On Sunday, December 4th, a SONIC PhD candidate Aaron Schecter and Professor Noshir Contractor presented at a workshop titled “The Network Science of Squads“, held in Denton, TX on December 3rd – 5th.

An illustration of the relational event model to analyze group interaction processes

Abstract

A fundamental assumption in the study of groups is that they are constituted by various interaction processes that are critical to survival, success, and failure. However, there are few methods available sophisticated enough to empirically analyze group interaction. To address this issue, we present an illustration of relational event modeling (REM). A relational event is a “discrete event generated by a social actor and directed toward one or more targets.” Because REM provides a procedure for modeling relational event histories, it has the ability figure out which patterns of group interaction are more or less common than others. For instance, do past patterns of interaction influence future interactions, (e.g., reciprocity), do individual attributes make it more likely that individuals will create interactions (e.g., homophily), and do specific contextual factors influence interaction patterns (e.g., a complexity of a task)? The current presentation provides an REM tutorial from a multi-team system experiment in which two teams navigated a terrain to coordinate their movement to arrive a common destination point. We use REM to model the dominant patterns of interactions, which included the principle of inertia (i.e., past contacts tended to be future contacts) and trust (i.e., group members interacted with members they trusted more) in the current example.

On December 1st, 2016, Noshir Contractor presented on Leveraging Computational Social Science to Address Grand Societal Challenges. The symposium, titled “Understanding social systems via computational approaches and new kinds of data”, took place from November 30 – December 1, 2016 at KOMED im MediaPark, Cologne, Germany

The complete schedule of presentations and Noshir’s talk abstract can be viewed following the link below:

http://www.gesis.org/css-wintersymposium/program/schedule/

Please join us in celebrating the 10th birthday of Web Science at Northwestern University – the final stop of a 10-hour web-a-thon that will have spanned the globe from Singapore, Bangalore, Berlin, and London  before landing in Evanston.

Congratulations to Alina, who received the Northwestern University School of Communication 2016 Graduate Dissertation award, granted annually by the department.

The title of her dissertation is “Assembly Mechanisms of Interdisciplinary Scientific Teams and Their Impact on Performance”.

SONIC is currently hosting the ATLAS team within its lab space.
ATLAS (Advancing Teams, Leaders, and Systems) is the group formerly known as DELTA (Developing Effective Leaders, Teams, and Alliances) – expats from Georgia Tech, headed by their director Leslie DeChurch, who transferred to the Northwestern University this fall. Four students followed Leslie DeChurch: Lindsay Larson, Ashley Niler, Gabe Plummer, and Ilya Gokhman.

ATLAS are waiting for their lab space to be built out and equipped in time for the Winter Quarter. In the meantime, we are all enjoying the very close collaboration on our joint projects.

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.

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. 11^th 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.