Noshir Contractor- People Analytics: Using Digital Exhaust from the Web to Leverage Network Insights in the Algorithmically Infused Workplace Abstract:

When: 2023-03-06 14:00-16:00 (Tallinn time)
Where: online

The event is public via zoom: https://zoom.us/j/99209544202 Websites: https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/contractor_noshir.aspx

Abstract – To bring the performance of people analytics in the algorithmically infused workplace up — and in line with the hype — organizations need to do more than analyze data on demographic attributes. We need to focus not only on who people are but also on who they know. The potential for social network analysis to identify “high potentials,” who has good ideas, who is influential, and what teams will get work done efficiently and effectively is well established based on decades of research. The challenge has been collecting network data via time-consuming surveys, which elicit low response rates, and have high obsolescence. This talk presents empirical examples ranging from corporate enterprises to simulated long-duration space exploration to demonstrate how we can leverage people analytics – and in particular relational analytics - to mine “digital exhaust”— data created by individuals every day in their digital transactions, such as e‐mails, chats, “likes,” “follows,” @mentions, and file collaboration— to address challenges they face with issues such as team assembly and team conflict.

Additional information: - Noshir Contractor is the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences in the McCormick School of Engineering & Applied Science, the School of Communication and the Kellogg School of Management and Director of the Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) Research Group at Northwestern University. He is also the President of the International Communication Association (ICA).

Professor Contractor has been at the forefront of three emerging interdisciplines: network science, computational social science and web science. He is investigating how social and knowledge networks form – and perform – in contexts including business, scientific communities, healthcare, and space travel. His book Theories of Communication Networks (co-authored with Peter Monge) received the 2003 Book of the Year award from the Organizational Communication Division of the National Communication Association and the 2021 International Communication Association’s Fellows Book Award. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the International Communication Association (ICA), and the Network Science Society. He also received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Communication Association and the Lifetime Service Award from the Communication, Digital Technology & Organizations Division of the Academy of Management. He received the 2022 Simmel Award from the International Network for Social Network Analysis. In 2018 he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, where he received a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering. He received his Ph.D. from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California.