Preliminary findings of the inclusion of document retrieval systems as actors in a social network

✍ Scribed by Janet R. Macpherson

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 80 KB
• Volume: 42
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-7870
• DOI: 10.1002/meet.14504201234

✦ Synopsis

This poster will present preliminary findings from dissertation research that used and altered traditional Social Network Analysis (SNA) techniques to include relationships with non-human actors, specifically, document retrieval systems. Within business environments today, computerization is becoming ubiquitous. Where in the past, organizational information existed in the form of personal knowledge or paper-based information, it is increasingly taking the form of electronic documents that contain intellectual content (Blair, 2002) and are being accessed by individuals using document retrieval systems. These document retrieval systems change some of the information flow in a business from an employee-to-employee interaction to an employee-to-document retrieval interaction. Direct communication between employees changes with the use of document retrieval systems, replacing or augmenting the exchange with communication between the employee and information within the system.

With the importance of document retrieval systems being demonstrated by the attention they receive and amount of money being spent on them within businesses, it is important to understand when they are successful and what makes them successful. Part of the answer lies in the mixing of technological elements and social relationships, which form an effectively inseparable ensemble (Kling, 2000). SNA is an appropriate methodology for studying this ensemble because, according to Haythornthwaite (1996), SNA "focuses on patterns of relationships between actors and examines the availability of resources and the exchange of resources between these actors" (p. 323). By studying the relationships and the flow of information between actors, one can predict what information is available to which actors and when it becomes available. Part of the information flow in business organizations today involves document retrieval systems.

It is the contention of this study, and the suggestion of Kilduff and Tsai (2003), that if an important element responsible for the delivery of information is not considered part of a social group, the picture of that group would be incomplete. People, after all, do form human-like relationships with their computers (Turkle, 1984). By including the document retrieval system as part of the social group, a more complete picture emerges for study. It seems critical to understand just how people feel about the document retrieval systems with which they interact on a regular basis. It also seems important to understand whether people can consider and make sense of including document retrieval systems as part of the social network that contributes to the flow of information within their group.