Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Proposed SNA of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC)


Unfortunately, I will not continue in the class for the second module.

      I would conduct a SNA on WHINSEC personnel, which include faculty, staff, contractors, and instructors from the US and foreign nations.  The total population is between 200 and 220 personnel.

     My hypothesis is that culture will affect the interaction between the international and US personnel and create a SN that can potentially undermine the traditional hierarchy and structure of WHINSEC.

     In order to gain insight into the SN, I would ask multiple questions through a questionnaire or survey.  Examples follow:

1. What 3 people do you communicate with the most on a professional basis?

2. What 3 people do you communicate with the most on a personal basis?

3. Who is key to your success at WHINSEC?

4. Who is the most productive member of WHINSEC personnel?

5. Who needs to know about your performance?

6. Who is your boss?

7. How do you communicate with your coworkers?

8. What interests do you have as a professional?

9. What personal interests do you have, outside of work?

10. What country are you from?

11. Aside from your country and the US, where else have you lived?

12. Are you married?

13. Is your spouse currently residing with you?

14. How long have you been at WHINSEC?

     These questions would help me determine attributes and connections between nodes, in my SNA.  I would look for any commonalities between international personnel and differences of the US personnel.  I would show who had the most centrality, with the idea that this person may be influential in WHINSEC.  I would compare all data with the hierarchical organizational chart and find discrepancies.  I would also need to follow this and other analysis with more questions of specific people that showed characteristics of interest in the first analysis.  This could potentially give ideas for integration and better networking or show where hierarchical structure is not fulfilling the needs of the organization.

Michael Jones

1 comment:

Christopher Tunnard said...

Interesting idea. If you ever do this, you'll have to re-think your questions a bit. They are a mixture of fact and opinion, which isn't bad, but Qs like who's the key to your success, or who's the most productive member is open for interpretation--you'd need them to say why. It might also poison your survey, as they'd begin to question your motivation for doing it. If your main hypothesis is about "culture" you'd have to define that and craft Qs around it. All this would be examined were this ever to become real, which I hope it does.