IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-01656776.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Lifting the Veil on Organizational Structure: A Social Network Analysis of Professional E-Mail Use

Author

Listed:
  • Alain Cucchi

    (CEMOI - Centre d'Économie et de Management de l'Océan Indien - UR - Université de La Réunion)

  • Chantal Fuhrer

    (CEMOI - Centre d'Économie et de Management de l'Océan Indien - UR - Université de La Réunion)

Abstract

This study is about the structure embedded in e-mail relationships. Based on data describing organizational e-mail exchanges, this research deals with organizational structure, personal power, and the centrality of people in a network. Social network analysis is used to study the centralization dimension of the structure embedded in the data. The data concerns 385 employees of 36 firms within a group. Our empirical study first explores several possible assessments of power and centrality concepts; then, it tests a causal relationship between personal and organizational attributes of power and centrality indexes. Results show the relationships between personal characteristics, aspects of organizational power, and e-mail network centrality. A discussion of the way managers may use electronic communication data to better interpret the nature and the dynamic of the organizational structure concludes the article.

Suggested Citation

  • Alain Cucchi & Chantal Fuhrer, 2006. "Lifting the Veil on Organizational Structure: A Social Network Analysis of Professional E-Mail Use," Post-Print hal-01656776, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01656776
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.univ-reunion.fr/hal-01656776
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.univ-reunion.fr/hal-01656776/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard L. Daft & Robert H. Lengel, 1986. "Organizational Information Requirements, Media Richness and Structural Design," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(5), pages 554-571, May.
    2. Anitesh Barua & Charles H. Kriebel & Tridas Mukhopadhyay, 1995. "Information Technologies and Business Value: An Analytic and Empirical Investigation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 6(1), pages 3-23, March.
    3. Peter B. Seddon, 1997. "A Respecification and Extension of the DeLone and McLean Model of IS Success," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 8(3), pages 240-253, September.
    4. Bergeron, François & Raymond, Louis & Rivard, Suzanne, 2001. "Fit in strategic information technology management research: an empirical comparison of perspectives," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 125-142, April.
    5. repec:dau:papers:123456789/8366 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Wanda J. Orlikowski & JoAnne Yates & Kazuo Okamura & Masayo Fujimoto, 1995. "Shaping Electronic Communication: The Metastructuring of Technology in the Context of Use," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 6(4), pages 423-444, August.
    7. Michel Kalika, 2002. "Les défis du management," Post-Print hal-00155614, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Moez Bellaaj, 2008. "Technologies De L'Information Et Performance Organisationnelle : Différentes Approches D'Évaluation," Post-Print halshs-00522342, HAL.
    2. Chuan-Hoo Tan & Juliana Sutanto & Chee Wei Phang & Anar Gasimov, 2014. "Using Personal Communication Technologies for Commercial Communications: A Cross-Country Investigation of Email and SMS," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 307-327, June.
    3. Kennedy, Deanna M. & Sommer, S. Amy & Nguyen, Phuong Anh, 2017. "Optimizing multi-team system behaviors: Insights from modeling team communication," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(1), pages 264-278.
    4. Un-Kon Lee, 2022. "Tourism Using Virtual Reality: Media Richness and Information System Successes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-17, March.
    5. Dong, Shutao, 2012. "Decision execution mechanisms of IT governance: The CRM case," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 147-157.
    6. Jinwoo Kim & Jungwon Lee & Kwanghee Han & Moonkyu Lee, 2002. "Businesses as Buildings: Metrics for the Architectural Quality of Internet Businesses," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 13(3), pages 239-254, September.
    7. Windsperger, Josef, 2001. "The fee structure in franchising: a property rights view," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 219-226, November.
    8. Yang, Jialiang & Li, Yaokuang & Calic, Goran & Shevchenko, Anton, 2020. "How multimedia shape crowdfunding outcomes: The overshadowing effect of images and videos on text in campaign information," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 6-18.
    9. Mahan, Joseph E. & Seo, Won Jae & Jordan, Jeremy S. & Funk, Daniel, 2015. "Exploring the impact of social networking sites on running involvement, running behavior, and social life satisfaction," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 182-192.
    10. Chris Kimble & José Braga Vasconcelos & Álvaro Rocha, 2016. "Competence management in knowledge intensive organizations using consensual knowledge and ontologies," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 18(6), pages 1119-1130, December.
    11. van Riel, A.C.R. & Lievens, A., 2003. "New service development in high tech sectors: a decision making perspective," Research Memorandum 013, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    12. Tsung Teng Chen, 2012. "The development and empirical study of a literature review aiding system," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 92(1), pages 105-116, July.
    13. Abdesamad Zouine & Pierre Fenies, 2014. "The Critical Success Factors Of The ERP System Project: A Meta-Analysis Methodology," Post-Print hal-01419785, HAL.
    14. Prasanna Tambe & Lorin M. Hitt, 2014. "Measuring Information Technology Spillovers," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(1), pages 53-71, March.
    15. Linda Klebe Treviño & Jane Webster & Eric W. Stein, 2000. "Making Connections: Complementary Influences on Communication Media Choices, Attitudes, and Use," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(2), pages 163-182, April.
    16. Bianco, Federica & Michelino, Francesca, 2010. "The role of content management systems in publishing firms," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 117-124.
    17. Proserpio, Luigi & Magni, Massimo, 2012. "Teaching without the teacher? Building a learning environment through computer simulations," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 99-105.
    18. Sharma, Mahak & Antony, Rose & Sehrawat, Rajat & Cruz, Angel Contreras & Daim, Tugrul U., 2022. "Exploring post-adoption behaviors of e-service users: Evidence from the hospitality sector /online travel services," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    19. Nitin Walia & Mark Srite & Wendy Huddleston, 2016. "Eyeing the web interface: the influence of price, product, and personal involvement," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 297-333, September.
    20. Dwiza Riana & Achmad Nizar Hidayanto & Sri Hadianti & Darmawan Napitupulu, 2021. "Integrative Factors of E-Health Laboratory Adoption: A Case of Indonesia," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-27, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01656776. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.