It’s critical to distribute information quickly and reliably throughout an organization. Today, e-mail is the primary means of information dispersal, but is it the most efficient? In their paper titled Productivity Effects of Information Diffusion in Networks, the authors – Sinan Aral, Erik Brynjolfsson and Marshall W Van Alstyne – analyzed 10 months’ worth of e-mail (more than 125,000 messages in total), as well as five years of revenue data and employee interactions at a mid-sized executive recruiting firm. They identified two types of information that employees shared with one another. The first was “event news”: simple, declarative messages, about such news as forthcoming layoffs or a significant change in top management, that were spread both vertically and laterally throughout the organization in a rapid and pervasive manner. The information moved quickly among employees with little regard to reporting relationships. The second type was labeled “discussion topics”: more specific and procedural communications, with the information tending to be more complex and relevant to accomplishing specific tasks. Discussions were influenced by functional relationships and the strength of ties between people. This type of information was shared by colleagues who worked closely together and moved vertically up and down the organization.
The report concludes that email was valuable in the organization in two areas. First, fast access to information via e-mail increased the number of projects completed by each individual, and second, the receipt of new information communicated via e-mail contributed to additional revenue generation.
The full paper is available online at http://ssrn.com/abstract=987499
