Question: E-mail Linkages. NodeXL is a social media graphing tool that is available for free. It works in an Excel format and allows for the entry of datasets that can easily be graphed. The software graphs the linked relationships in social media sites such as Twitter. It allows the analyst to study the communications that occur between individuals in social media. For example, it will map the contacts between "friends" in Facebook. It can also be used to study the communication relationship in emails between company employees.
Normal contacts between employees do not have to be investigated, but if a fraud has occurred and one employee has been identified in the fraud, then the e-mail contacts of that one employee could be important to identify the extent of the fraud in the organization. Hundreds of email relationships would need to be reviewed. A screen shot from NodeXL follows. It shows email communication among a number of company employees. The direction of the e-mails is shown with arrows. Can you surmise anything about the relationships among these employees and determine who might be the leader of this group?