PowerPointPrsentation

1
University of Cologne
Department of Information Systems and Information
Management, Prof. Dr. Detlef Schoder http//www.wi
m.uni-koeln.de/
Social Networks State of the Art Best Practice
Example
Venus Summer School


Trends of Social Software and Web 2.0 in
Education and Business September 5, 2007 Cologne,
Germany
2
Trend Interdependency between Electronic
Networks and Social Network Structures is growing
Collaboration
Sharing
Bookmarking
Networking
Communication
3
and interest in Information Systems and Social
Networks is rising! Why?
4
Because Information Systems Research boosts SNA
in Business
Social Network Analysisdescribes, explains and
projects communication patterns in social groups
Information Systems Researchdescribes, explains,
projects and designs information systems for
business, administrative, and private use

• Which communication and interaction patterns
  exist among members of an organization?
• What is the structural position and role of a
  person in a network compared with formal
  hierarchy?
• Which organizational members have prominent
  roles like gatekeepers or hubs in a network?
• Which organizational members should have contact
  with each other?
• Do specific network structures correlate with
  organizational performance?
• Which impact have informal structures on project
  and teamwork?
• Which impact have informal structures on the
  innovativeness of departments or companies?
• Can communication analysis filter out prominent
  topics to identify trends?
• Which functionalities and tools support specific
  network structures best?

5
Gloor 2005
6
Potential Business Application Fields of SNA
Knowledge Management and Collaboration. SNAs can
help locate expertise, seed new communities of
practice, develop cross-functional
knowledge-sharing, and improve strategic
decision-making across leadership
teams. Team-building. SNAs can contribute to the
creation of innovative teams and facilitate
post-merger integration. SNAs can reveal, for
example, which individuals are most likely to be
exposed to new ideas. Human Resources. SNAs can
identify and monitor the effects of workforce
diversity, on-boarding and retention, and
leadership development. For instance, an SNA can
reveal whether or not mentors are creating
relationships between mentees and other
employees. Sales and Marketing. SNAs can help
track the adoption of new products, technologies,
and ideas. They can also suggest communication
strategies. Strategy. SNAs can support industry
ecosystem analysis as well as partnerships and
alliances. They can pinpoint which firms are
linked to critical industry players and which are
not.
Source Ehrlich and Carboni (2005), IBM
7
Latest Academic Developments Selected Topics of
this year's International Sunbelt Social Network
Conference

• Social Capital
• An Integrative Approach to the Role of Social
  Capital in Interpersonal Knowledge Transfer
• Intra-Organizational Networks
• The Impact of Computer Based Communication on
  the Emerging of a Social Structure the Analyses
  of two Case Studies in Organizations
• Between Efficiency and Innovativeness The
  Dynamics of an Organization as a Social System
• The Story of the Gold-digger Career Commitment
  and Strategic Networking
• The Dynamics of Intra-organizational Advice
  Networks
• Inter-Organizational Nets
• Germany INC 2004 Capital Ties and Directory
  Interlocks
• Networks, Economics, Markets
• Networks of Inter-firm Collaboration
• Network Dynamics
• The Diffusion of Innovations in Large Social
  Networks Selection, Influence and the Dynamics of
  Organizational Affiliation
• Leadership Networks

• Organizational Performance Networks
• Using Network Analysis to Improve Supply Chain
  Performance A Case Study
• Integration of Economic Systems Interaction
  between Networks
• Innovation
• Knowledge Flows in an RD Network
• Business Networks
• Network Competitive Advantage How A Network
  Perspective Can Point the Way To Winning
  Strategies in Business
• Corporate Social Capital and Performance
• Politics and Interlocking Directorates
• Corporate-Government Networks in the
  Netherlands Interlocks Between Business and
  Politics
• Networks, Economics, and Markets
• Network Analysis as a Marketing Tool Using
  Network Parameters to Identify. Brand Zealots in
  Online Consumer Environments
• Communication Networks
• Social Network Analysis on Overlapping Multiple
  Mailinglists in a Company

8
Potential benefits of SNA in Business

• Observation, understanding, and design of
  workflow and organizational structure
• Studying the diffusion and adoption of knowledge
  and innovation
• Discovering lead users
• Researching best practices for behavior in
  virtual teams
• Discovering Web trends by looking at changes in
  link patterns between blogs (Trend Detection,
  Cool Hunting Project at MIT)
• Competitive intelligence through analysis of
  communication patterns in large e-mail (among
  other) archives

9
Potential benefits of SNA in Business (contd)

• Opportunity to identify and reward key
  contributors
• Creation of more transparent environments
• Identification of people acting as sources of
  tacit knowledge
• Better agility to react to market and technology
  changes
• New and improved communication analysis tools
• Enhanced knowledge worker productivity

10
Further Readings

• CARRINGTON, P.J. SCOTT, J. WASSERMAN, S.
  (2005), Models and Methods in Social Network
  Analysis, Cambridge University Press.
• CROSS, R.L. (2004), The Hidden Power of Social
  Networks Understanding How Work Really Gets Done
  in Organizations, Harvard Business School Press.
• EHRLICH, K. CARBONI, I. (2005) Inside Social
  Network Analysis, IBM.
• GLOOR, P.A. (2006), Swarm Creativity Competitive
  Advantage through Collaborative Innovation
  Networks, Oxford University Press.
• HAYTHORNTHWAITE C. (1996), Social Network
  Analysis An Approach and Technique for the Study
  of Information Exchange, in Library
  information science research (LISR), ISSN
  0740-8188, 1996, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 323-342.
• MITCHELL, J. C. (1969) The Concept and Use of
  Social Networks. In MITCHELL, J. Clyde (ed.)
  Social Networks in Urban Situations. Analyses of
  Social Relationships in Central African Towns.
  Manchester, pp. 1-50.
• MORENO, J.L (1978, 1934), Who shall survive?,
  Beacon NY.
• SCOTT, J. (1994) Social Network Analysis A
  Handbook, Sage, London.
• WASSERMAN, S. FAUST, K. (1994) Social Network
  Analysis Methods and Applications, Cambridge
  University Press.

11
Part II Social Networks Best Practice

• Social Networks in Enterprises
• Media Relevance Implementation
• Daniel Oster (University of Cologne,
  Kreissparkasse Cologne)

12
Media of Social Networks Ties
Medium vs. Content Medium How to measure the
network Content What to measure in the network

• Personal Interaction (Face-to-Face)
• E-Mail
• Phone
• Instant Messaging / Chat

Actor
Actor
? Content Communication flow / Information flow
Requirement for Organizational Network
Analysis Dont interfere with employees work
but assure privacy and data security ? Automatic
logging of communication in the background
13
Media of Social Networks Actors

• Personal Interaction (Face-to-Face)
• E-Mail
• Phone
• Instant Messaging / Chat

Actor
Actor
14
Relevance for Enterprises

• Are Social Networks in Organizations really
  relevant?
• Do they have an economic impact?
• Case
• Social Networks and Performance at Kreissparkasse
  Cologne
• Time 6 months
• Actors 4,000 employees, 400 business units
  (branches staff divisions)
• Ties E-mail-communication (4 million mails)
• Performance
• economic growth in credit volume per branch
• personal individual rated motivation

15
Performance Model
Intra-BU Network
Economic Performance
H1
H2
H3
Inter-BU Network
Individual Motivation
H4
16
The Inter Business Unit (BU) Network

• The whole enterprise
• Every actor (dot) is a Business Unit.
• Distance represents communication strength (the
  closer the more mails).
• Color represents type of Business Unit (branch,
  staff division, ...)

• Relevant Network Indicators
• Actor Betweenness Centrality (ABC)
• Actor Degree Centrality (ADC)
• Actor Contribution Index (ACI)

17
The Intra Business Unit (BU) Network

• Zoom in into a single Business Unit
• Every actor (dot) is an employee.
• Distance represents communication strength (the
  closer the more mails).
• Color and labels represent teams.

• Relevant Network Indicators
• Group Betweenness Centrality (GBC)
• Group Degree Centrality (GDC)
• Core Periphery Index (CPI)
• Group Density

18
Performance Tests (Regression Analysis)
All Correlations are positive
Intra-BU Network
Economic Performance
Correlation (GBC Performance) 0,56 (p lt 0,01)
Inter-BU Network
Individual Motivation
Intra-BU Network
Economic Performance
Correlation(GDC Motivation) 0,62 (p lt
0,001) Correlation(CPI Motivation) 0,61 (p lt
0,001) Correlation(Density Motivation) 0,63
(p lt 0,001)
Inter-BU Network
Individual Motivation
Intra-BU Network
Economic Performance
Correlation(ABC Performance) 0,51 (p lt 0,05)
Inter-BU Network
Individual Motivation
Intra-BU Network
Economic Performance
Correlation(ADC Motivation) 0,58 (p lt
0,01) Correlation(ACI Motivation) 0,38 (p
lt0,05)
Inter-BU Network
Individual Motivation
? Social Networks are highly relevant for
enterprises!
19
Implementation at Kreissparkasse CologneNetwork
Layer Model
Structure Content
Overall View Individual View
First implementations
Team Building
Knowledge Flow Support and Org Controlling
Post Merger Integration
Privacy and Data Security Arrangements
Data Collection and Analysis Infrastructure
20
Implementation ITeam-building
Combined E-mail and Face-to-Face Network
The Social Badge automatically measures personal
interaction
Network Based Team-Structure was implemented
21
Implementation II Knowledge Flow Support and
Org-Controlling

• Network view of Business Unit Collaboration
• Every actor (dot) is a Business Unit.
• Distance represents communication strength.
• Red Sales Support
• Black Sales
• Green Gate Keeper
• Performance-Thesis
• The better connected a BU the better is BUs
  performance.
• Approach
• Identify not well connected BUs
• Identify Gate Keepers
• Check whether network position corresponds to
  performance
• Understand role of Gate Keepers
• Take actions to enhance network position
• Visualization
• Coaching

22
Implementation IIIPost Merger Integration
Network view of a merger process Every actor
(dot) is a Business Unit. Distance represents
communication strength. Color represents
pre-merger-enterprise.
month 1 after merger (Apr. 06)
month 6 after merger (Sept. 06)
23
Summary

• Social Networks in enterprises haven an impact on
• Business Performance
• Motivation
• Creativity / Innovation
• Social Network Analysis is a powerful Management
  Tool that supports
• Organizational decisions / processes / redesigns
• Information- and Knowledge Management
• Leadership

24
Thanks for your attention!
University of Cologne
Department of Information Systems and Information
Management, Prof. Dr. Detlef Schoder http//www.wi
m.uni-koeln.de/

• Questions?
• Prof. Dr. Detlef Schoder schoder_at_wim.uni-koeln.d
  e
• Daniel Oster daniel.oster_at_ksk-koeln.de