Proposed SNA on World Bank department for Xiaoyue Hou

Proposed SNA on World Bank department for Xiaoyue Hou

I will be taking D217

Note: The main limitation I see in proceeding with this proposal is getting support from the World Bank. I had initially reached out the Agriculture and Rural Development department, but they are in the process of reorganization and felt that this would not be the best time for a network analysis. I am currently working with the Africa Region to see if they might be interested. This proposal is written under the assumption that the Africa Region is willing to participate.

The World Bank sees itself as a knowledge institution. When I was working there, we were required to submit annual reports of how much “knowledge was shared” between Bank departments, partners and clients. We kept track of all the publications that were produced in the year, the number of partners and clients that have received these publications, the number of participants at sponsored events, and even the number of people that we’ve “reached-out to” through talks and presentations.

Given the emphasis on knowledge management and knowledge sharing, a network analysis of the Bank would seem extremely appropriate. Since the Bank has over 10,000 employees in Washington alone, it would be more efficient and realistic to focus on a specific department. For this project, I will be focusing on the Sustainable Development Department of the African Region.

This department provides overall leadership to the Bank’s activities in sub-Saharan Africa—including those financed by the International Development Association (IDA)—in agriculture, rural development, energy, environment, climate change and natural resources management, infrastructure, ICTs, oil, gas and mining, post-conflict reconstruction, social development, transport, urban development, and water. The department is responsible to disseminate the relevant information on these topics to the country offices.

Using social network analysis, I will attempt to determine how effective the department is in their knowledge sharing. It also goes beyond just getting the information out. I want to see who are working together, if collaborations are cross sectors, if the country office staff are communicating with the DC staff, and it would be interesting to see if consultants are the main source of institutional memory as I have heard argued while I was working at the Bank.

Given what I know of the Bank, I initially hypothesis that the majority of the knowledge shared will be amongst the DC staff and there will be minimal cross-sector communications. I would like to reserve the right to change this hypothesis once I see the raw data.

My proposed survey questions are:

1. What is your name?
2. Where are you located?
1. Washington DC
2.  Country Office
1. List country offices
3. Are you a staff or a consultant?
4. What is your area of expertise?
1.  Agriculture and Rural Development
2.  Energy
3. Environment
4. Climate Change and natural resource management
5.  Infrastructure
6.  ICT
7.  Oil, gas and mining
8. Post-conflict reconstruction
9. Social development
10.  Transport
11. Urban development
12. Water
13. Other
5. How many years have you worked at the Bank?
1. less than 1
2. 2-5
3. 6-10
4. 10+
6. How often have you turned to this person for information or advice on work-related topics in the past three month?
1.  List names…