Longitudinal Analysis of Communication Structure in College: Application of SNA

Nowadays it is of high importance to track social relationships in schools, colleges and universities in order to understand the patterns of informal communication of students, teachers and management team. These studies are aimed to reveal how effective informal communication are and how do they impact in organization and individual performance. The primary goal of this research paper is to outline the main features of informal network structure role in the college and to reveal its affection on students’ and teachers’ behavior and engagement. After highlighting the goal of the research, the main hypothesis is postulated as follows: the position in the network structure influences the level of employees’ effectiveness, overall satisfaction with various job characteristics. To test the hypothesis, longitudinal research design based on social network analysis (SNA) and job diagnostic survey (JDS) are used for this study. This research paper revealed the informal network structure of different groups in College which, in turn, emphasized students’ and teachers’ relations and openness to changes and activities in the College. This is crucial both for group formation and for establishing strong project groups and innovative changes application in the College. Finally, the relationships between social network indexes and satisfaction with different job-related aspects were found and compared to the scores of a previous year. Key words: social network analysis (SNA), network structure, job diagnostic survey (JDS)