Contribution of the methodology of analysis the social networks in the information management in organization: A case study

Abstract

From the collection of information up to the act of deciding, there is a natural social way which involves many individuals – in different levels of a company - that establishing a real communications network. People still are the best “means” to identify, categorize, filter, interpret and integrate the information. This research consists in a case study that focuses the informational process in a specific department of a financial institution. There are many inquiries about the management of the information inside organizations that are not sufficiently cleared yet. Undoubtedly, technological evolutions become ease storing, processing and distribution of information especially in institutions. On the other hand, it is known that in order to have effectiveness in the use of information resources within organizations, it is necessary: 1. the recognition of the individual as elementary to the informational process; e 2. the learning of how to work with that resource. The problem of the research begins in the questioning of how the organization can make visible the acting of individuals and teams in the informational process, so as to efficiently manage the informational resources. As there are many ways of materializing the informational process, the research is based upon the assumption that the Social Networks Analysis may be one alternative to the decision-maker. The use of this appliance can be the justification that will comfort the administrator for the decision-making since during daily work routine people interact to exchange and share information and this action can be seen as an element of social relations. In the Social Networks Analysis viewpoint the information is a structural variable (content of relations) and the employee’s duty and allocation in work teams are the composition variables. Methodologically, this study consisted in a relevant exploitation research, with the use of quantitative and qualitative data and data collecting techniques based upon observation, analysis of the content of the institution’s standard book and semistructured interviews. The results show: the preference of interpersonal communication over technologically equipment guided communication, a strong influence of the organization’s hierarchy in directing the information flow which is vertical and turned to the center of the teams. The conclusion reiterates that the Social Network Analysis consists in a useful tool for managing information within organizations.