Linking social network analysis with the analytic hierarchy process for knowledge mapping in organizations

Purpose – To provide an interesting approach for determining interval measures, through the analytic hierarchy process, for integration with social network analysis for knowledge mapping in organizations. Design/methodology/approach – In order to develop improved organizational and business processes through knowledge management, a knowledge audit should be conducted to better understand the knowledge flows in the organization. An important technique to visualize these knowledge flows is the use of a knowledge map. Social network analysis can be applied to develop this knowledge map. Interval measures should be used in the social network analysis in order to determine the strength of the connections between individuals or departments in the organization. This paper applies the analytic hierarchy process to develop these interval measures, and integrates the values within the social network analysis to produce a meaningful knowledge map. Findings – The analytic hierarchy process, when coupled with social network analysis, can be a useful technique for developing interval measures for knowledge-mapping purposes. Research limitations/implications – The analytic hierarchy process may become tedious and arduous for use in large social network maps. More research needs to be conducted in this area for scalability. Practical implications – As social network analysis is gaining more prominence in the knowledge management community, the analytic hierarchy process may be able to provide more valuable measures to determine the strengths of relationships between actors than simply using ordinal numbers. Originality/value – Coupling the analytic hierarchy process with social network analysis provides a novel approach for future knowledge-mapping activities.