The network structures of corrupt innovations : the case of Enron
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The focus of this dissertation is the interplay of information and social network structure. I investigate how different types of information influence how individuals choose to communicate, and the implications of these choices on the entire social system. In particular, I look at how both overt and covert information is shared across an organization's communication network over a four-year period. The contrast between overt and covert activities affords the opportunity to examine whether different content types change the way individuals mobilize to accomplish goals within an organization. First, I analyze how different social network positions allow individuals to obtain different types of information within an organization's network. I demonstrate that individuals are more likely to participate in an overt communication network when they have large but sparse networks of informal ties through which to acquire information. This finding is contrasted with covert network involvement, where greater closeness centrality or shorter distances to other organizational members predicts participation. Second, the examination of individuals who participated in both covert and overt information networks highlights the divergent behaviors associated with the two activities. When sharing overt information, individuals are more likely to encourage network cohesion, practice structural egalitarianism, and engage in reciprocal communication. In contrast, when actors share covert information, they attempt to reduce network cohesion and reciprocity and foster a power structure. Finally, I present results that show the aggregate network effects of individual strategies for sharing either overt or covert information. I find that communication within overt networks is far more reciprocal than communication in covert networks, where information flow is asymmetrical. This study uses longitudinal email data taken from Enron Corporation between 1998 and 2002; these data provide a unique opportunity to study the communication network of the firm's employees and analyze the messages shared between employees. In contrast to previous studies, which assume transmission of information along network ties, this dataset allows for actual observation of information transfer between organizational members. I couple social network analysis and qualitative coding to explore how the content of information affects both communication patterns and the spread of information.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2010 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Aven, Brandy Lee |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Sociology. |
| Primary advisor | Powell, Walter W |
| Thesis advisor | Powell, Walter W |
| Thesis advisor | Cook, Karen |
| Thesis advisor | Granovetter, Mark S |
| Advisor | Cook, Karen |
| Advisor | Granovetter, Mark S |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Brandy Lee Aven. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Sociology. |
| Thesis | Ph. D. Stanford University 2010 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2010 by Brandy Lee Aven
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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