Semantic Networks and Shared Understanding: A Network-Based Approach to Representing and Visualizing Shared Understanding

Abstract

Semantic networks were developed in the organizational communication literature to provide a means of representing the shared interpretations that people have of organizational message content. Semantic networks can also be used, we suggest, to support the representation and visualization of shared understanding in military coalition contexts. The basic approach is to create a network representing the degree of similarity between individuals with respect to their understanding of some item of interest. In principle, the data for such networks could be obtained in a variety of ways, although, in the current paper, we focus on the use of ‘cultural models’ (developed at either the individual or group level) to provide a measure of shared understanding. The use of a semantic network based approach to representing and visualizing shared understanding has a number of advantages, each of which are discussed at length in the current paper. These include the use of network techniques to analyse changes in shared understanding across time (particularly in response to organizational and technological changes) and the easy identification of individuals that may play special roles in supporting cross-community understanding. Furthermore, by combining semantic networks with techniques such as cultural network analysis (which can be used to develop individual- or group-level mental models) we can create semantic network models of shared understanding at either the individual or collective level. In the latter case, the technique affords a means of representing and visualizing the degree of shared understanding between specific cultural groups, and it is therefore ideally suited to military coalition environments, which feature the requisite inter-operation of culturally- and linguistically-disparate communities