The Morphology of a Breakdown: How the Semantics and
Mechanics of Communication Networks from an Organization
in Crises Relate
Jana Diesner, Kathleen Carley, Harald Katzmair*
Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science
Institute for Software Research, Pittsburgh, PA USA
*FAS.research Network Analysis for Business & Enterprise San
Francisco, CA USA
Previous research suggests that the patterns of intra-organizational
communication change during crises. Additionally,
network-analytic studies indicate that during organizational
crises interpersonal communication becomes intensified,
diversified, and tends to by-pass formal chains or hierarchies
of communication more strongly. However, the connection
between the semantics and the morphology of communication
networks from organizations in crises is not well understood
yet.
In our project we investigate this possible relationship by
studying e-mail networks. The data set we use is the Enron
email corpus. Our research is based on the assumption that
communication networks are the place where organizational
culture and identity are created through discourse and the
circulation of stories. We furthermore assume that the
semantic and structural mechanism of this process change
during crises. More precisely, for the times of crises we
hypothesize that
a) The network segmentation and cohesion of network
clusters increase, because people engage in strategic alliances
and small groups with trusted others.
b) The interpersonal usage of antonyms increases, because
antonyms are one way or indicator for establishing
and distinguishing identity.
c) The semantic entropy of communication networks
decreases, because the discourse drifts towards polarized
ends of themes and issues.
In our presentation we report on our findings with respect
to these hypotheses.