The underlying geometry of organizational dynamics: similarity-based social space and labor flow network communities

Hernan Mondani ()
Additional contact information
Hernan Mondani: Stockholm University

Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, 2018, vol. 24, issue 3, No 4, 378-400

Abstract: Abstract In this article, we use Swedish longitudinal register data to study the effect that similarity in organizational properties has on the interaction between organizations. We map out the social space of large organizations in the Stockholm Region and the interplay between social distance and the network communities of employee movements between organizations. We firstly use homogeneity analysis to describe the dynamics of organizations in terms of the time evolution of their similarity. Our results show that most categorical variables are quite stable over time. Organizations linked through employee movement edges have a lower average distance in social space than non-linked organizations. Secondly, we look at network community dynamics in social space. Employee flows between organizations in different communities exhibit a so-called gravity law from spatial statistics, decaying more slowly than observed geographical networks, meaning that employees reach out regions of social space further than of physical space. Finally, the rate of change of distance in homogeneity space exhibits a statistical distribution similar to the ones found in various other growth processes in natural and man-made systems.

Keywords: Organizational dynamics; Similarity; Social space; Social distance; Homogeneity analysis; Network community structure; Growth process (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10588-017-9260-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:comaot:v:24:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s10588-017-9260-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/10588

DOI: 10.1007/s10588-017-9260-6

Access Statistics for this article

Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory is currently edited by Terrill Frantz and Kathleen Carley

More articles in Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().