Networking within Divisional Secretaries and its Impact on Organizational Performance (Special reference to Divisional Secretaries in Sri Lanka)

The networking among organizations and within the organization is very important to achieve vision, mission and the performance of any organization. Although there are studies about networking in a global context, it is hard to find networking related studies in the local context. Therefore, this study of networking within divisional secretaries and its impact on their performance is important. The main objective of this study is to analysis the networking within the divisional secretaries and its impact on the performance of those divisional secretaries. The studies depend upon the answers based on the questionnaire survey. Although the networks fall into two principal categories such as inter-firm networks and inter-personal networks, this study is limited to studying interpersonal network. The network is a vague concept and it consists of a set of actors (“nodes”) and the relations (“ties” or “edges”) between these actors. Relevant literature discussed to build the analytical framework and different theories of networking such as theories of self-interest, social exchange and dependency theory, mutual interest and collective action, a family of cognitive theories and theory of homophily. It reviewed the relevant literature on job performance and networking related performance. It also discussed the divisional administration and divisional secretaries. In this study impact of networking on the performance of divisional secretaries was measured with five independent variables such as instrumental network, expressive network, friendship network, advice network and knowledge network. Primary and secondary data were used to analyze the networking related performance. The survey was done throughout the all divisional secretaries in Sri Lanka via a questionnaire and collected data were analyzed by using Structural equation modelling (SEM). According to the study, the most important and affected networking activity which was highly affected by the performance is the knowledge network. Friendship network and instrumental network are the second and third networks effects on Perera, H.S.C Associate Professor, University of Ruhuna, Matara, Sri Lanka sunethrap@badm.ruh.ac.lk Gunawardana, T.S.L.W Senior Lecturer, University of Ruhuna, Matara, Sri Lanka gunawardana@badm.ruh.ac.lk Gunarathna, K.A.W.L.W. Department of Motor Traffic, Sri Lanka wasanthaguna@yahoo.com Networking within Divisional Secretaries and its Impact on Organizational Performance (Special reference to Divisional Secretaries in Sri Lanka) DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/sljmuok.v6i2.45

the process by which social actors create and mobilize their network connections within and between organizations to gain access to other social actors' resources" (Knok, 1999). Organizational social capital is generally understood as the ability of the individuals in the organization to work for the common good, and networking and trust are most often used to characterize organizational social capital (Hasle et al., 2007).
Several theoretical and empirical studies have examined the consequences of network relationships in the workplace, particularly job performance (Shah et al., 2019). Public sector employees are somewhat behind in using networking in their day to day functions when compared to private sector employees.
Further, it was evident that previous research has demonstrated a relationship between network and employee's performance, relatively few studies have explicitly taken professionals and examined the link between the network and organizational outcomes (e.g. Chung and Hossain, 2009;Gargiulo et al., 2009). It is very rare to find research literature to understand the social networking activities and their job-related outcomes of public sector organizations in Sri Lanka. Therefore, it is important to study networking in case of the performance of Divisional Secretaries in Sri Lanka. This situation leads to generate the research problem as "What are the networking functions practiced within and among the divisional secretariats and how do they affect the organizational performance. Also, this knowledge gap was examined through this research by addressing the effect of networking practices by public sector managers on organizational performance in the Sri Lankan context.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE / THEORETICAL BACKGROUND:
A social network consists of a set of actors ("nodes") and the relations ("ties" or "edges") between these actors (Wasserman & Faust, 1994). Relational ties are constructed either as dyadic (there can be only direct links between two identified nodes) social relationships linking social system members across social categories and bounded groups, or as non-dyadic relations linking members of subsets of arbitrary size. The nodes may be individuals, groups, organizations, or societies. The ties may fall within a level of analysis (e.g., individual-to-individual ties) or may cross levels of analysis (e.g., individual-to-group ties). A complete network consists of a group of individuals with one or more relations defined among them. The individuals between whom relational ties can exist are called "actors". An actor is presumed to develop relational ties with some, but not necessarily all actors or events that are part of his or her network (Wasserman & Faust, 1994). Hoang and Antoncic (2003) conclude that, concerning network content, networks fall into two principal categories: inter-firm networks and inter-personal networks. Broadly, an inter-personal network is the sum of relationships linking one person with other people  whereas inter-firm networks are usually described as a set of relationships linking one firm with other firms (Johanson & Mattson, 1988). theoretical mechanisms. A basic assumption of network theory is that the internal and external relations of units become ever more important in the actions of contemporary social units and their elements (Monge, 2003).

Theories of Self-Interest:
There is a large school of network researchers who come from a rational self-interest paradigm. These scholars assume that people form dyadic and group ties to maximize their personal preferences and desires. The rational self-interest school within network research can be traced back to the work of sociologist (Coleman, 1988). Coleman showed how, from two-actor interactions, with each actor operating out of self-interest, emerges the basis for a social system (such as a small group). While each actor is trying to maximize his or her interests, each is at the same time constrained because he or she is embedded in an interdependent relationship with the other. That relationship imposes limits on both actors' behavior and regulates the extent of self-seeking. These limits are counterbalanced by the increased access to resources each actor gets via the other. Individuals consider the creation of ties as an investment in the accumulation of social resources or "social capital." Social capital is the "sum of the resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual or group by possessing a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition" (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, p. 119). From a self-interest perspective, individuals expect to deploy this social capital (Coleman, 1988) and reap returns on their investment in the form of opportunities from which they can profit. For instance,  argues that "structural holes" in a network provide an opportunity for individuals to invest their social capital.

Social Exchange and Dependency Theory:
George Homans (1950) was a forebear of the social exchange school. According to The theory, the people establish ties to others with whom they can exchange valued resources. Whether a relationship will be sustained over time will depend on the payoffs to each of the two parties. With exchange theory, Homans sought to link the micro to the macro levels of analysis and show how the social structure arises exchanges and power dependences at both inter-individual and intergroup levels. Theory argued that when individuals or groups exchange valued resources, this is made possible due to a large-scale network of relationships.

Family of Cognitive Theories:
This theory focuses to study of small group and which draws on a family of cognitive theories based on the theory of transitive memory systems and the theory of cognitive consistency. Whereas both theories focus on group members' cognitions, they differ in their explanation for why group members create and maintain their network ties. The theory of transitive memory explains how group members, each with their own set of skills and expertise, develop communication networks that help them identify and leverage the skills and expertise of others in the group (Wegner, 1995). The balance theory posited that if two individuals were friends, they should have similar evaluations of an object. This model was extended and mathematically formulated by Harary et al., (1965). Holland and Leinhardt (1975) argued that the object could be a third person in a communication network. If the two individuals did not consistently evaluate the third person, they would experience a state of discomfort and would strive to reduce this cognitive inconsistency by altering their evaluations of either the third person or their friendship. In common parlance, this argument is captured by the aphorism "We like to be friends with friends of our friends" and the occurrence of tension when our friends are not friends with one another.
In small groups, these affect ties ("who likes whom") are an important explanation of the creation of communication ties within a group and the development of coalitions within groups. Researchers have examined the effects of cognitive consistency on individuals' attitudes. For instance, Krackhardt and Kilduff (1990) reported that members whose friends were friends with one another (they labelled this "schema consistent") tended to be more satisfied than those whose friends did not get along with one another.

Theory of Homophily:
A network perspective can help explain group communication based on homophily. That is, members are more likely to create communication ties with other group members who they deem to be similar.
In colloquial terms, "birds of a feather flock together." Brass (1995) observes that "similarity is thought to ease communication, increase the predictability of behavior, and foster trust and reciprocity". Indeed, the similarity-attraction hypothesis is exemplified in the work of Sherif (1958), who suggested that individuals were more likely to select similar others because by doing so they reduce the potential areas of conflict in the relationship. A key issue for theories of homophily is determining the criteria used to evaluate similarity. Homophily has been studied based on similarity in age, gender, education, prestige, social class, tenure, and occupation (Ibarra, 1995;Pallotti et. al, 2011). A communication network perspective can to explain (a) what criteria are used by group members to identify similar others and (b) how these criteria are invoked to create communication ties with similar others.
All these theories were discussed how people create, maintain, and reconstitute networking and how it affects social units. Each theory is having its own philosophy with networking. Further, the theories of self-interest discussed the opportunity for individuals to invest their social capital where social exchange and dependency theory contributes with theories on how individuals or groups exchanges values and resources through large network relationship. The cognitive theories discussed how group members in an organization maintain their network ties, especially, the theory of transitive memory explain how group members share their skills and experiences with other members. Moreover, theory of homophile agreed that individuals and, or group have communication ties with similar others.

Types of Networks:
The network can be categorized into many different types. A common distinction between two different types of networks that are formal network and informal network (Ibarra, 1993). The formal network contains with the people only known formally: employer, superiors at work, co-workers, and people may have met at a reception, but who only know being connected to someone only known formally etc.
According to Ibarra (1993), a formal network is "composed of a set of formally specified relationships between superiors and subordinates and among representatives of functionally differentiated groups who must interact to accomplish an organizationally defined task." Hence, this type of relationship is characterized by formal hierarchy, or rules and regulations and is, therefore, not chosen randomly or voluntarily. Informal inter-personal networks, by contrast, "involve more discretionary patterns of interaction, where the content of relationships may be work-related, social, or a combination of both." (Ibarra, 1993). Friends and family members are major components of informal networks (Birley, 1985).
In addition to friends, family, informal network includes in-laws, neighbors get along with, friends of friends etc. The instrumental network is another kind of network and those ties "arise in the course of work role performance and involve the exchange of job-related resources, including information, expertise, professional advice, and material resources" (Ibarra, 1993). These ties refer almost explicitly to the formally defined roles that employees serve when providing task-related help, advice, or information. Instrumental network relationships are based on sharing knowledge and information and therefore have a transactional character. Instrumental ties are often used to exchange work-related resources, and they typically involve actions that seek information, expertise, and professional advice (Ibarra, 1993;Lincoln and Miller, 1979). "Expressive network is also one tie tend to be less closely bound to formal structure and work roles, and involve interpersonal effect and the exchange of emotional support that is not related to the task itself" (Ibarra, 1993). The origin of expressive ties is not as straightforward as for instrumental ties, so they deserve a more detailed review. They are not formally prescribed but develop from discretionary interactions. These ties are most often characterized by friendship (Brass, 1992). Friendship network is one of network pattern which emerges between two people only if and when their paths cross. They will have to 'meet' before they can 'mate.' They would be more likely to meet if they share, Friendship networks often entail access to information and knowledge directly and indirectly. Advice network is another array which reflects an individual's involvement in exchanging resources in the process of problem-solving. Advice network is capable of accumulating information, knowledge, and experiences about task-related problems, and thus is likely to perform better. Advice networks consist of relations through which individuals share resources such as information, assistance, and guidance that are related to the completion of their work (Sparrowe, et al., 2001). The advice network is more instrumental-oriented than is the friendship network. Knowledge networks are one major network category which affects to the performance and it leads to the accumulation, augmentation and exchange of tacit knowledge and improved skills required for innovation. The major benefits of knowledge networks are to be found in three areas: improved efficiency, increased innovation and personal satisfaction. (Buchel, 2002). Given the rather loose links between members of a network, a certain degree of optimization of the network's activities is an important step toward effective exchange and continued engagement by its members.

Organizational Performance in Public Sector:
Job performance is one of the most important dependent variables and has been studied for a long decade. "Defining performance in the public sector is however a difficult task which derives from the complex role of the public sector. One way to define performance in the public sector requires the  (Stannack, 1996). Performance refers to the degree of achievement of the mission at the workplace that builds up an employee job (Cascio, 2006). Job performance has been defined as the value an organization can expect from discrete behaviors performed by employee overtime (Motowidlo & Van Scotter, 1994 value of what people do. Performance is a multi-dimensional concept. Borman and Motowidlo, (1997) distinguished between two types of job performance; task performance and contextual performance.
Task performance refers to behaviors that are directly involved in producing goods or service or activities that provide indirect support for the organization's core technical processes (Borman & Motowidlo, 1997;Werner, 2000). These behaviors directly related to the formal organization reward system. On the other hand, contextual performance is defined as individual efforts that are not directly related to their main task functions. However, these behaviors are important because they shape the organizational, social, and psychological contexts serving as the critical catalyst for task activities and processes (Werner, 2000). Task performance represents those things that are typically on a job description and involve the transformation of materials into goods and services such as sales or operating manufacturing equipment. Contextual performance refers to the behavior that contributes to organizational effectiveness through its effects on the psychological, social, and organizational context of work (Borman & Motowidlo, 1997). "Performance of members of any organization depends on the ability to effectively interact with their superiors, subordinates and co-workers within the organization and consumers, suppliers and general public outside. Interpersonal relations, therefore, is a very important issue involving any organization" Obakpolo, (2015). Performance gains organizations in many ways. Performance is also important for the individual. Accomplishing tasks and Performing at a high level can be a source of satisfaction, with feelings of mastery and pride. Low performance and not achieving the goals might be experienced as dissatisfying or even as a personal failure.

Networking and Performance:
Organizations need highly performing individuals to meet their goals. Organization's productivity base on its employee's performance, and its employee's performance, are depending on many factors. The interpersonal relationship has been identified as an important factor in the psychosocial work environment that could affect wellbeing, job satisfaction, performance and productivity ( problem-solvers than those with limited social networks (Freifeld, 2013). When a task is to be done, an individual can enhance his or her job by obtaining help from available networks. The network reflects an individual's involvement in exchanging resources in the process of problem-solving. The network is capable of accumulating information, knowledge, and experiences about task-related problems, and thus is likely to perform better. Effective networkers can access the people, information, and resources they need to identify problems and potential solutions and get things done. By having a trusted set of advisors and advocates, effective networkers make better decisions faster and are more likely to have support for their ideas and plans. Wasserman and Faust, (1994) state that the ability to access diverse and valuable information effectively promotes worker productivity in two ways. Primarily, accessing information related to work at hand can directly improve the quality of work, as it can increase the chance of finding solutions to difficult problems. Secondarily, accessing diverse information makes it more likely that new opportunities and resources will be discovered more quickly. Interpersonal relationships are involved in the course of performing their jobs. Such relationships include supervisorsubordinate relationships, Peer-Worker relationships, workplace friendships, romantic relationships and customer relationships (Sias, 2008). According to Gerstner and Day, managers who are leaders or supervisors can affect an employee's job motivation and job performance (Gerstner and Day, 1997).
Public sector employees are practicing network means they are crossing the boundaries of their organization. Cross and Cummings (2004) who state that crossing (organizational and departmental) boundaries have significant associations with performance. On that ground, one could expect that when DSs cross the borders of their organization -and have a network would result in higher performance.

Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses:
The  PLS-SEM only permits recursive relationships in the structural model (i.e., no causal loops). Therefore, the structural paths between the latent constructs can only head in a single direction (Volckner et al.

2010
). CB-SEM develops a theoretical covariance matrix based on a specified set of structural equations. The technique focuses on estimating a set of model parameters in such a way that the difference between the theoretical covariance matrix and the estimated covariance matrix is minimized (e.g., Rigdon, 1998). The CB-SEM model estimation requires a set of assumptions to be fulfilled, including the multivariate normality of data, minimum sample size, and so forth (e.g., Diamantopoulos & Siguaw, 2000). A SEM with latent constructs has two components (i.e., inner model and measurement model). SEM does not only allow to analyze a set of latent factors like dependent and independent variables in regression analysis (Segars & Grover, 1993) but also provides a comprehensive means to assess and modify theoretical models (Karahanna & Straub, 1999).
Each construct in the measurement model was measured using multiple items. Each manifest variable in a certain measurement model is assumed to be generated as a linear function of its latent variables and the residual. Table 2     The results reveal that instrumental networking has a positive and statistically significant relationship with organizational performance. This relationship is supported by data (β=0. 32 outcomes. Consequently, this study enriched with the subject area, this study has filled the research gap.
As this study revealed that, networking is an inevitable factor which affects organizational outcomes of public sector employees, and these findings can be used by responsible authorities such as the Ministry of Home Affairs, District Secretaries, and Provincial Councils for their purposes such as placements, transfers, policy development, training need analysis etc.

FUTURE RESEARCH AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
This study reveals that there is a scarcity of related literature; therefore, there is a need to conduct research for the enrichment of literature in relation to social network and performance in public sector employees in the Sri Lankan context. It is hard to find research on the association of types of the network