social network analysis | Realize Engineering

Towards the end of last year, I wrote about the challenges in deploying digital technologies in holistic approaches to knowledge management in order to gain organizational value and competitive advantage [see ‘Opportunities lost in knowledge management using digital technology’ on October 25^th, 2023]. Almost on the last working day of 2023, we had an article published in PLOS ONE (my first in the journal) in which we explored ‘The impact of digital technologies on knowledge networks in two engineering organizations’. We used social network analysis and semi-structured interviews to investigate the culture around knowledge management, and the deployment of digital technologies in support of it, in an engineering consultancy and an electricity generator. The two organizations had different cultures and levels of deployment of digital technologies. We proposed a new evolutionary model of the culture of knowledge management based on Hudson’s evolutional model of safety culture that is widely used in industry. Our new model is illustrated in the figure from our article, starting from ‘Ignored: we have no knowledge management and no plans for knowledge management’ through to ‘Embedded: knowledge management is integrated naturally into the daily workflow’. We also proposed that social networks could be used as an indicator of the stage of evolution of knowledge management with low network density and dispersed networks representing higher stages of evolution, based on our findings for the two engineering organizations.

Sources:

Hudson, P.T.W., 2001. Safety management and safety culture: the long, hard and winding road. Occupational health and safety management systems, pp.3-32, 2001

Patterson EA, Taylor RJ, Yao Y. The impact of digital technologies on knowledge networks in two engineering organisations. PLoS ONE 18(12): e0295250, 2023.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about our work on a proof-of-concept for a digital twin of a fission nuclear reactor and its extension to fusion energy [‘Digitally-enabled regulatory environment for fusion power plants‘ on March 20th, 2019]. In parallel with this work and together with a colleague in the Dalton Nuclear Institute, I am supervising a PhD student who is studying the potential role of virtual reality and social network analysis in delivering nuclear infrastructure projects. In a new PhD project, we are aiming to extend this research to consider the potential provided by an integrated nuclear digital environment [1] in planning the disposal of nuclear waste. We plan to look at how provision of clear, evidence-based information and in the broader adoption of digital twins to enhance public confidence through better engagement and understanding. This is timely because the UK’s Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) have launched their new consent-based process for siting a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF). The adoption of a digital environment to facilitate a consent-based process represents a new and unprecedented approach to the GDF or any other nuclear project in the UK. So this will be an challenging and exciting research project requiring an innovative and multi-disciplinary approach involving both engineering and social sciences.

The PhD project is fully-funded for UK and EU citizens as part of a Centre for Doctoral Training and will involve a year of specialist training followed by three years of research. For more information following this link.

Reference:

[1] Patterson EA, Taylor RJ & Bankhead M, A framework for an integrated nuclear digital environment, Progress in Nuclear Energy, 87:97-103, 2016.

Image: Artist’s impression of geological disposal facility from https://www.gov.uk/government/news/geological-disposal-understanding-our-work