Measuring coordination through social networks

Abstract

In this study, we explore the correlation between actor centrality and project based coordination. By drawing from established coordination and organisational process theory, a text-mining tool is designed and implemented to measure coordination from a large dataset of emails. Here, we provide effective mechanisms for: (i) cataloguing coordination key phrases from an email corpus; (ii) the calculation of coordination score based on project scope; (iii) the construction of social network matrices using centrality measures, and (iv) approaches for exploring the association between network centrality and coordination score. We argue that actor centrality affects the ability of an individual to coordinate the actions of others. The following questions guide this study--What is the effect of network centrality on organisational coordination? How is the actor's ability to coordinate projects related to their structural position in the communications network? We developed multi-layered test designs to explore this relationship in a project-based (macro) and cross-project (micro) level. We suggest four major findings from the analysis of communication data from Enron email corpus. Firstly, it is concluded that centrally positioned actors show more coordinative activity. Secondly, it is found that betweenness index of centrality is the most potent predicate for coordination. Thirdly, the influence of an actor is associated with coordination more so than the actor's prominence. Lastly, results suggest that coordination ability is more closely correlated to actor centrality than the organisational position. It is therefore concluded that centrally 'well-connected' people are able to exercise greater coordination within the network structure.