 |
 |
|
Stern in the News | Stern Press Releases | Stern Publications | Resources for Journalists |
|
Professor Sinan Aral Wins ACM-SIGMIS Award for Best DissertationNYU Stern Assistant Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences Sinan Aral was awarded the ACM-SIGMIS Award for the best dissertation in the field of information systems for his thesis entitled, “Information, Technology and Information Worker Productivity.” The award was given by the Association of Computing Machinery at the International Conference on Information Systems in Montreal in mid-December. Professor Aral’s thesis analyzed the economic value of information and how information diffusion and information technology (IT) improve information worker productivity. The study examines how best to measure and manage information worker productivity, a segment which now accounts for as much as 70 percent of the US labor force. The research findings provide some of the first evidence of the economic significance of information diffusion in social networks and the productivity affects of information access. Diverse social networks provide knowledge workers with more novel and non-redundant information, which in turn predicts higher productivity. Different types of information diffuse differently inside organizations, enabling some to be more informed, more quickly. Employees who are privy to information flows more often and more quickly are more productive. More specifically, while IT and information flows increase employee productivity by changing the way employees work and allowing them to multitask, multitasking beyond a certain optimal level actually reduces productivity, underscoring the need for organizations to better manage employee workloads. The first paper from Professor Aral’s dissertation, co-authored with Professor Erik Brynjolfsson of MIT Sloan and Marshall Van Alstyne of Boston University, was also voted the best paper at the Association for Information Systems’ 2006 International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), the most prestigious gathering of information systems academics and research-oriented practitioners in the world. The most recent drafts of Professor Aral's papers can be found on SSRN: |