Program Goals: ¥ To introduce members of the Academy of Management to Social Networks theory and analysis ¥ To discuss Social Networks based in management research ¥ To introduce participants to UCINET and other Social Network analysis tools ¥ To stimulate discussion and research collaborations among participants with introductory and advanced backgrounds in the area Social Networks is a field of study that focuses on social relations among a set of actors--people, teams, and organizations. In the process of working in this field, researchers have developed a set of distinctive theoretical perspectives sympathetic with systems theory and complexity theory. Social networks are also characterized by a distinctive methodology encompassing techniques for collecting data, statistical analysis, and visual representation. Some of the hallmarks of Social Networks perspectives are: ¥ Focus on relationships between actors rather than attributes of actors ¥ Sense of interdependence: a molecular rather atomistic view ¥ Structure affects substantive outcomes