If someone asked how your company is organized, what would you say? Chances are you would pull out your company's org chart and describe its various divisions and departments.

But org charts only depict lines of formal authority. Running throughout your organization are networks of relationships, which are where the real day-to-day power and influence reside. Understanding how they operate can help you lead and manage more effectively.

Organizational networks can take many forms, from informal channels of information swapping to well-established communities of practice. Recently, a clever team of analysts at the Pew Research Center's Internet Project, working with the Social Media Foundation, did a deep dive on Twitter.

The researchers used an innovative data analysis tool to map topic networks by drawing lines between Twitter users that represent the connections they form when they follow, reply to or mention one another. What they found reveals a lot about how and why certain networks get formed.

According to the analysts' summary of findings, "Conversations on Twitter create networks with identifiable contours as people reply to and mention one another in their tweets. These conversational structures differ, depending on the subject and the people driving the conversation."

Their analysis revealed six different network crowd configurations, which have notable similarities to networks in organizations.

1. Polarized Crowd

These are networks made up of opposing groups who have divided opinions on a particular topic, usually political. The interesting thing about this crowd is that members of the opposing groups do not communicate with one another, and they consult different sources of information and expertise to support their positions.

The liberals are listening to NPR and the conservatives to Fox News, and never the twain shall meet. Similar behavior can often be found among executive teams, managers and workers — especially when the need for confidentiality creates information vacuums — or between departments or divisions with opposing views on operational or strategic issues.

2. Tight Crowd

These networks are comprised of a small group of highly-interconnected participants, usually specialists or professionals who aggregate around a particular issue or event, such as a conference or new technology.

Tight crowds are similar to learning communities or communities of practice within an organization. They are the "in" groups among specialists in a particular profession, trade or area of expertise.

3. Brand Clusters

The members of this network normally do not associate with one another, but they are drawn together because of their loyalty to a particular brand, celebrity, product or service.

Internally, these clusters form around topics that cut across the org chart, such as changes to the company's benefit plan or the selection of a vendor for a widely-used service. As the analysts note, the function of these clusters is usually to rally support and pass along the message to others in their networks. Little discussion or information sharing takes place.

4. Community Clusters

Within subgroups, certain topics may generate smaller interest groups, which often form around a few hubs — each with its own audience, influencers and sources of information. These Community Clusters conversations, say the analysts, "look like bazaars with multiple centers of activity."

Think of a cross-disciplinary team in which the members from various departments or divisions are reporting back to their home team or management — each of which has its own perspective on the performance and progress of the work team.

Community Clusters are quite common in organizations, and they can become disruptive if steps are not taken to squelch any divisiveness that may undermine the efforts of the cross-disciplinary team.

5. Broadcast Network

This network takes the form of a hub, with an information source at the center and a number of disconnected participants who are not communicating with one another but rather are rebroadcasting the information to their respective channels. Usually these are groups that follow a particular media source or topic.

Within an organization, this may be a network of gatekeepers who assume the responsibility — formal or informal — of being "in the know" of what developments are happening and passing the news on to their respective networks.

6. Support Network

Unlike the Broadcast Network, in which the spokes radiate into the news source, the Support Network is made up of a respondent hub that radiates out to a group of disconnected members, such as customer service representatives responding to individual customers, who may rebroadcast the information to others.

Human resources services play a similar role in organizations, and their activity can be a useful measure of how well the company is communicating with and supporting its employees.

Conducting a knowledge audit is one way to map these networks within your organization. Once identified, they can be harnessed when needed to effectively communicate to or among different parts of the organization or implement new policies and procedures.

A knowledge audit can also help identify influencers who may or may not be supportive of the leadership's strategy and objectives.

Unlike your company's org chart, networks form naturally and organically from social and working relationships. Recognizing them, mapping them and respecting their unique functions can enhance your ability to communicate and lead effectively.