N is for Network: New Tools for Mapping Organizational Change

Abstract

Understanding network dynamics is important for underrepresented minorities and women in technological organizations, who can easily spend their entire careers on the periphery, far away from the flow of information at the core. We explore this problem by describing the results of a new study of faculty research networks conducted by the NSF-funded ADVANCE program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Using tools such as ORA to analyze a database that contains nearly a decade of information about NJIT faculty publications, ADVANCE researchers have created dynamic co-authorship maps that provide an aerial view of the organizational landscape as it changes over time. By giving faculty and administrators guided access to such maps, university change agents can promote mentoring policies and practices that support the advancement of women and minority faculty.