Kathleen Carley
Course Name: Dynamic Network Analysis
Course Number: 08-801 (COS)/17-700 (Software Engineering - Old Number)
Number of units: 12
Description: Individuals and technology shape and are shaped by organizations. Individuals andorganizations are also affected by sets of interlinked networks linking people, technology,
organizations, knowledge and resources. In this world of networks and organizations,
how do coordination, communication, power, tasks, goals, and information interact to
affect group and organizational behavior and the impact of information technology on
this behavior? How do we conceptualize, measure, and evaluate organizations and
networks? How do we evaluate the impact of policies and technology on these
organizations and networks especially given the fact that organizations and networks are
dynamic?
This course provides an overview of the dominant perspectives on organizations and
networks from a macro perspective. Topics covered include knowledge management,
organizational design, organizational learning, organizational evolution and population
ecology, organizational culture, organizations as complex systems, social and
organizational networks, and dynamic network analysis.
Organizational and network theory covers a wide range of perspectives on organizations
and organizing each of which defines organizations differently. For example, for some
theorists organizations are collections of people, while for others they are goal-oriented
systems, and for still others they are collections of processes. For some the network exists
for others it is only perceived. This course contrasts these perspectives and explores the
ramifications and limitations of these different perspectives on organizations under
normal and stress conditions. Historical trends in the examination of organizations and
networks are discussed. Particular attention is paid to the role of cognition, knowledge
and tasks as they impact social networks within and between organizations, and
computational theories of organizations. This course provides an overview of the
dominant theories and an introduction to several topics that currently under debate.
Current topics include – transactive memory, computational organization theory,
organizational learning, and organizational adaptation.