Organizational Communication and Data Science

New sources of data

Organizations are measuring more and more

  • Email logs
  • Server logs
  • Work output and processes

New types of organizations

  • Online groups
  • Peer production
  • Crowdsourcing

Computational methods enable exciting new research

  • Large-scale tests of current theories
  • Analysis of new contexts
  • Generation of new puzzles and theories

My experience

  • Lots of COM 114!
  • Designed (with Bart and Lorraine) and taught COM 251
  • Created and taught intro to data science workshop
  • Organizer of Summer Institute in Computational Social Science - Chicago
  • Author of book chapter on computational social science methods


My approach to teaching

  • Practical
  • Hands-on
  • Accessible
  • Inclusive

Proposed Course Outline

Goals for the course

  • Basic understanding of:
    • Python programming
    • Digital data collection and cleaning
    • Data and code management
    • Data visualization
    • Basic statistical tests
  • How these skills can be applied to organizational communication questions

Final Projects

  • Graduate students:
    • Proposal + initial analysis for data-based project
  • Undergrads:
    • Replication study using prepared data

Figure from Barbosa et al., 2016.

Additional courses I’d love to teach

  • Online Organizations
  • Communication and Collective Behavior
  • Simulation and Agent-based modeling

Fin