Advancing The Science of Networks in Communities
A Chicago company has marketed a tool using text, photos, and videos gleaned from major social media companies to aid law enforcement in surveillance of protesters, civil liberties activists say.
Click on the image below to read the whole article in The New York Times online.
SONIC Lab is proud to welcome Eric Quintane who will present a talk on Monday, December 5th, 2016 at 10:00 AM in Frances Searle Building, Room 1-483. All are welcome to attend. To schedule a one-on-one meeting with Dr. Quintane please schedule a time HERE. Please contact SONIC Lab Manager Katya Bitkin with any questions or comments.
Abstract
Organizational network research has demonstrated that multiple benefits accrue to people occupying brokerage positions. However, the extant literature offers scant evidence of the process postulated to drive such benefits –information brokerage– and therefore leaves unaddressed the question of brokers broker. We address this gap by examining the information-brokerage interactions in which actors engage. We argue that the information-brokerage strategies of brokers differ in three critical ways from those of actors embedded in denser network positions. First, brokers more often broker information via short-term interactions with colleagues outside their network of long-term relationships, a process we label “unembedded brokerage.” Second, when they engage in unembedded brokerage, brokers are more likely than are actors in dense network positions to intermediate the flow of information between the brokered parties, consistent with a tertius gaudens strategy. Conversely, and third, when they broker information via their network of long-term ties (embedded brokerage), brokers are more likely than are densely connected actors to facilitate a direct information exchange between the brokered parties, consistent with a tertius iungens strategy. Using a relational event model, we find support for our arguments in an empirical analysis of email communications among employees in a medium-sized, knowledge-intensive organization, as well as in a replication study. The theory and evidence we present advance a novel, temporal perspective on how brokers broker, which reconciles structural and process views of network brokerage. Our findings substantiate the notion of brokers as a dynamic force driving change in organizational networks, and they help to integrate within a unitary explanatory framework tertius iungens and tertius gaudens views of brokerage.
Eric Quintane is an associate professor of management at the School of Management, The University of Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne (Australia). His research interests include dynamics of organizational networks, temporality of social processes, creativity and innovation.
On the benefits of:
I was completely unplugged for the first time in months, and it felt really, really good…
(read the full article on thrillist.com)
and the complete pointlessness of it:
… the unplugging movement is the latest incarnation of an ageless effort to escape the everyday, to retreat from the hustle and bustle of life in search of its still core. Like Thoreau ignoring the locomotive that passed by his cabin at Walden Pond or the Anabaptists rejecting electricity, members of the unplugging movement scorn technology in the hope of finding the authenticity and the community that they think it obscures.
Game Changer: The Topology of Creativity
Mathijs de Vaan and David Stark, Columbia University
Balazs Vedres, Central European University
This article examines the sociological factors that explain why some creative teams are able to produce game changers—cultural products that stand out as distinctive while also being critically recognized as outstanding. The authors build on work pointing to structural folding—the network property of a cohesive group whose membership overlaps with that of another cohesive group. They hypothesize that the effects of structural folding on game changing success are especially strong when overlapping groups are cognitively distant. Measuring social distance separately from cognitive distance and distinctiveness independently from critical acclaim, the authors test their hypothesis about structural folding and cognitive diversity by analyzing team reassembly for 12,422 video games and the career histories of 139,727 video game developers. When combined with cognitive distance, structural folding channels and mobilizes a productive tension of rules, roles, and codes that promotes successful innovation. In addition to serving as pipes and prisms, network ties are also the source of tools and tensions.
Latin America wants to rejoin the world. Will the world reciprocate?
Some countries in Latin America, especially those on the Pacific seaboard, like Mexico, Chile and Peru, never turned their backs on globalization. Others did. Boosted by record prices for their commodity exports, they turned inward and subjected their economies to state controls, repeating on a smaller scale the model that failed the region in the 1970s.
SONIC is co-sponsoring the 2016 Organizational Communication Mini-Conference (OCMC), hosted by the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
http://ocmc2016.soc.northwestern.edu
SONIC PhD student Marlon Twyman is a member of the conference’s planning committee. He will also present a paper “Networks of Computer-Mediated Team Assembly.” Aaron Schecter, a PhD candidate, is also presenting at this conference on “Bridging the Boundary While Minding the Seams: Team Boundary Propensities in Multiteam Systems.”
The purpose of the OCMC is to feature and support graduate students pursuing research about organizational communication. The two-day event provides burgeoning scholars in the field with the opportunity to present their dissertations or other research projects, receive feedback, and socialize with their peers and with established faculty. The informal atmosphere of the OCMC is also well suited for students who wish to present and receive constructive criticism on early dissertation plans.
On September 9, 2016 Noshir Contractor presented at the Department of Computer Science and Automation Seminar Series at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. He spoke on the topic of Leveraging Computational Social Science to Address Grand Societal Challenges.
Do your friends actually like you? Recent research indicates that only about half of perceived friendships are mutual. Details here
Congratulations to a SONIC graduate student Marlon Twyman who received a Runner-up: “Best Student Paper” Award at the INGRoup 2016 conference for this presentation:
Marlon Twyman, Dan Newman, Leslie DeChurch, and Noshir Contractor. The Ties that Form Teams: Self-Organization, Homophily, and Multiplexity. 11th Annual INGRoup Conference, Helsinki, Finland , July 14-16, 2016.
Abstract:
This paper explains the unfolding process of team assembly – the behaviors involved as individuals consider and form relationships with potential teammates. We explore the role of self-organizing principles, homophily, and multiplexity in explaining how individuals choose their collaborators. Findings reveal multiplexity is a stronger predictor of team assembly than homophily.
SONIC and NU-Delta members presented at the INGRoup conference on July 14-16 in Helsinki, Finland.
Abstracts for posters and presentations are listed below the schedule.
Gender Composition Affects Females Experience of Working in Science Teams
Ashley Niler, Raquel Asencio, Leslie DeChurch, Brian Uzzi, Noshir Contractor
Success in scientific fields hinges on effective collaboration. Whereas females excel in communal settings, they are underrepresented in scientific fields, and on science teams. We find the percentage of females on a team affects females’ level of team identification and collective efficacy, and subsequently team performance.
The Newcomer Absorption Model: When are Newcomers Integrated into Their Teams?
Benjamin Jones, Leslie DeChurch
This study explores newcomer absorption in teams from the perspective of the incumbents, and how they adapt to the newcomer’s addition to the team. Findings support the idea that incumbent identity strength and the identity threat posed by the newcomer jointly undermine newcomer absorption.
Symposium: Across Space and Over Time: Pushing the Boundaries of Virtual Teams Research
Raquel Asencio, Yun Huang, Leslie DeChurch, Noshir Contractor, Brian Uzzi
Globalization and advancements in communication technology have encouraged the use of virtual teams; however, our knowledge of the dynamics and the implications of working across geographic, organizational, and time boundaries remains limited. Our symposium pushes the boundaries of research on virtual teams by exploring new topics and utilizing different methods.
The Ties that Form Teams: Self-Organization, Homophily, and Multiplexity
Marlon Twyman, Leslie DeChurch, Dan Newman, Noshir Contractor
This paper explains the unfolding process of team assembly – the behaviors involved as individuals consider and form relationships with potential teammates. We explore the role of self-organizing principles, homophily, and multiplexity in explaining how individuals choose their collaborators. Findings reveal multiplexity is a stronger predictor of team assembly than homophily.
Symposium: The Paradox of Multiteam Work: Factors that Pull Systems Apart and Push Teams Together
Dorothy Carter, Leslie DeChurch
Multiteam systems present a paradox of building strong component teams that function effectively as a larger system. This symposium examines factors pulling these systems apart and pushing component teams together. The papers take important next steps in advancing MTS research to new levels of theoretical precision and into new contexts.
Panel: Team Chemistry in Outer Space: Getting Along With Your Crew When You Know You Can’t Quit
Noshir Contractor
One of the riskiest group projects in history is being planned – a manned trip to Mars. This panel focuses on the composition of teams selected for long-duration space missions. It will consider what groups research across multiple disciplines can tell us about high performing teams in space missions
Team Design and Scientific Innovation: A Quasi-Experiment
Alexander C LoPilato, Raquel Asencio, Leslie DeChurch, Ruth Kanfer, Steve Zaccaro
There are two important realities of innovation, and together, they present a formidable paradox: innovation happens in teams, and various flavors of diversity have been shown to hinder team functioning. We manipulate team design to compare integration and innovation in two structures: a cross-functional team and an interdisciplinary multiteam system.
The Semantic Networks that Underpin Group Interaction
Aaron Schecter, Yiheng Sun, Leslie DeChurch, Noshir Contractor
Semantic network analysis combined with content and sentiment analysis affords new insights into the nature of group interaction. We illustrate the value of semantic network analysis as a small group research tool. For example, we find group members match one another’s social, analytic, and informational communication, but not the emotionality.
When Team Cognition Matters Most: A Meta-Analysis
Gabriel Plummer, Lindsay Larson, Jessica Mesmer-Magnus, Ashley Niler, Leslie DeChurch, Noshir Contractor
We uncover the operating conditions under which cognition is most critical to team success. Five key factors affect the instrumentality of team cognition to team affect, behavioral process, performance, and viability. These factors can be categorized as: team identity reinforcers, team stressors, team motivators, team sociomateriality, and team external embeddedness.