IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/comaot/v11y2005i3d10.1007_s10588-005-5377-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Communication Networks from the Enron Email Corpus “It's Always About the People. Enron is no Different”

Author

Listed:
  • Jana Diesner

    (Carnegie Mellon University)

  • Terrill L. Frantz

    (Carnegie Mellon University)

  • Kathleen M. Carley

    (Carnegie Mellon University)

Abstract

The Enron email corpus is appealing to researchers because it represents a rich temporal record of internal communication within a large, real-world organization facing a severe and survival-threatening crisis. We describe how we enhanced the original corpus database and present findings from our investigation undertaken with a social network analytic perspective. We explore the dynamics of the structure and properties of the organizational communication network, as well as the characteristics and patterns of communicative behavior of the employees from different organizational levels. We found that during the crisis period, communication among employees became more diverse with respect to established contacts and formal roles. Also during the crisis period, previously disconnected employees began to engage in mutual communication, so that interpersonal communication was intensified and spread through the network, bypassing formal chains of communication. The findings of this study provide valuable insight into a real-world organizational crisis, which may be further used for validating or developing theories and dynamic models of organizational crises; thereby leading to a better understanding of the underlying causes of, and response to, organization failure.

Suggested Citation

  • Jana Diesner & Terrill L. Frantz & Kathleen M. Carley, 2005. "Communication Networks from the Enron Email Corpus “It's Always About the People. Enron is no Different”," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 201-228, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:comaot:v:11:y:2005:i:3:d:10.1007_s10588-005-5377-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s10588-005-5377-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10588-005-5377-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10588-005-5377-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carey E. Priebe & John M. Conroy & David J. Marchette & Youngser Park, 2005. "Scan Statistics on Enron Graphs," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 229-247, October.
    2. P. S. Keila & D. B. Skillicorn, 2005. "Structure in the Enron Email Dataset," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 183-199, October.
    3. Anurat Chapanond & Mukkai S. Krishnamoorthy & Bülent Yener, 2005. "Graph Theoretic and Spectral Analysis of Enron Email Data," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 265-281, October.
    4. John Seely Brown & Paul Duguid, 1991. "Organizational Learning and Communities-of-Practice: Toward a Unified View of Working, Learning, and Innovation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 40-57, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Minjin Lee & Hangil Kim & SangHyun Cheon, 2021. "A Network Approach to Revealing Dynamic Succession Processes of Urban Land Use and User Experience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-16, October.
    2. Alastair Irons & Harjinder Singh Lallie, 2014. "Digital Forensics to Intelligent Forensics," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-13, September.
    3. Erkut, Hande & Reuben, Ernesto, 2023. "Social networks and organizational helping behavior: Experimental evidence from the helping game," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Market Behavior SP II 2023-203, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    4. Andreas Schwab & Zhu Zhang, 2019. "A New Methodological Frontier in Entrepreneurship Research: Big Data Studies," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(5), pages 843-854, September.
    5. Shahadat Uddin & Jafar Hamra & Liaquat Hossain, 2013. "Exploring communication networks to understand organizational crisis using exponential random graph models," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 25-41, March.
    6. Uddin, Shahadat & Murshed, Shahriar Tanvir Hasan & Hossain, Liaquat, 2011. "Power-law behavior in complex organizational communication networks during crisis," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(15), pages 2845-2853.
    7. Laura R. Marusich & Norbou Buchler, 2016. "Time series modeling of Army Mission Command communication networks: an event-driven analysis," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 467-486, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hady W. Lauw & Ee-Peng Lim & HweeHwa Pang & Teck-Tim Tan, 2005. "Social Network Discovery by Mining Spatio-Temporal Events," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 97-118, July.
    2. Anurat Chapanond & Mukkai S. Krishnamoorthy & Bülent Yener, 2005. "Graph Theoretic and Spectral Analysis of Enron Email Data," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 265-281, October.
    3. Michael Kaethler, 2019. "Curating creative communities of practice: the role of ambiguity," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, December.
    4. Verena Brinks, 2016. "Situated affect and collective meaning: A community perspective on processes of value creation and commercialization in enthusiast-driven fields," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(6), pages 1152-1169, June.
    5. Francesco Rullani, 2005. "The Debate and the Community. “Reflexive Identity” in the FLOSS Community," LEM Papers Series 2005/18, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    6. Duniesky Feitó Madrigal & Alejandro Mungaray Lagarda & Michelle Texis Flores, 2016. "Factors associated with learning management in Mexican micro-entrepreneurs," Estudios Gerenciales, Universidad Icesi, vol. 32(141), pages 381-386, December.
    7. Guido Fioretti, 2007. "A connectionist model of the organizational learning curve," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, March.
    8. Ankita Tandon & Unnikrishnan K. Nair, 2015. "Enactment of knowledge brokering: Agents, roles, processes and the impact of immersion," Working papers 183, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.
    9. Andrea Morrison, 2005. "Inside the Black Box of ‘Industrial Atmosphere’: Knowledge and Information Networks in an Italian wine local system," Working Papers 97, SEMEQ Department - Faculty of Economics - University of Eastern Piedmont.
    10. Emmanuelle Vaast & Geoff Walsham, 2009. "Trans-Situated Learning: Supporting a Network of Practice with an Information Infrastructure," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 20(4), pages 547-564, December.
    11. Weiling Ke & Lele Kang & Chuan-Hoo Tan & Chih-Hung Peng, 2021. "User Competence with Enterprise Systems: The Effects of Work Environment Factors," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(3), pages 860-875, September.
    12. Alvesson, Mats & Sveningsson, Stefan, 2011. "Management is the solution: Now what was the problem? On the fragile basis for managerialism," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 349-361.
    13. Cédric Dalmasso & Sebastien Gand & Frederic Garcias, 2017. "Enterprise social networks for the benefit of ambidextrous organisation? The case of a major oil company," Post-Print hal-03698884, HAL.
    14. Dupouet, Olivier & Yildizoglu, Murat, 2006. "Organizational performance in hierarchies and communities of practice," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 668-690, December.
    15. Wirth, Steffen, 2014. "Communities matter: Institutional preconditions for community renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 236-246.
    16. Franke, Nikolaus & Shah, Sonali, 2003. "How communities support innovative activities: an exploration of assistance and sharing among end-users," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 157-178, January.
    17. Levent Yilmaz, 2011. "Toward Multi-Level, Multi-Theoretical Model Portfolios for Scientific Enterprise Workforce Dynamics," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 14(4), pages 1-2.
    18. Sarah Mokaddem & Sinda Mhiri, 2017. "Le Co-working comme alternative émergente pour promouvoir le « bien-être » au travail," Post-Print hal-01867742, HAL.
    19. Frédéric CREPLET, 2004. "Les Portails d’entreprise : une réponse aux dimensions de l’entreprise « processeur de connaissances »," Working Papers of BETA 2004-07, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    20. Schmid, Stefan & Schurig, Andreas, 2003. "The development of critical capabilities in foreign subsidiaries: disentangling the role of the subsidiary's business network," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(6), pages 755-782, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:comaot:v:11:y:2005:i:3:d:10.1007_s10588-005-5377-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.