COMBINING SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND

PROCESS ANALYSIS IN COLLABORATIVE

NETWORKS

Francisco Barbedo1,2, António Lucas Soares2,3

Arquivo Distrital do Porto , INESC Porto2 and Faculty of Engineering Univ. Porto3
1

This paper addresses the modelling of the social structure of collaborative

networks and its relationship with inter-organizational business processes
modelling and management. As the result of an action-research based process,
an approach to the modelling of collaborative networks based on social actors'
networks is proposed and its articulation with processes analysis and design is
outlined. The collaborative network used in this study is composed of three
organizations, both public and private, in the sector of port wine
commercialization. We begin by presenting a short introduction to social
actors' networks modelling and afterwards we describe the case study and
some of the relevant findings.

1. INTRODUCTION
"Networks are the fundamental stuff of which new organizations are and will be
made" (Castells, 1996). This conclusion is more and more verified nowadays and for
sure it will be in the future. The network is the fundamental unit of analysis
(Castells, 1996) in economical, social, political and technological terms.
In this research work we propose to recall some relevant findings in a well
established area of social analysis to be applied to the analysis and design of
Collaborative Networks (CN), including an important degree of computer mediated
interaction.
We will consider here CN as encompassing structural and process dimensions. The
process dimension alone will not be addressed here as it is extensively analysed in
the literature. Our interests are in the structural (social) dimension of CN, and in the
relationship between structure and processes.

2. STRUCTURAL MODELLING OF COLLABORATIVE

NETWORKS
Social structure is related with regularities in relational patterns between concrete
entities (Knoke and Kuklinsky, 1990). To fully understand the structure and
dynamics CN, for example in a virtual organization context, we need theoretical and
conceptual tools that help analysts and the network members themselves to manage
in the best way the processes undertaken by those networks. Structural modelling of
social interaction has been used for a long time in social sciences disciplines. We
believe that the impressive body of knowledge created in this are can be of particular
importance to understand and manage better collaborative networks and virtual
organizations.

2.1 Social actors' networks

The analysis based on social actors, is based primarily in the assumption that a
social structure does not organize itself in a random way but following certain
patterns (Freeman, 2000). The social behaviour of actors, at any aggregation level
(individual, group) is manifested through patterns of interactions (latent or evident)
that are dependent on established connections between actors. A network model is
then adopted to represent the social structure and its characterization can be obtained
by the use of statistic and mathematical methods.

2.2 Organizational analysis perspectives

SAN can be particularly useful in organizational (re)design, and reports of its

effective use in that area are not new. For example, Tichy (1981) evaluates
organizations using several network strategies after identify groups (“coalitions” and
“cliques”) as well as their connections. It is possible then through SAN based
methods to determine which groups are dominant, how they agree or disagree and,
consequently if it is required to adopt cooperation strategies or conversely it is more
adequate to establish negotiation scenarios. In general terms it is possible to use
SAN to analyse organizational views, e.g. social, political, cultural, technological, at
different levels - inter-organizational, organizational, group, individual (Tichy,
1981). Although a structural approach, SAN based methods enable to go well
beyond formal, explicit structures: they can reveal the “informal” organizational
chart (Mintzberg and Heyden, 1999; Molina, 2001).

2.3 SAN analysis in the context of inter-organizational processes

As initially outlined in Soares and Sousa (2002), three analysis levels are possible
with SAN:
i) structural level tries to globally describe and analyse a given network, requiring
complete data about the different actors and types of relationships. In the case of a
complete supply chain, all the participating companies should be known, as well as
all their client-supplier relations. Such analysis would for example be able to
identify companies with common features (types of products, delivery performance,
supply chain tier, etc.).
ii) relational level concerns the description of the relationships between the social
actors. A large number of attributes may be used to characterise these relationships
(e.g. distance, accessibility) allowing an analysis that may be both qualitative and
quantitative. Examples of this are the set-up and study of indicators for the logistic
performance in operations involving two supply chain partners (such as delivery
lead times, quality performance), the degree of trust between partners, the level of
information exchange (such as production plans, informal data on production status).
Combining Social Structure and Process Analysis in Collaborative Networks

iii) At the individual level, social actors are studied based on the relationships in
which they participate (this characterisation should probably be complemented by
other analysis methods). Examples are issues such as the importance of an actor
(e.g., measured by the centrality of his position in terms of information exchange),
or his potential for establishing relationships in the network.

2.4 Combining social structure with process analysis

The role of a SAN in the analysis and design of inter-organizational processes is to

reveal how the structure of the social relations between the actors performing the
activities in the process can influence either positively or negatively the performance
of the process. An illustrative example is described in section 4.
One crucial aspect is the identification and characterisation of the social actors. The
approach followed in this work was to select the social actors based on the
participation and/or influence in the inter-organizational processes. This implies that
the first step in data collection is the processes identification, which is a complex
task on its own. We will not detail the process identification and mapping here as
these methods are also extensively reported in the literature (see e.g. Eriksson and
Penker, 2000).

3. THE MODELLING AND DESIGN OF A RECORDKEEPING

COLLABORATIVE NETWORK
This section describes the application of the concepts and methods described above
in the analysis and design of a recordkeeping network, in the specific sector of Port
Wine commercialization.

3.1 An action-research approach

This research work followed an action-research approach. The main goal was to
analyse a network recordkeeping organizations in order to reengineer their
processes. This would involve, besides the business processes specification, the
analysis and design of an informatics infrastructure for the network. It was then
decided to depart from the following research questions:
1. Can a SAN based method be effective in the analysis of a social structure
of a CN in the recordkeeping sector?
2. Can a SAN based method be combined with a business architecture
modelling method to create a more comprehensive approach to inter-
organizational business processes (re)design?
These two questions were the starting point of a spiral cycle of plan > act > observe
> reflect aimed at solving the network problems from one side, and to create
theoretical and practical knowledge from the other side. This research work
occupied a person during 4 months in a time span of 12 months.

3.2 Organizational, social and legal context

Three organizations compose the network: ADP, the recordkeeping of Porto, IVP,
the Port Wine Institute and EVP, a company commercializing Port Wine. IVP and
EVP business is exclusively related with the port wine product, while ADP business
is information and culture. EVP is private; the other two are public organizations.
IVP and EVP are inherently linked by a legal framework, meaning that most of the
social and functional relationships are imposed by a superior authority. This
constrains the types of social relationships as well as the types of inter-
organizational processes to be performed. Nevertheless, the way how the processes
are executed is prone to some variability. It is on this issue that the SAN analysis
will bring some input regarding the optimization of those processes.

3.3 Actors selection and aggregation level

The inclusion of actors in the network was made according to a nomothetic principle
i.e. according to a set of criteria established a priori by the analyst. These criteria
were 1. to include every actor participating in an inter-organizational process and 2.
to include those actors that are not participating but can influence its execution by
some means. The selected level for the aggregation of actors was the functional unit.
This is a compromise between departmental units which would be too coarse for the
required analysis and the individual role that would cause an explosion of actors and
would add unnecessary complexity to the models.
The methods used to collect data were semi-structured interviews, observation,
document analysis and group discussions. The last method was fundamental to
involve the relevant people in the analysis process aiming at incorporating a more
interpretative dimension to the analysis.

Summary of the results of the SAN analysis

After the data collection phase, the next step was to select the measures where to
base the analysis of the network, in this specific context. Based on reported
experiences (Ajuha and Carley, 1998; Hagen et al., 1998), we choose the following
measures:
• General measures for characterisation of the network as a whole -
cohesion, density, transitivity;
• Individual measures that take as a referential an individual actor and the
connecting categories with the rest of the set - adjacency, geodesic,
connectivity and maximum flow;
• Centrality measures were used to determine the core actors in the network,
the ones crucial for the development and support of the inter-organizational
network;
• Subgroup identification measures for a nClique analysis.

A diagram of the actors and relationships between them is represented in Figure 1.

Furthermore, darker actors have an higher weight and the relationships types are
transaction and control.
Combining Social Structure and Process Analysis in Collaborative Networks

Figure 1 - Diagram of actors and relationships1

The global analysis enables the identification of the actors with higher weight
(FISC, ENOL, COM, SAQ; PCIVP) and actors that are relatively isolated (GINFO e
APROV). The network has a unique component (it is a completely connected sub-
graph).
The individual analysis provides results on adjacency, number of geodesics,
maximum flow and connectivity, centrality, proximity and intermediation. As an
example, it was found that the actor FISC is the more central in the network. This
confirms the empirical and perceptual data and it is very simply explained by the
relevance of supervisory and control activities that still are the main responsibilities
derived from the IVP policy.
In the subgroup analysis (nCliques), the goal is to identify sets of actors that have a
high cohesion, that act in a reciprocal way, that share the same social values. This

1
Actors from IVP are inside a square, EVP inside a lozenge and ADP inside an ellipse alone.
Legend: 1 PCIVP - planning and control IVP; 2 GCX - accountancy; 3 FISC - supervision; 4 SAQ -
quality audit; 5 - ATQ technical evaluation of quality; 6 - GPC cultural assets management; 7 - GINFO
information management, analysis and forecast; 8 - JCP consultive committee of tasters; 9 - PCADP
planning and control ADP; 10 - GINC incorporations management; 11 - GAT technical support; 12 -
PROD Production; 13 - MARKT Marketing; 14 - COM Commercialization; 15 - APROV Procurement;
16 - ENOL Enology; 17 - PCIVP planning and control EVP.
measure points to actors that are closely aggregated through the execution of
functions or tasks, or through informal relationships, even if included in processes or
institutional activities. Figure 2 shows a graphical representation of the 8 cliques
found in this network. The inclusion of certain types of actors in a clique enables to
infer the existence of a degree of cohesion based both on the specialization of tasks
and in the co-participation in inter-organizational processes. For example, cliques
K1 and K2 include actors clearly specialized in technological activities (ATQ,
ENOL, JCP), side by side with actors playing roles of coordination and
administrative support to the core set of specialized tasks.

Two general conclusions should be

highlighted:
1. There is a discrepancy between the
actors identified as more influent and
central in the network e those that
have more power as concluded
through the centrality of
intermediation measure. This can be
explained by the fact that centrality of
hierarchy within a network is better
analysed by through the capacity o
influence than by the degree of active
participation.
2. High centrality and weight of an
actor corresponds to a frequent
Figure 2 - nCliques and actors
participation in inter-organizational
processes. This means that the
information infra-structure should
reflect this. In the same way, the distribution pattern of cliques by specialization
areas can be a starting point for the definition of the information system supporting
the inter-organizational processes, e.g. workflow patterns.

Example: Process 05 - Authorization of External Trading

We give now an example of the link between SAN analysis and process analysis.
The activities in the process Authorization of External Trading are performed by the
actors COM (EVP) and FISC (IVP). From the SAN of Figure 1 (observe the actors
inside the dotted ellipse) we derive that the relationship is multiplex because it
encompasses connections where control is exerted unilaterally upon one actor, but
also transactional interactions where resources are exchanged across the connection.
Centrality measures point these two actors as occupying central positions in the
network (this can be concluded simply from the diagram of figure 1). We can
conclude that they play an important role in the network.
From the process models (not included here for the sake of space) a set of
improvements were proposed. These proposals were considered technologically and
organizationally feasible. The next step, enabled by the SAN results, was to analyse
the constraints to the implementation of the improvements imposed by the social
structure. Summarising, it was concluded that it was needed a substantial change in
Combining Social Structure and Process Analysis in Collaborative Networks

the type of relationships between FISC and COM namely to reduce the intensity of
control relationship. Only this way the technological based improvement - electronic
authorization - could be implemented.

4. CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER WORK

This paper reports a brief overview of an extensive research work carried out within
the described network context. Most of the findings until now lie mainly in the
social structure analysis. The connection between social structure models and
process models was already approached but our conclusion is that we did not
achieve yet a logical and practical articulation of both modelling methods to be
considered as a potential analysis and design method of inter-organizational
processes executed by collaborative networks. We will continue the research this
issue by further analysing the collected data and by observing other CN.
Another important issue insufficiently addressed so far is the inclusion of
information technology and systems in the social structure and process models. An
outline of a possible approach was already pointed out by Soares et al. (2001) for
systems based on software agents architectures. In this particular case, a new and
challenging requirements analysis and specification approach will be possible. Some
interaction features and other attributes of a community (or society) of software
agents can also be modelled by SAN, which leads to a coherent and uniform
analysis method, opening some analysis possibilities not normally considered in the
field of agent-oriented software engineering.

Acknowledgments

The work presented in this paper was partially developed within the European
Project THINKcreative – Thinking network of experts on emerging smart
organizations (IST-2000-29478). The authors would like to thank the European
Commission for funding, and their project partners for suggestions and comments.

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