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The Role of Social Networks in Organizational Learning during a Cyber-Crisis: Evidence from the LIVEWIRE simulation

Project Summary: To examine changes in the content and structure of the communication networks of key federal agencies during the LIVEWIRE simulation, and to understand the implications of these inter-organizational networks for the management of and response to threats to the Internet, and more generally, the implications for inter-organizational coordination and learning during crises.

We mapped and analyzed the structure of the communication networks of six key federal agencies over three days of the LIVEWIRE simulation (N=1038 email messages, see Table 1).  We used UCINET-6 to map the communication networks of each agency on each of three days during the simulated LIVEWIRE crisis.  We identified central actors within each agency’s network, and examined changes in the structure of each network over time.

We also analyzed change in the content of communication in each network, identifying who is seeking and providing various types of information from/to whom.  We conducted content analysis of a random sample of emails from each day for each entity (n=364) to qualitatively code the types of information being communicated over time.

We presented this work at the annual American Sociological Association Meetings August 2005, Philadelphia PA.

Project Lead:

Denise Anthony