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About me

I am a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Sociology at the Department of Sociology at the University of Manchester, and a member of the Mitchell Centre for Social Network Analysis.

I obtained a PhD in Sociology from Ghent University (Belgium). Prior to joining the University of Manchester, I was an a Senior Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management at Surrey Business School (University of Surrey, UK) and the Programme Director for the 4-year PhD in Management, and an Associate Professor of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Trento. I was also an associate member of Sociology/Nuffield College (University of Oxford).

RESEARCH

My research centers on social network analysis with a specific focus on methodology/statistics and applications in organisational settings. I am especially interested in how network relations (such as advice, trust and conflict) come about, and how they subsequently impacts outcomes (such as well-being, job satisfaction, turnover and individual and team performance).

I have worked on mathematical models for analyzing networks, on centrality measures, on imputation techniques for solving missing data problems and on methods for building social support typologies for ego-networks. In addition, I have applied exponential random graph models (ERGM/p* models) to study cultural participation, and intra-organisational networks.

PUBLICATIONS

I have published a number of articles on social network analysis in leading social science journals, including Social Networks, Journal of Management Studies, British Journal of Social Psychology, Human Resource Management, International Journal of Nursing Studies, The Journal of Early Adolescence, Work & Stress and Public Administration.

Together with Martin Everett I was a guest-editor for a special issue on “Advances in Two-mode Social Network Analysis” in the journal Social Networks, and together with Nick Harrigan and Joe Labianca we guest-edited a special issue on “Negative and Signed Tie Networks” for Social Networks.

I co-authored the book “Analyzing Social Networks using R” and the 3rd edition of “Analyzing Social Networks”. I have written on multilevel social influence in the book Multilevel Network Analysis for the Social Sciences, on models for network analysis in the Oxford Handbook for Social Network Analysis and on negative ties in the Sage Handbook of Social Network Analysis (2nd Edition).

Citations: Google scholar

TEACHING

I teach various courses on network theory, social network methods and social network analysis applied to organisations, sociology and political science, including at the Links Center (University of Kentucky) and Statistical Horizons. In the coming year I will co-teach the Spring and Summer school on social network analysis with other members of the Mitchell Centre at the University of Manchester (see my page on past and upcoming workshops).

I have also taught BA and MA courses on Organizational Theory, Organizational Behavior, Organizational Sociology, Human Resource Management, Networks and Organizations, Survey Design, Research Methods and Statistical Analysis with R.