Email network analysis for organizational management

In this turbulent business environment of global recession, traditional organizational structure is reaching its limits. In order to accommodate itself to these changes, managing informal communication beyond old framework is indispensable. It is critical for innovation management to recognize communities of practice and informal leaders. In previous studies we have demonstrated our method was effective to indentify informal communities and potential leaders from one month email log data collected in September 2008 within an organization through a case study of a global manufacturing company. In this paper we collect the second set of one-month email log in June 2009 so as to chronologically compare with the first set of data collected in September 2008 and to analyze changes before and after major organizational changes triggered by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. Email network analysis helps management systematically view its organization as a whole.