The co-evolution of individual and network

Individuals simultaneously choose and are affected by their web of connections. This paper explores this co-evolution of individual and network in the context of longitudinal attitudinal and sociometric data collected from a government agency, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Analysis of these data suggests that networks vary in their elasticity - where the internal network of the agency was rigid, but the extra-organizational network quite fluid. Further, the data suggest that, consistent with theories of socialization, individuals differ in plasticity - how they are affected by the network - where the cross-sectional analysis of the data suggest that individuals were molded by the organization, but that the attitudes of individuals who left were unaffected by the change in milieu.