INDUSTRY

The Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) Research Group will host a talk by postdoctoral candidate Nat Bulkley from the University of Michigan School of Information at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, March 15 in NCSA 1104 (the Executive Conference Room). The title of Bulkley's talk is "How Do Email Patterns Relate to Individual Performance?" Abstract: While interpersonal communications are likely to influence individual and organizational performance, measuring these effects has proven difficult for white collar work. Bulkley will present the findings of his dissertation research, based on an econometric case study of email patterns and differences in job performance within an executive recruiting firm. Multiple theoretical perspectives -- including sociology, economics, coordination theory and organizational learning -- motivate hypothesis testing. Findings are consistent with existing research that relates social network centrality to performance. In addition, an individual's benefit from intra-organizational networking appears to evolve over the course of a career from an emphasis on accumulating to exercising social capital. Non-topological measures related to performance include message sizes, response times, and proportional measures of information flow. They suggest that aspects of how people communicate also predict performance. Perceptual data, gathered in an online survey and interviews, provide context for interpreting results.