Email based institutional network analysis: applications and risks

Social Network Analysis can be applied for the description of patterns of communication within an organisation. We explore how extending standard methods by accounting for the direction and volume of emails can reveal the roles of individual members, using a reference dataset from an EU research institute and indicators based on graph theory. We propose an approach that models certain operation aspects of the organisation based on the closeness centrality and the directional clustering coefficients of each individual. The approach is transferable to any type of social network with asymmetrical connections among its members. However, its applicability is limited by privacy concerns, the existence of multiple alternative communication channels that evolve over time, the difficulty to establish clear links between organisational structure and efficiency and –most importantly- the challenge of setting up a system that measures the impact of communication behaviour without influencing the communication behaviour itself.

CHRISTIDIS Panayotis;  GOMEZ LOSADA Alvaro; 

2019-11-11

Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)

JRC118027

2076-0760 (online),   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC118027,   

10.3390/socsci8110306 (online),