Improving Communication within Online Public K-12 Education

Social Networks in Organizations

Hult International Business School

June 5, 2016

By: Dorothy Robertson

I have encountered extreme communication mishaps while working at my previous job as an executive assistant for an online public school. This online public school has locations in 27 states with some states having numerous locations. Under the parent company, there are three branches of the online education system and approximately 2,500 employees. It has a traditional corporate structure with the headquarters location on the east coast and local schools branching from California, Texas, Florida and numerous states in-between. The corporate hierarchy works for the headquarters (HQ) office but it does not work directly with the local level schools

HQ sends information to regional directors who then pass the information to the principals at the local schools. There are times when the principals ask individuals directly within HQ for data they need or questions which need to be answered. There are many different departments which need to be in constant contact with each school. At the location I previously worked for there always seemed to be staff who were unsure of information being passed down and what was required from them at the local school and HQ levels.

The purpose of my social network analysis will address the communication barriers to help improve efficiency of the organization. In addition, there will be ability to see if there is a direct relationship between high performing schools and the people which they are communicating with.

Fortunately, due to the nature of the school, the data which is required will be easy to collect. This corporation works with big data and is always analyzing student and employee performance. There is an annual survey which is distributed each year regarding employee satisfaction. All of the company employees complete this survey and the completion rate varies at each branch from 80%-100%.

Currently these surveys only address employee satisfaction with human resources, teams and leaders. It would be fairly simple to add the following questions:

1. Have you communicated with XXX department at HQ?
1. How frequently do you communicate with “Person X” within the XXX department at HQ?
2. Do you feel that your communications with individuals at HQ lead to your success within the organization?
2. Have you communicated with any individuals at other schools (not at your local level)?
1. How frequently do you communicate with “Person X”?
2. Do you feel that your communications with individuals at other schools lead to your overall success within the organization?
3. How frequently do you communicate with XXX at your local level?
1. Do you feel that your communications with individuals at your local school level lead to your overall success within the organization?

The frequency questions will be asked based off the school year with the following meanings:

0: Never

1: Occasionally

2: Frequently

This is a simple scale that will make it easier to interpret the data on all three levels. It is also difficult to remember who you have communicated with 9 months ago, so this scale would be the most logical due to human error. The communications will be defined as “consulting with other individuals via phone, email, Lync-messenger and in-person to further your success within the organization.”

In addition to the survey, there can be an analysis of how many emails and messages sent through Lync. The Lync data would be extremely difficult to analyze because employees do not always consult with others about work related information. This is also true for the emails which is why I proposed the above survey.

I do see a potential problem of completion levels of the survey decreasing by adding on additional questions. It can potentially be very time consuming for those who consult within many different locations.

Once the data has been received about the communication within other department the other attributes will be added. The attributes that if feel will be interested to analyze are as follows: of location, job position, gender, age, time with company and satisfaction level with boss/team/company are all addressed on the satisfaction survey and will be added to the attributes list.

The next step will be to analyze the different attributes based on the frequency of communications at the different levels. It will be very interesting to look at the E-I Index for all of the levels to see if some departments are more homophily or heterophily. According to the National Center for Education Statistics 75% of k-12 teachers are female (Fast). It will also be helpful to see how the communications between similar departments at the local and HQ levels interact with each other and other departments. We will be able to analyze if the more successful schools have a number close to 0, meaning they would communicate freely within and outside their departments.

I would then look at a clique analysis. This would be important to see who are the key communicators within each location and their relationships outside of their departments. I would like to further look into their roles within the company. I would hope to find that the local school leaders would have more cliques than the local level teachers.

I would also like to look within NETDRAW to see the nodes based on their cliques. This way I can start to see the subgroups and see the big picture of the organization. I predict that we would find there are more cliques within each school level than cliques between schools and HQ. Within HQ we will start to be able to see how departments are communicating within and outside of the organization. It will be interesting to see if there are some individuals who are biased and only pass information to certain people or if they are assigned to specific people and they keep only the assigned relationship or if they take initiative and discuss issues with individuals outside their responsibilities. This is an important step to see how communication is happening and where we can start to improve the overall success of the schools.

The degree measures will also be very important. This can be an interesting analysis for each job position and how they communicate with each other. It would also be interesting to see if the school who have been opened longer have more in-degree connections from local schools and more out-degree to HQ. The out-degree to HQ would be an interesting thing to look at because the longer the school has been open the more ability they have had to establish stronger connections within HQ.

This study will be a great way to see if there needs to be a different system in place to the organizational success. While I only mentioned a few factors, these were the factors that I would find to be the most interesting. I would like to do a complete analysis on all of the other social network measures to see other potential issues.

In conclusion, I personally feel that an in-depth analysis of this organization will be beneficial for all parties. In can help eliminate inefficiencies and create a better sense of community within the national organization. This can help lead to a higher retention rate, less confusion and the ability to work more efficiently. This is as project that could be completed successfully and the research could be applied to other large public online schools.

_______________________________________________

Works Cited:

"Fast Facts." Fast Facts. US Department of Education, n.d. Web. 05 June 2016.

Social Networks as a predictor for criminal behavior in Chicago

Chicago PD using SNA for murder forecasting

While Yale sociologists find social networks in victims of fatal shootings, the Chicago PD takes SNA in order to predict a "heat list"of likely shooters to reach out to. Fascinating and a bit troubling.

Social business strategy – an example @ DELL

Hello,

I have come across an interesting article on a recent evolution in corporate strategy, the so-called social business strategy. The article presents the strategic approach of Dell on how to employ social media to a) communicate with customers, b) promote the flow of information in internal networks, and c) foster social innovation in the organization.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2011/12/01/dell-social-business-strategy-the-secret-sauce/

According to the article, Dell is dedicated to constantly improve its social media appearance and devotes a large amount of resources to achieve this. For example, Dell employs several thousand “social media professionals” that take care of the various social media channels and communities of Dell.

This interesting link is also in the article: http://socialbusinessindex.com/

The index ranks companies according to their social media activity.

I strongly believe in order to be successful, organizations must define a strategy on how to leverage internal and external networks and how to effectively use social media technology. To achieve the required coverage in the organization, a social business strategy should be part of the corporate strategy definition.

Note: The article also talks about Dell’s efforts towards social responsibility (i.e. doing something for the greater good), which displays the problems in defining the magnitude of a social business strategy. Where does a company set the boundaries of its social business strategy? Is it limited to the use of social media to foster internal and external social networks? Or should it also include the corporate social responsibility (CSR) approaches of a company?

From Social Networks to Collaboration Networks -IDEAS FOR LEADERS

Social Networks Putting Kids at Risk.

With the increased use of social networks, it isn't surprising to find that the unsavory people of the world find ways to use the technology to dangerous ends. Unfortunately these people are targeting children and teenagers, and our kids are inadvertently helping them out. In September of this year, a 16 year old girl from Canada was drugged and raped by 7 males while at a party. While the event is disturbing enough, it was made worse by the fact that people took photos of the incident and posted it to social networking sites, such as Facebook [1]. These photos were uploaded to Facebook within hours, and while police were able to remove the photographs, it is known that they were downloaded prior to being removed. Unfortunately this is not an isolated event. In a recent study, it was found that 13% of kids interviewed had posted nude, or semi-nude photographs of themselves on the internet and 24% said they had signed onto someone else's account and accessed information without permission[2]. And these activities are not isolated incidents. News of child pornography rings being found through social networking sites are more and more common. Two recent examples include a ring of 11 people from Canada, Australia, and Britain being arrested because they were distributing child pornography via Facebook [3], and a second ring where more than 50 people have been arrested for using social networking technology to distribute child pornography [4].

So what is the problem, and are there any solutions? Very simply put, social networks are making it easier for child predators to not only access and distribute compromising photographs and videos of minors, but also that children and teenagers are supplying the material. Since criminals will always find ways to act illegally, ultimately any solution must be child focused. There are two schools of thought about potential solutions. One is to reduce access to social networking sites for minors by having age limits in place in order to use the site, and the other is to have parents be responsible for monitoring their child's internet activity [5][6]. In the US, the Bush administration tried to expand the 1998 Child Protection Act to require age limits to access sites that could be damaging to minors, but this policy was overturned and subsequently dismissed by the Supreme Court [7]. Therefore it is up to individual internet networking site to establish and enforce age limits. Facebook, mySpace, and other social networking sites have established age limit requirements, but many feel that they do not adequately enforce these limits [8].

On the other side of the argument, many people suggest that parents need to be more actively involved in monitoring how their children use the internet. They argue that it is the parent’s right and obligation to teach their children how to safely use the internet to avoid potential online threats. By educating children and establishing rules on how kids use the internet, many suggest that online threats can be reduced [9].

Because of the volatility and rapid advancement of the internet and associated technology, I think the possibility of creating and enforcing age restrictions to access sites would never be successful due to being ineffectual, or legally too restrictive. And ultimately, sick people will always find a way to satiate their desires, and kids will always find a way to access things they aren’t supposed to. While there is a risk of child predation on the internet, a significant amount could be reduced if children were taught how to appropriately use the internet and social networks. For instance, teach children to not accept friend requests from people they do not know, and also to inform our kids that once something is on the internet, it is nearly impossible to completely remove. The most important piece of the equation is how parents teach and monitor behavior, whether it is on the internet, at school, or in the mall. Censorship is not the answer, it will only cause more harm than good, and ultimately access to information empowers people. We just need to approach it with a little common sense.

[1] http://www.windsorstar.com/news/Photos+teen+gang+rape+viral+Internet/3536756/story.html

[2] http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/08/teens-on-social-networks.html#

[3] http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/08/27/facebook-child-pornography.html

[4] http://www.switched.com/2010/05/28/feds-bust-social-network-for-child-porn-collectors/

[5] http://www.geeksugar.com/Should-Age-Limit-Social-Networks-5974819

[6] http://socialmedia.globalthoughtz.com/index.php/age-restriction-in-facebook-ignored-often-says-report/

[7] http://www.pcworld.com/article/158061/us_high_court_refuses_internet_age_restrictions_case.html

[8] http://socialmedia.globalthoughtz.com/index.php/age-restriction-in-facebook-ignored-often-says-report/

[9] http://www.myoptumhealth.com/portal/Information/item/Social+Networking:+MySpace,+Facebook+an?archiveChannel=Home/Article&clicked=true

Social Networks – Sources of Emotional Stress?

The prevalent opinion on social networks is that they help to overcome emotional stress arising from the absence of direct social contacts. Social networks help people to connect who otherwise would be alone and without social interaction. Considering what I just said, it might sound absurd, but social networks can also be the actual reason for emotional stress.
The following paragraphs display some selected aspects of how social networks might also function as negative stress creators:

Ending of friendships – ’defriending’:
Once you registered for Facebook & Co., you start adding friend by friend; your community grows further and further. But what happens if one of your friends unilaterally decides to end the friendship? The psychiatrist Irene Levine from NYU School of Medicine states that ‘defriending’ can have very negative psychological consequences and will provoke emotional stress. This is especially true, since virtual friendships are unilaterally ended as opposed to most ‘normal’ friendships. In real life, friendships are more often ended in ‘mutual agreement’, thereby leaving fewer open questions unanswered.

Facebook triggers attacks for asthmatics
It might sound funny but this story really happened: A jealous 18 year old boy regularly had asthmatic attacks when logging in to Facebook. The reason was that he always expected his girlfriend having added still another male contact. The attacks became even worse when his girlfriend left him and deleted his contact from her profile. The doctors advised him to wear a mask to measure his respiratory volume. As soon as the young man connected to Facebook, his respiratory volume declined by more than 20%. After he stopped being on Facebook, no more asthmatic attacks have occurred since then. This case indicates that Facebook, and social networks in general, could be a new source of psychological stress, representing a triggering factor for exacerbations in depressed asthmatic individuals.

Social Networks addiction
In order to show the addiction potential of social networks, scientists from the University of Maryland carried out a test which was called ‘24 Hours: Unplugged’. Two hundred students agreed on not using social networks for 24 hours. The result of this study was astonishing. Many participants reported on having experienced agitation, extreme nervousness, tension and freakiness and – all of them being withdrawal symptoms similar to those usually related to alcohol and drugs.

Social pressure to connect & steady fear of missing something
US-psychologists found out that people of all ages feel pressure to be connected in social networks. But the pressure is so immense that the first users have left social networks again.
A recently published study of the Pew Internet & American Life Project discovered that 45 percent of all Americans are enthusiastic about being connected through social networks while 48 percent do not care about social networks at all. The most important group revealed by the study is the remaining 7 percent. They are neither interested in social nor do they refuse them at all. This group was identified as ‘ambivalent network users’. These users only participate in social networking because they fear to miss something. They are afraid leaving the networks, though they desire a break. The ultimate result is - again - emotional stress.

So, do we have now to be afraid of social networks creating emotional stress? I do not really think so.
The stress-aspects I listed above are only true for a limited number of persons in limited situations. If you feel addressed by one of these aspects, you should consider not using social networking platforms; there are other means to connect with friends and colleagues. Many social networkers, however, still seem to profit far more from their networks than being negatively influenced by the possible stress factors mentioned in my report.

References:
Social networks - forced to connect.
http://www.stern.de/digital/online/soziale-netzwerke-zum-vernetzen-gedraengt-660971.html

Stressed to be online all time.
http://www.bernerzeitung.ch/leben/gesellschaft/Der-Stress-staendig-online-zu-sein/story/16802717

Defriended, not de-emoted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/fashion/05noticed.html

Facebook triggers asthmatic attacks.
http://www.welt.de/gesundheit/article11048217/Facebook-loest-bei-Asthmatiker-Anfaelle-aus.html

Social networks can provoke withdrawal syndroms.
http://www.pressemitteilungen-online.de/index.php/soziale-netzwerke-koennen-suchtartige-entzugserscheinungen-hervorrufen/

Influence of Social Networks on Human Migration

Dear Readers,

Being an immigrant, human migration has been a topic of interest to me. I believe that social networks play a significant role in human migration.

The positive influences of social networks on human migration are:

• Informal social networks help to spread information and instil a culture of mobility that penetrates individual decisions.
• Social networks provide information on migration and life abroad. So migration is directed towards places where social contacts are located – Information hypothesis, Ritchey (1976).
• Social networks provide support, e.g. by lending money or helping to find a job in the place of destination – Facilitating hypothesis, Ritchey (1976).
• Social networks reduce the short term costs of settlement while shaping other variables related to the migration process: decision to migrate, direction of the flows, transnational links, settlement patterns and incorporation.
• Social networks are crucial in the post migration process such as finding jobs and accommodation, circulating goods and services, as well as psychological support and continuous social and economic information.

• The costs and risks for new migrants are lower if they maintain social relations with relatives in a country of destination.
• Social networks promote migration as a result of family reunification and family formation (The spouses joining their migrant partners as well as the migrants seeking partners from their communities back home).
  
• Social networks also promote reverse migration to the origin countries and help in bringing back financial capital, knowledge, skills and ideas.

The negative influences of social networks on human migration are:

• If the density of the network of friends and the family in the origin society is high, then it is possible that these networks also reduce migration – Affinity Hypothesis, Ritchey (1976).
• The inter-dependency of some of the ethnic social networks is so high that even after the migration, the migrants tend to interact and live within those networks. This gives rise to isolation among communities in a society which in the extreme case leads to ghettoes.

The above influences can be found well illustrated in the links below:

While doing a Google search on the causes of human migration, I came across the following link:

http://www.migration-networks.org/Dokumente/Elrick%202005%20-%20SotA%20-%20Migration%20Decision%20Making%20and%20Social%20Networks.pdf

While doing a Google search on human migration examples, I came across the following links:

http://www.cies.iscte.pt/documents/CIES-WP12.pdf

http://www.nidi.knaw.nl/en/output/2004/jems-30-02-heering.pdf/jems-30-02-heering.pdf

http://www.chicagobooth.edu/research/workshops/orgs-markets/docs/FeiQin-ReturnMigration.pdf

http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/nerr/rr1997/spring/glsr97_2.htm

http://www.jstor.org/pss/621990

Based on my personal experience as well as experiences from my social network connections, I found many of the above influences being true.