Organizational Network Analysis in the Italian Public Sector: two case studies

Organization Network Analysis session

Dr. Laurence Lock Lee (Optimice Pty Ltd) — Giuseppe Lisena (OpenKnowledge) — Andrea Pesoli (OpenKnowledge) — Emanuele Scotti (OpenKnowledge)
Organizational Network Analysis in the Italian Public Sector: two case studies

Organizational network analysis was used to study communication and knowledge flow in two different Italian Regions (one in the North West and one in the North East area).

The goals of the two initiatives were (a) to ascertain the robustness of the core human competencies, (b) to determine the efficiency of the current organizational structure and design, and (c) to assess the methodology as a management tool.

The research settings were the HR & Internal Communication units of the two Regions, with more than 200 employees each. Network data were derived from a mix of paper and web based survey questionnaires, with respectively 66% and 80% response rate. Computational analysis was performed with Analytic Technologies UCINET and Microsoft Excel, while network visualization was carried out with Analytic Technologies NETDRAW and the open source software Gephi. Data on processes, tasks and knowledge was obtained from a number of validation workshops with different stakeholders (i.e.: the Regions’ HR and Internal Communication managers) for secondary analysis and sense-making.

For each project, we produced a report with different focuses: by discipline, by organizational unit and at an individual level. The findings described:

(i) the structure of the information, knowledge (i.e.: problem solving) and innovation flows

(ii) the role of the Regions’ contractors

(iii) bottlenecks and structural holes

(iv) opinion leaders and key-players

(v) utilisation levels for all operating units and their share-of-interaction

It is to be noted that in (iii), (iv) and (v), the traditional SNA approach was augmented with specific organizational views, including a number of custom-made metrics that will serve as a benchmark for any other future analysis.

The analysis succeeded in providing insights into organizational processes which prompted managers to address problems and to take advantage of network strengths. Particularly, the findings shed some light on how performance improvement can be achieved through targeted efforts to align the actual organization with the informal collaboration networks.