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_{FEDERAL STATE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION}

_{OF HIGHER EDUCATION}

_{NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY}

_{HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS}

_{Saint Petersburg School of Economics and Management}

_{Department of Management}

_{Bachelor's thesis}

_{Cross-functional interaction in the framework of social network analysis}

_{Petrov Gleb Aleksandrovich}

_{Academic supervisor}

_{Associate professor, PhD}

_{A.A. Kaysarov}

_{Saint Petersburg 2020}

_Abstract

_{social network knowledge sociometric}

_{Social Network Analysis (SNA) is the process of analyzing and investigating social structures through the developing of existing networks and graph-based theory. It characterizes networked structures in terms of nodes (actors) and edges (relationships or interactions) that connect them. Thus, this research aims to investigate the influence of departments distribution on sociometric cross-functional index and the factors influencing the individual knowledge sharing activity. The online survey was distributed among the business departments' employees of a bank. 166 workers participated in this research. Collected data was analyzed in SmartPLS, using PLS and Bootstrapping algorithms and in Gephi. The results indicate that the selection structure of department's employees on the communication paths and for help or information inquiries significantly differ. Moreover, the internal motivation and managerial practices explain 30% of individual activity. Therefore, HR managers should pay attention to these indicators while the formation of cross-functional project teams.}

_{Keywords: Social Network Analysis; cross-functional; knowledge sharing; interaction; banking industry; human resource management.}

_{Table of contents}

_Introduction

_{Theoretical foundation}

_{Social Network Analysis}

_{Knowledge Sharing}

_{Cross-functional interaction}

_{Statement of the research question}

_Methodology

_{Research Design}

_{Data collection process}

_Sample

_{Data analysis strategy}

_{Description of the results}

_Conclusion

_{Discussion of main results}

_{Contribution to research}

_{Implications for practice}

_Limitations

_{Future research}

_{Reference list}

_Appendices

Introduction

_{Nowadays, organizations are managed not only in the straight-forward way. Managers around the world are seeking for new technologies and approaches of how to organize the working environment, the staff engagement in the business process to increase the efficiency, to follow the stated strategic goals (Tsai, & Hsu, 2014). One of the most effective ways to reorganize the working process is to implement the cross-functional interaction (Young-Hyman, 2017a). Due to the reason that this issue is quite novel for many organizations, the gained results could show some possible ways of employing this method (Pournader, Tabassi, & Baloh, 2015).}

_{In the recent times, modern management have faced many challenges in the development of new forms of organizing employees' activities, their interaction in solving vital and urgent tasks, which are critically important for the company (Johnson, Borgatti, & Everett, 2013). The main aim of this search is to overcome the structural and functional fragmentation inherent in large companies, which prevents the implementation of a key mission for the producing new product or competitive service, and the solution of technical issues for a company (Aalbers & Dolfsma, 2015).}

_{The increasing number of interaction paths, the overcoming change in most of the spheres of the modern world that society faced during the 20th century led to establishing of the novel social phenomena, which is quite difficult to study from the conservative sociological management approach, demands the managerial and sociological theory to observe the upcoming consequences of its shape, analytical methods and models (Cross, Borgatti, & Parker, 2002).}

_{As a possible answer to this theoretical questions appeared, the modern theory on organizations has provided several concepts that present the novel working environment as the ties of elements of social life within the company, where organizational society appeared as a "network" (Cross & Parker, 2004).}

_{In spite of that fact, the network represents the organizational performance of individual ties or connections that have always been indicators of social communities, it is at the present describing stage, due to the development of new communication means such as transport systems, tele- and radio networks and the Internet, the network nowadays is the new concept for portraying the society (Berasategi et. al, 2011). In modern management, the “network approach” has become widely spread as a complex of methodological and theoretical areas, combined using the concept of a network to explain social organizational phenomena, which, according to many researchers, is one of the most productive, since it has the potential to solve existing problems and answer emerging tasks of modern sociology (Johnson et. al, 2013).}

_{The “network approach” in Western sociology and management theory has been rapidly developing since the end of the 20th century (Davila, Varvakis, & North, 2019). It is employed mostly in several areas that study social networks, interconnections within the organizations, where two approaches to their analysis are postulated - structural and cultural, or formalist and relationalist. They were assigned the names social network analysis (SNA) (Johnson et al., 2013).}

_{In this research, the object are the cross-functional (CF) interaction mechanisms and their application in the organizations. CF interaction mechanisms are studied widely in the terms of implementation them in some sort of organizational appliance (Priyono, 2016). The CF interaction itself is the research object that could be studied by the Social Network Analysis.}

_{The problem that is issued in this research is the effects of implementation cross-functional interaction mechanisms in the organization, described by the SNA tools.}

_{The research aim of this study is to present the model of CF interaction that could analyzed by the organizations, examined by them and adjusted with several changes that would suit their business more effectively. Moreover, the results of this work could help the HR managers in this organization or in similar organizations to organize the CF interaction based on the stated concepts according to the workload distribution or their organizational charts.}

_{The research objectives are the following:}

_{a) analysis of scientific literature on the topic of application of tools for analyzing social networks in cross-functional interaction and knowledge management;}

_{b) collecting information and data on the network relations of business units participants in the organization;}

_{c) analysis of the network, based on cross-functional interaction between and within the business-units of the organization, the indicators characterizing the process of knowledge sharing of the team as a social network;}

_{d) interpretation of the results obtained during the study with the statistical software according to the SNA approach;}

_{e) describing the limitations of the study.}

_{The research question is which possibilities of using network analysis tools are suitable to diagnose the cross-functional interaction in an organization? This question covers the problem of the research implementing the CF mechanisms in the organization and thus this issue could be analyzed on this case study research.}

_{The hypotheses of the study are the following and developed according to the prior researches:}

_{H0. There is no significant difference between the selection structure of department's employees on their communication with other departments.}

_{H1. There is no significant difference between the selection structure of department's employees on their help or information inquiries within other departments.}

_{H2. There is no significant difference between the selection structure of department's employees on the formation of project developing teams with other departments.}

_{H3. Internal motivation of the employees is significant in the relationship of the IKSA performance.}

_{H4. Management practices aimed at developing knowledge sharing abilities are significant in the connection of the employees' IKSA performance.}

_{According to the prior researches, the most effective strategy to conduct this study is to follow several major steps. First of all, the relevant literature should be examined due to formalize the missing points of the previous researches and to make a plan of the research based on their most efficient approaches. Secondly, the expert interviews with the organizations' representatives who are the Heads of the HR departments would be done with highlighting the major problems thy are facing in terms of CF interaction in their companies (Bogner, Littig, & Menz, 2009). The third step is to analyze the data collected from the interviews to make a survey which consists of relevant questions to research the CF problem in the organization. The fourth step is to conduct this survey on the online platform Surveymonkey.com in the limited period of time. The survey would be applied to the negotiated departments in which the CF issue is the most urgent problem to be solved (Buchanan & Hvizdak,2009). The final step of the research is to analyze the results of the survey.}

_{Subsequently, the research contributes to the theory on SNA in the organizations and how this analysis could contribute in developing the CF performance. Moreover, it gives an opportunity to understand the theoretical and practical roles of employees' individual characteristics, their CF capacities in the relationship to demonstrate whether there is a significant difference among organizational departments or not.}

_{The structure of the research paper is determined by the objectives and thus, consists of four parts. Firstly, the theoretical background with the analysis of prior researches on SNA, CF mechanisms and interaction and knowledge sharing performance is introduced. Then we go into with the methodology of the research, its results and the discussion part with the explanatory issues. The last step is drawing a conclusion based on the conducted analysis, showing the implications, limitations and further research areas for the studies in the field of organizational SNA.}

Theoretical foundation

Social Network Analysis

_{The network approach has an undeniable privilege over other methods: it makes it possible to analyze the data at different steps and levels of conducting the research, from the micro level to the macro level, what estimates and ensures the continuity of the applied data (Wasserman and Faust, 1994). Methods of network analysis allow developing units of analysis, combining tinier units without loss of knowledge about them (Camacho, 2019). In addition to this network approach, these methods seem to be the most natural for evaluating, describing and ordering concepts when it comes to structure the organizational network (Johnson et al., 2013).}

_{The SNA assumes at the beginning of the research path the hypothesis that the life in its social development is created importantly and primarily by connections and the patterns created by these connections (Borgatti, Brass, & Halgin, 2014). Social networks are formally described as a set of nodes ( in the theory they are the network members) that are connected by one or more types of relations (Wasserman and Faust, 1994). Because of the necessity of the assumption, that the network analysis take these networks into consideration as the typically organized units of the social world, the starting point does not include only collection the types of unique data, the analysis launches from a prospectively different approach than that employed by the analysis in individualistic or attribute-based social sciences (Johnson et al., 2013).}

_{The methodology of SNA refers to a set of analytical tools for mapping and measuring relationships among social entities, such as individuals, organizations or any social units (Carrington, Scott, & Wasserman, 2005). SNA's essential premise is that the social world and actors within it are created and shaped primarily by relationships and patterns formed by these relationships (Marin & Wellman, 2011). Hence, it takes a fundamentally different perspective from individualist and attribute-based methodologies in explaining actor behaviors and substantive outcomes (Uhl-Bien, 1998). It sees the social world in terms of interactions, rather than in an aggregation of actors who act independently, and thus focuses on patterns of relationships as the unit of analysis (Marin & Wellman, 2011).}

_{On the other hand, social network researchers still have debates over the topic of that causation is not possibly notable in the individual level, but in the social network structure (Sandhu, & Kulik, 2019). While nodes with similar characteristics may behave in the resembling manner, explaining these similarities by figuring out to common characteristics misses the existing reality that individuals with similar attributes often take resemblant positions in the model of social structure (Appel, de Santana, de Paula, Pinhanez, & Cavalvante, 2013). In that way, people with resembling characteristics apparently have similar social network places (Cross et al., 2002). The similarity in the appearance of possible outcomes is caused by the perceptions, opportunities, and constraints created by these similar network places (Popelier, 2018).}

_{By studying behavior as embedded in social networks, social scientists are able to explain the existence of network in the studying social structure (Johnson et al., 2013).}

_{The SNA studies the samples and models of relationships, not just relationships within two representatives (Borgatti & Molina, 2003). This means that while relationships are measured as existing between pairs of nodes, understanding the effect and meaning of a connection between more than two nodes requires taking into account the broader patterns of ties within the network (Matthews & Marzec, 2012). For instance, while individual ties provide social support and companionship, the amount of support provided by one person to another is affected by the extent to which support network members know one another (Marin & Wellman, 2011).}

_{Effective knowledge management practices in organizations are focused on knowledge creation and knowledge transfer activities (Wang, van der Bij, & Dolfsma, 2020). Thus, intelligence and competencies matters at the organizational workplace (Paюaoрlu, 2015). For most knowledge intensive organizations is fundamental the continuous availability and development of domain expertise (Barгo, de Vasconcelos, Rocha, & Pereira, 2017).}

_{“Social network analysis can be an invaluable tool for systematically assessing and then intervening at critical points within an informal network” (McLoughlin & Stewart, 2017). Of course, social network techniques have been around for some time. The idea of drawing a picture (called a “sociogram”) of who is tied to whom for a particular set of people with different attributes was described in the middle of the 20th century for understanding the possible regulations for this particular group (Wasserman and Faust, 1994).}

_{SNA is a quantitative tool that can be applied within an interpretive context in construction research (Eisenberg, Johnson, & Pieterson, 2015). Wasserman (2005) questioned the association of quantitative and qualitative methods with causality and the production of universal models but argued that both quantitative and qualitative methods (jointly) have a role in understanding social roles, positions and behaviors in the construction project environment (Zhang & Guo, 2019). SNA is proposed because it is not used with the exclusion of other methods (Zheng, Le, Chan, Hu, & Li, 2016).}

_{Strategically significant network graphs could be generated from 10-15 minute surveys assessing information or knowledge sharing within members of a team (Liu & Moskvina, 2016). This process includes several steps. To start with, the identification and to structuration of informal network where effective interaction and knowledge sharing has a reliable effect and impact on the company's strategic performance or operational demands should be done (Valkokari, Paasi, & Rantala, 2012). Apparently, the studied groups do not depicted on a formalized organizational chart, instead of that fact, their ability to cooperate and to integrate among each department and associative incommensurable assessment is crucial to the existing and prospective success of an company (Kurt & Kurt, 2020). As a result of the first step of this method, the first stages of an SNA are highly important to propel top executives or the top link managers beyond formal groups regulated by the organizational chart to those that might encounter the cross-functional or hierarchical limits such as new product or service development or top leadership networks (Carrington, Scott, & Wasserman, 2005). These formalized groups frequently operate unsupported in terms of recognition, whereas their ties and connections underlay company's proficiency or maintaining strategically effective innovation paths (Zheng et al., 2016).}

_{To conduct a social network research based on survey, the straightforward process of obtaining the data about the respondents is the optimal approach (Minnaar & Heystek, 2016). To do that, the application of the survey should include questions about the group and its patterns about relations with each other inside the studied group (Eisenberg et al., 2015). In this approach, it is necessary to ensure that the patterns of relations examined are important and appropriate for the objective of the research and are not instigative (Baker, 2019). Companies profoundly differ from each other in the revelation of various social relationships inside them (Huisman & van Duijn, 2014). Some organizations mostly ask about mapping trust and power relations without disclosing the names of respondents. Some organizations ask to map the names to present the social network connections within the whole group. In that way, the issue is the ethics of conducting the SNA (Kadushin, 2005).}

_{One of the most forceful approaches to apply SNA as a diagnostic tool and an accelerator for change is to put the names on a network map and make the map accessible to the members of the group as a platform for discussion (Can & Alatas, 2019). Despite that, such diagrams could be very sensitive and unethically correct, that depends on the layout of the network questions inquired and the organizational culture (Carnabuci, & Diуszegi 2015). As a matter of fact, researchers should consider all of the discussed topics and questions in the survey to pay attention towards the specific topic that organization has inquired, to avoid pointing on the existing relations with unnecessary disruption.}

_{To proceed with the studying of the SNA as a highly powerful diagnostic tool, several issues of SNA's usefulness for managers seeking for development of collaboration and knowledge management were outlined (Freeman, 2004). First of all, SNA could be applied as an effective approach of developing effective integration and collaboration within an organizationally important group. This approach could help on focusing on the strategically significant team and studying the most relevant topics (Bertolotti, Mattarelli, Vignoli, & Macrм, 2015). Secondly, the SNA could be used as a tool to support critical connections within the cross-functional or hierarchically based boundaries (Chen & McDonald, 2015). Furthermore, the SNA is effective to secure the interaction within teams that follow innovative and strategically reorganized initiatives (Cross et. al,2002).}

_{A mapping approach of implementing the graph-based model of the network can be developed by assigning a weight to each tie of the graph. In the SNA, these ties are called the edges (Wasserman and Faust, 1994). The graphs with the weight on each edge are called weighted graphs and they are employed to present structures in which paired interactions or connections have values gathered by the number of connections and that are presented numerically. For example, if a graph shows a railroad or road network, the weights could be calculated as the run of each rail or road (Petersson, Lundberg, & Rantatalo, 2017). The same representation is also available for the social networks within the organization, where weights represent the numbers and the strength of each tie between the nodes. A clique is a subset of its vertices such that every two vertices in the subset are connected by an edge. A bridge could be a node or an edge whose deletion increases the number of connected components (Appel et al., 2013).}

_{In spite of the fact that there a numerous articles about cooperative competition or coopetition, the studies in this research filed still lacks issues into the phenomenon based on the performing in the intra-organizational level (Knein, Greven, Bendig, & Brettel, 2019). Therefore, the studies of cooperative competition consider the effect of cross-functional, firm-internal coopetition on organizational ambidexterity (Nonino, 2013). In example, the organizations based on exploration and exploitation of its networks are paying high attention the moderating role of social cohesion sciences (Johnson et al., 2013). The multi-level approach of drawing and presenting the results to the top-management on organizational learning theory and analyzing survey data obtained is still an issue to research. (Strese, Meuer, Flatten, & Brettel, 2016a).}

_{The firms that wish to eliminate risks via performing the inner SNA are frequently tend to face the demands from current social observations, which generally results in the improvements of the knowledge sharing capabilities(von Hippel, 2005; Robertson et al., 2012). The organizations tend to develop the knowledge sharing and cross-functional mechanisms in the demand of improving the communicational flows, should examine their social networks on the basis of classical SNA (Ashok, Narula, & Martinez-Noya, 2016).}

Knowledge Sharing

_{Knowledge sharing is the component that should be governed and which is a crucial obligation of implementation within all the actions of managers (Ali, Bahadur, Wang, Luqman, & Khan, 2020). The managerial objectives, premises and contributions in the organizational development in terms of knowledge flow within the company is tightly connected with all management functions, tasks and processes, one way or another, are interpreted by communication with the knowledge distribution (Ruoslahti, 2020). It is not the sequence of employing different practices and theoretical implications, but the knowledge sharing management, its analysis and future organizational research is considered as the most significant subsystem of CF management and as the most important ability of a successful CF interaction tool (Ellison, Gibbs, & Weber, 2015a). It is vital that the communication and knowledge sharing within the group of employees, which is managed by the project or team manager influences the participants of the project team and interacts or interconnects with all stakeholders of the project (Wang et al., 2020).}

_{Knowledge and its applications are especially important for the success of innovative projects (Camacho, 2019). The project teams based on the knowledge sharing distribution are in favor of the employing different kinds of organizational knowledge (Di Vincenzo, & Mascia, 2012). Innovative projects in general and projects acclaimed for the development of new products in particular involve the presence of a large number of specialists from various functional areas and departments of the company (Jassawalla, & Sashittal, 1999). The leaders or project managers of such development divisions do not have an opportunity to distinguish and divide their projects into discrete number of independent tasks, which correlate with the departments' objectives or professional contributions or distribute them among the structural divisions so that they work independently and in isolation from each other (Di Vincenzo, & Mascia, 2012). The environment of innovative projects for new services or product development involves active teamwork (Aalbers & Dolfsma, 2015). In the research of Kudriavtseva & Volkova (2019) was stated, that the organizational context is in favor of the potential of social capital in the organizations, which is used to fix arising local problems (Matthews, & Marzec, 2012).}

_{While it is a possibility to show an organizational chart to most of employee and they will state that these graphs and lines only partially represents the way that organization is maintained, the way the work gets done in the company (Di Vincenzo, & Mascia, 2012).. The connections of the departments on the administrative charts do not reflect the essence of the interconnections between the structural divisions and the employees inside them (Appel et al., 2013). The unconstrained approach on which plenty of the relationships among the structural divisions and employees based is often more likely representative of the way business and knowledge sharing as its integral part flows in an organization than relationships created by position within the regular or administrative structure (Matthews, & Marzec, 2012). Despite of this unquestionable essence of organizational aspect, these informal connections are often invisible and unpredictable or at least only partially mentioned by managers in their understanding the organization' real performance (Cross & Parker, 2004). A problem that with the possibility of distinguishing these informal layers, which are virtual and not governed be anyone (Olaisen, & Revang, 2017), the knowledge sharing among them is vital part of the organizational performance (Cross et al., 2002).}

_{One of the most important steps for the manager is to identifying the employees that are highly central in informal networks, what could be studied by the sociometric research and so have a significant impact on a part of the department or other non-administrative groups by controlling information or knowledge sharing can help a manager estimate how to reorganize informational flows and domains or decision- making rights based on the knowledge sharing capabilities so that the informal group as a whole is about to show more effective performance (Lombardi, Cavaliere, Giustiniano, & Cipollini, 2020). On the other side, the opportunity to understand who is peripheral in a network or has the least strength of ties and connections (Kleinbaum, 2012a), the result-oriented ways to engage and maintain these people in the organizational network is also a substantial step of ensuring that model belonging to a studied network is being precisely and effectively utilized (Appel et al., 2013).}

Cross-functional interaction

_{Organization structure - is the formal arrangement of work roles in the organization and the mechanisms of management and interaction which consists of Inter Organizational performance (Ashenbaum, Blair, & Brewer, 2020). It also represents the means to achieve the business aims and objectives. Company's aims can be represented to many aspects of operational activity concretely (Bai, Feng, Yue, & Feng, 2017). But it can be assumed in two aspects including efficiency in stable operation and innovation in dynamic adaption to new business objectives (Berasategi, Arana, & Castellano, 2011). Consequently, there are two main forms in organizational structure which means that organization is built of mechanical structure and organic structure. Mechanical organizational structure is also called bureaucratic or administrative structure (Priyono, 2016). Organizations have an increasing degree of labor distribution and functional distribution for the work, and the ability to choose the qualified staff to face the required responsibilities of job specifications in the way of organizational impact (Strese et. al, 2016a). This administrative level implements strict control over the specialized work performance which is distributed and developed a number of standards and norms at same period of time (Strese et. al, 2016b). Organic organizational structure is also known as an adaptive structure. This kind of organizational structure refers to organizational ability not to set the fixed positions and functional boundaries to precisely represent the department (Tsai, & Hsu, 2014). The staff have an opportunity to decide on the upcoming action and determine the most effective ways of inter-communication and coordination between the members of the group according to their own skills and knowledge management mastering (Leenders, & Dolfsma, 2016).}

_{Cross-functional interaction is a flexible model of organizing the staff in accordance with the current business and managerial objectives (Edmondson & Harvey, 2018). Due to the possibility of overcoming the boundaries and conflicts between functions or departments' performance models, cross-functional interaction is highly effective tool to distribute the responsibilities over several actors. Moreover, cross-functional interaction refers to knowledge sharing, communication models and the aim on innovation participation of departments of organization to develop a new product or service, or to fix current commercialization features on the team level (Edmondson & Harvey, 2018). These interaction based on the perspective of knowledge processing and distribution among the departments integrated in the company's obligations development (Young-Hyman, 2017a).}

_{Each of the departments in the administrative organizational structure has the stated formal roles, obligations and responsibilities, the stated and documentary formulated business process and the functional structure, oriented organizational culture, crucially specialized operation process, skills and homogeneous and experienced in the way of business human resource base (Saade, & Nijher, 2016). Building cross-functional team in the administrative structure covers the aspect of following strict hierarchy and chain of orders, which causes the knowledge sharing among the functional group from other departments by the limited number of communication channels (Wiedemann, Wiesche & Krcmar, 2019). Controversially, the cross-functionally interacted team faces the objective independence from the vertical hierarchy (Jackson, Chuang, Harden & Jiang, 2006).}

_{Cross-functional interaction of different departments has a significantly important role in promoting the performance of knowledge sharing among the new product or service development (Leenders, & Dolfsma, 2016). The research of Young-Hyman (2017a) finds out that occasional and integrated communication among several business departments in the organization often has tight connection with arising possibility of the failure of the product or service development, while tightly connected members of cross-functional team via knowledge sharing and the absence of communicational barriers will led to successful development of the stated objective (Jackson et. al, 2006). The effective cross-functional interaction and integration members of different departments in these teams can decrease the timing of the development, shorten the amount of time needed to establish the interaction mechanisms (Zheng et al., 2016).}

_{For many companies in knowledge-production industries, the coordination among departments and employees with different set of specific features and specialized knowledge is a crucial challenge and opportunity (Martin, & Eisenhardt, 2010).. The complex approach of solving uncertain tasks and objectives requires the ongoing reorganizing of distributed knowledge sets, and managers have to organize tasks and flexible organizational structures to follow these interaction efforts (Zheng et al., 2016). At the objective level, cross-functional teams are a common arrangement for overcoming current and specific objectives and goals, which leads to enhancing collaboration level, knowledge sharing among different levels of interaction - departments and workers (Martin, & Eisenhardt, 2010). At the organizational level, knowledge- profound companies distribute administrative power by spreading it through the allocating the ownership and distributing rights to increase the level of knowledge sharing and tasks' achievement alignment throughout the workers (Liu & Moskvina, 2016). These two models of organizational layout often co-exist in companies involved in knowledge- production business (Wiedemann et. al, 2019).}

_{Cross-functional knowledge sharing, between marketing and multiple business functions, can enhance innovation, new product success, market research, and performance. The determinants of such cross-functional knowledge sharing efforts likely involve intra-firm performance mechanisms, as predicted by the coordination-sharing-performance (Nguyen, Ngo, Bucic, & Phong, 2018). In the late 1970s, empirical management research began to introduce SNA-related research perspectives to examine relational links, particulars formal links, in network structures within business organizations (McLoughlin, & Stewart, 2017). Given the rapid development of powerful SNA software, such as UCINET and PAJEK, PLS-based statistical programs and Gephi (Banach, & Kasprzyk, 2017), this perspective has expanded significantly in the past three decades and has been adopted to examine network characteristics and effects within a business organization, such as knowledge transfer, resource mobilization and consensus building (Zheng et al., 2016).}

Statement of the research question

_{The research question is: Which possibilities of using network analysis tools are suitable to diagnose the cross-functional interaction in an organization? This question covers the problem of the research implementing the CF mechanisms in the organization and this issue could be analyzed on this case study research. The specifics of the stated objectives, counting all the directly exploratory issues, is the way of conducting the research in terms of the new methods, that have not been tried by the research team yet. The work path of employing these novel methods of statistical interpretation of the results and the future visual representation of the interconnections in terms of their cross-functionality is one of the most challenging objectives thorough the whole research.}

_{To check the stated interactions and their ties, the structural equation modeling method (SEM) is used in the research, since it gives an opportunity to evaluate the relationships between latent variables, measured indirectly by the set of observed variables which the different algorithms that the tested theoretical model is based on (Hooper, Coughlan, & Mullen, 2008). Moreover, SEM allows to contemporaneously take into statistical consideration plenty of relationships between model variables, evaluating direct and indirect effects, path coefficients, total effects and path effects. It also allows us to measure the errors of latent variables in the model (Hooper et. al, 2008). To empirically measure the set of variables of the theoretical model, we employed an individual assessment by respondents of sets of statements related to the studied variables (Kurt & Kurt, 2020). The variables were divided into two groups: sociometric variables and knowledge sharing variables. For the sociometric variables the there is a set of choices for up to 10 interconnections within the organization divided in three indicators- Communication, Help/ Information, project team. The variables for knowledge sharing are the following: Internal motivation, External motivation, Management practices aimed at motivating knowledge sharing, Management practices aimed at providing opportunities for knowledge sharing, Management practices aimed at developing knowledge sharing abilities, Individual knowledge sharing activity. The use of the mentioned method is based on the hypothesis that employees' comprehension of managerial practices existing in the company are subjective and often differ at the individual level. The scales for “Management practices aimed at motivating knowledge sharing” were borrowed from Kianto, Andreeva, Shi (2011), the scales for “Management practices aimed at providing opportunities for knowledge sharing” were borrowed from Wu, Hsu, Yeh (2007), the scales for “Management practices aimed at developing knowledge sharing abilities” were borrowed from Jackson et. al (2006). These scales are written and developed in English, so their translation into Russian became a distinct step in the development of the survey. According to the CF research requirements, the translation was carried out by the Internet translation systems, then the multilingual experts were involved, to check the possible discrepancies of the wording.}

_{Table 1}

Methodology

_{After the analysis of the prior researches and the existing literature on CF interaction, the SNA and knowledge sharing activity, several hypotheses were developed. Firstly, after the assumption that the departments' knowledge sharing distribution have a positive effect on CF interaction, the communication paths, help and information paths and project distribution paths would also have significant effect on influencing the departments' choices of interaction. Thus, the following hypotheses were developed to measure the stated correlations:}

_{H0. There is no significant difference between the selection structure of department's employees on their communication with other departments.}

_{H1. There is no significant difference between the selection structure of department's employees on their help or information inquiries within other departments.}

_{H2. There is no significant difference between the selection structure of department's employees on the formation of project developing teams with other departments.}

_{Moreover, the Individual knowledge sharing activity (IKSA) was also measured with the internal and external control variables. The IKSA is a significant index of knowledge sharing in the organizations and we assume that the correlation of the employees' distribution within the departments is related to the IKSA components. Consequently, the following hypotheses are suggested:}

_{H3. Internal motivation of the employees is significant in the relationship of the IKSA performance.}

_{H4. Management practices aimed at developing knowledge sharing abilities are significant in the connection of the employees' IKSA performance.}

_{Examined together, these hypotheses set the appearance of the research, facing its objectives, conducting the SNA in terms of the CF interaction and knowledge sharing in the organization.}

Research Design

_{The hypotheses are based on prior researches, so they are generated through the prior. Thus, the research is based on the content and explanatory findings with the general goal of investigating the causal relationship between control variables of department and variables such as CF indexes and independently IKSA performance variable and the role of individual differences in this causality. The research design is descriptive and exploratory with the online survey as the main tool of primary data collection (Can, & Alatas, 2019). The research is also inductive based on its characteristics and the research flow (Williams & Shepherd, 2017). The research is mainly quantitative with a quantitative data collection process and quantitative data analysis strategy to be able to test the hypotheses that were developed, but with the usage of qualitative data collection such as expert interviews (Behrendt, Richter, & Trier, 2014).}

_{There are several stages of the research. First, the existing literature on the SNA, CF interaction and knowledge sharing was examined and identified their main characteristics, concepts and consequences, and other concepts connected related to the topic (Dalkir, 2013). It was necessary to understands the further process of generating hypotheses to achieve the underlying contributions for proposed hypotheses. Another important aspect is the lack of evidence on causality between CF interaction and Knowledge sharing concepts conducted on the Russian banking industry market. Therefore, the relations between the chosen variables were anticipated by the analogy with other industries.}

_{After this stage, the research strategy was defined. The research assumes the generalization on the whole banking industry with employees in banks being observed. It suggested the survey as the most appropriate tool for collecting data as well as quantitative methods of data analysis for testing the hypotheses to conduct the strong SNA with statistically significant conclusions.}

_{After the step of the data collection and analysis, it was able to proceed with the decisions to confirm or reject the hypotheses. As a result of our research, we provide several crucial evidences on how managers, especially managers in HR departments are able to use the developed knowledge in their work. Furthermore, conclusions provided on the basis of the analysis are novel theoretical knowledge that could be used in practice and that can increase the development of SNA on the cross-functional interaction in the organizations to a new level of research. The mixed method was employed according to as the most suitable method in conducting the SNA (Ken-Opurum, Lynch, Vandergraff, Miller, & Savaiano, 2019). The mixed method has several advantages in that case over the other methods because the ties of the nodes, created for the SNA of the organization, could be moderated in different paths. First of all, mixed method is able to show the possible outcomes for the tested hypotheses to form the research in the convenient way with organizing the steps consequently to perform the appropriate model for the research (Ken-Opurum et. al, 2019).}

Data collection process

_{We collected the primary data because there is no recorded data sets on the research topics due to the absence of the research of SNA in the Russian banking industry. Moreover, the primary data gives us an opportunity to formulate our own data sets, with important and necessary indicators included, which gives an advantage on conducting the comprehensive research. Thus, it is able to form the most suitable conclusions based on the gained primary data. To achieve this approach, the}

_{The data was collected in two sequential steps. The first step were the expert interviews with the Heads of the HR departments in two Russian banks. The interview were targeting the CF interaction topic, the performance of implementing the CF mechanisms in each of the banks (Johnson, Kovбcs, & Vicsek, 2012). The primary goals of these interviews was to analyze the banks' approaches in CF interaction and to launch the possibility of the research within the banks.}

_{The second stage is conducting an online cross-sectional survey on the Surveymonkey.com platform. The survey contains 4 blocks of questions: general professional information, sociometric questions on the CF interaction, questions of knowledge sharing and demographic questions. The first block contains three questions about respondent's department, job position and year of commencement of work. The second block is about sociometric questions where the respondent was to choose up to ten colleagues from the same or different departments by three indicators: the communication activity during the last six months, the opportunity of help or information inquiries with the colleagues, the preference of working in one project team. The third block is about knowledge sharing within the employees made by questions with 6-point Likert scale from “absolutely disagree” to “absolutely agree”. The 6-point scale was chosen to avoid centrist sampling when the middle option is chosen for the quickest completion of the survey. This block indicates the variables of external and internal motivation, the management practices aimed at motivating, providing the opportunities and developing the knowledge sharing abilities. This section is borrowed from the Sergeeva & Andreeva (2014) study on knowledge sharing. The last block contains three questions about the gender, age and the education level.}

_{The original scales were borrowed from English sources and compounded into one survey block, so their translation into Russian became a separate step in the development of the questionnaire. According to the standards of CF research, the translation was carried out in several stages with the involvement of experts, independent translations and subsequent comparison and refinement of the wording.}

_{The survey was distributed electronically with the access link to surveymonley.com platform via corporate emails among employees in a bank in the North-West region of Russian Federation in March-April, 2020. This method is suitable for the research as it allows to collect data from as many people as possible to ensure the representativeness of a sample. The department and the IKSA are control variables.}

_{One of the most important points on collecting this kind of data (information from the expert interviews and the data from the online survey) is the ethical issues. The ethics about taking the expert interviews are coded in different articles and books. For example, in our interviews the vector of the dialog was strictly marked due to the high work load of the HR managers. There are also several ethical points about conducting the survey. The first issue is the preservation of the anonymity of the respondents (Allen & Roberts, 2010) due to two reasons: the survey was conducted by the third party (the research group) and the issue about presenting the results to the top-management after the research is conducted which could cause some implicit affairs if the anonymity has not been preserved (Roberts & Allen, 2015). To avoid these undesirable consequences but to still have an opportunity to distinguish the actors, the first block of questions with the indicators of job characteristics was developed. These particular questions about employee's department, job position and year of commencement of work could be decoded only by the HR manager if this necessity would arise.}

Sample

_{The research is conducted in North-West region branch of the one of the top ten Russian banks. The choice of the company is determined by the study objectives and that the Russian banking industry was not analyzed in the terms of CF performance and SNA. Moreover, the choice connected with the fact that the bank has large personnel headcount population. Furthermore, the bank as a dynamically developing organization is trying to implement the CF mechanisms in its working environment. The company we study correlates with several indicators that were required to conduct a strong SNA, namely the large size of the organization, the industry and the orientation on the implementation of the CF mechanisms that should be mentioned in company's current HR strategy. The sampling method for the study is non-probability. We consider it as a relevant choice for detecting relationships among different indicators, and an appropriate solution when the population is too large to measure with adjusting indicators on different CF issues and when there is an strict access to a company that meets all the necessary criteria. Still we assume the limitation that such sampling technique may harm the representativeness of the sample on the one hand, and to increase the volume of the sample on the other. The population of the study is numbered by the personnel headcount of the company, whereas the sample is represented by employees who have passed the online survey. These workers were chosen non-specifically during the mailing via the corporate email network. Later, 166 questionnaires were returned (20 percent of the population). Thus, 166 usable responses were gathered from a population of business departments of the Bank. This response rate is reliable with Baruch and Holtom (2008), stating that those studies that seek responses from organizational representatives or top managers are likely to experience lower response rates, approximately 15-25 percent (Baruch and Holtom, 2008).}

_{The population of the survey is 887 employees of business departments of Alfa Bank, the sample size is 166 respondents. The departments' labels are written natively, because the organization does not have the English translation of the departments' labels. In that way, the tables and graphs, which include the departments as the component, would also have the labels in Russian.}