Using Social Analytics for Studying Work-Networks: A Novel, Initial Approach

Abstract

This paper contributes to the emerging field of social-analytics in computer-supported cooperative work by introducing a novel methodology for investigating the "work-networks" that emerge from everyday interactions among workers, artifacts, and organizational structures. Particularly, it presents and discusses an early implementation of this methodology in the context of a large, global IT service delivery organization. It analyzes the pattern of work interactions that emerge from the mining of common use of internal social media systems, log data of service delivery management systems, and organizational structures. Such analyses enabled us to unearth potential deficiencies in the ways in which the organization make use of collaborative systems, share and spread knowledge among its workers.