovetter’s paper The Strength of Weak ties and his interview findings that job prospects often come from weak ties rather than close friends. Professor Granovetter is an important figures in social network theory and has spearheaded significant analysis. The author of this article took Professor Granovetter’s course as a graduate student at Stanford University. I agree with the author’s interpretation of this concept. I think that building a diverse team with representation from underrepresented groups is super important to harness different perspectives and truly be successful. The author accurately applies Granovettor’s dated theory to a relevant current problem. This article is a great read and could be very useful to new tech companies.