Smart, Responsible, and Upper Caste Only: Measuring Caste Attitudes through Large-Scale Analysis of Matrimonial Profiles

Discriminatory caste attitudes currently stigmatize millions of Indians, subjecting individuals to prejudice in all aspects of life. Governmental incentives and societal movements have attempted to counter these attitudes, yet accurate measurements of public opinions on caste are not yet available for understanding whether progress is being made. Here, we introduce a novel approach to measure public attitudes of caste through an indicator variable: openness to intercaste marriage. Using a massive dataset of over 313K profiles from a major Indian matrimonial site, we precisely quantify public attitudes, along with differences between generations and between Indian residents and diaspora. We show that younger generations are more open to intercaste marriage, yet attitudes are based on a complex function of social status beyond their own caste. In examining the desired qualities in a spouse, we find that individuals open to intercaste marriage are more individualistic in the qualities they desire, rather than favoring family-related qualities, which mirrors larger societal trends away from collectivism. Finally, we show that attitudes in diaspora are significantly less open, suggesting a bi-cultural model of integration. Our research provides the first empirical evidence identifying how various intersections of identity shape attitudes toward intercaste marriage in India and among the Indian diaspora in the US.Comment: 12 pages; Accepted to be published at ICWSM'1

Modeling 21st century project teams: docking workflow and knowledge network computational models

This paper reports on an attempt to integrate and extend two established computational organizational models\u2014SimVision\uae and Blanche\u2014to examine the co-evolution of workflow and knowledge networks in 21st century project teams. Traditionally, workflow in project teams has been modeled as sets of sequential and/or parallel activities each assigned to a responsible participant, organized in a fixed structure. In the spirit of Jay Galbraith\u2019s (1973) information processing view of organizations, exceptions\u2014situations in which participants lack the required knowledge to complete a task\u2014are referred up the hierarchy for resolution. However, recent developments in digital technologies have created the possibility to design project teams that are more flexible, self-organizing structures, in which exceptions can be resolved much more flexibly through knowledge networks that extend beyond the project or even the company boundaries. In addition to seeking resolution to exceptions up the hierarchy, members of project teams may be motivated to retrieve the necessary expertise from other knowledgeable members in the project team. Further, they may also retrieve information from non-human agents, such as knowledge repositories or databases, available to the project team. Theories, such as Transactive Memory, Public Goods, Social Exchange and Proximity may guide their choice of retrieving information from a specific project team member or database. This paper reports on a \u201cdocked\u201d computational model that can be used to generate and test hypotheses about the co-evolution of workflow and knowledge networks of these 21st century project teams in terms of their knowledge distribution and performance. The two computational models being docked are SimVision (Jin & Levitt, 1999) which has sophisticated processes to model organizations executing project-oriented workflows, and Blanche (Hyatt, Contractor, & Jones, 1997), a multiagent computational network environment, which models multitheoretical mechanisms for the retrieval and allocation of information in knowledge networks involving human and non-human agents. This paper was supported in part by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation for the project \u201cCo-Evolution of Knowledge Networks and 21st Century Organizational Forms (IIS- 9980109)

Positive predictive value of ERBB2 copy number gain by tissue or circulating tumor DNA next-generation sequencing across advanced cancers

BACKGROUND: The correlation of ERBB2 copy number gain (CNG) from tissue or circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) by next-generation sequencing (NGS) with standard HER2 tissue evaluation is not well understood. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively identified patients with ERBB2 CNG on commercial NGS. We described their clinical-pathologic features and calculated the positive predictive value (PPV) of ERBB2 CNG by NGS for HER2-positivity by IHC and FISH testing. RESULTS: 176 patients had NGS revealing an ERBB2 CNG (112 by tumor tissue and 91 by ctDNA). The cancer subtypes with the most cases with ERBB2 CNG by NGS were breast ( CONCLUSIONS: ERBB2 CNG by NGS is detected in numerous malignancies for which HER2 testing is not standard. Detection of ERBB2 CNG by tissue NGS and ctDNA has a high PPV for true HER2-positivity by standard IHC and/or FISH testing in breast cancer

the role of social media

This paper explores subtle strategies that megaproject teams develop in practice to manage stakeholders external to the project team. A governmentality approach is used to account for these strategies. A metro rail megaproject in India provides the case for the study. The strategies were identified through a content analysis of 640 project and non-project based Tweets posted by the metro rail organization. We augmented this dataset with the community's response through social media, as well as through semi-structured interviews that captured the project teams' responses. The findings indicate that the megaproject used various strategies: promoting the organization, giving progress updates, appealing to the community, as well as targeting of specific sections of the population. The effect of these attempts at governmentality through branding were observed in community discourses on social media platforms that echoed the strategic discourses projected by the megaproject while interviews enabled us to access the project team's responses. For the project community, the effects included a positive brand image, creating community brand advocates and building support for the project during contentious episodes. For the project team, the effects included job attraction, enhanced job perception as well as the creation of project team brand advocates. The relation between the governmentality instruments and their corresponding effects are theorized in six propositions.preprintpublishe

Asset creation team rationalities and strategic discourses: Evidences from India

External stakeholder management is important for managing an infrastructure asset throughout its life cycle. There is a dearth of research exploring the asset creation team’s rationalities invoking the strategies used for managing external stakeholders. The circuits-of-power theoretical framework, which considers actors within their social context, is apt for studying the rationale of the asset creation team in carrying out these strategies. Through a systematic in-depth case study of a metro rail asset in India, diverse data were collected from multiple sources, such as semi-structured interviews, news articles and social media; a set of strategic rationalities used to frame messages to stakeholders was identified. These included pride in the asset, importance of the asset, overemphasis on time and acceptability of public inconvenience. The asset creation team, as part of the broader asset community, is also influenced by the strategic discourses aimed at managing external stakeholders. The authors discuss the implications of the strategic discourses used for asset management on project, programme and portfolio management. The relationship between strategic discourses striving to manage assets and the corresponding asset creation team rationalities affords multiple avenues for future research.publishedVersionacceptedVersio

Expanding the concept of contractual and relational governance interplay in public-private partnerships: A dynamic realist approach

This working paper presents a preliminary conceptualization of a process theoretical approach for studying the interplay between contractual and relational governance activities in Public Private Partnerships. Taking into account that “action” is not necessarily an instrumental consequence of decisions, we argue that day-to-day practitioners aim at balancing their role as a member of an organization, a part of a PPP team and personal professional interest. Their subjective concern for improving or maintaining their positions trustworthy "experts" drives modes of interaction and governing activities. The approach integrates the traditional functional-regulatory approach extensively used for studying the interplay in terms of complementarity/substitutivity, with theoretical insights from critical realism theory on trust and control in working organizations. The illustrative case is the interaction between a public project manager and a private facility manager during the introduction of changes in the exploitation phase of a Public Private Partnership in the Netherlands

An interdisciplinary approach to understanding 'stakeholders'

Stakeholders coordinate their actions to accomplish major initiatives, but each stakeholder understands and approaches these initiatives differently, which can often lead to challenges and conflict. This research looks at stakeholder coordination in public-private arrangements and identifies five related disciplines (strategic management, business ethics, public administration, planning, and project management), each representing perspectives of different organizational types. Using a structured literature review of 1,107 articles taken from top peer-reviewed journal publications of the five disciplines, we analyze each disciplinary perspective with respect to stakeholders. We illustrate the rise in research regarding stakeholders over the last 30 years and identify different organization frames, core values, and orientation towards other stakeholder networks, which motivate stakeholders’ actions. We argue for academics to understand how to link these foundational frames across organizational types, and suggest practitioners seek coordination between stakeholders by going beyond stakeholders’ stated objectives and aligning stakeholder values

Governance Through Trust: Community Engagement in an Australian City Rebuilding Precinct

City rebuilding precincts are embedded in, surrounded by, and sometimes resisted or celebrated by stakeholders they impact. These projects require long-lasting relationships and loyalty from the community they serve, making trust a crucial factor. This article employs a case study approach and draws from both social exchange and circuit of power theories to understand the complex relationship between trust and governance. Three strategies emerged from the analysis: employing resources, building legitimacy, and creating a brand. These strategies and their interactions highlight how trust can act as a governance mechanism for more effective engagement with the project community.Integral Design & Managemen

Removing certainty from the equation: Using choice architecture to increase awareness of risk in engineering design decision making

The mediated model of determinants for risky decision making theorizes that decision making is influenced by a decision makers risk propensity and risk perception. Risk propensity is an individual's tendency to take or avoid risks. Where as risk perception is the decision makers’ assessment of how risky a situation is in terms of probabilistic estimates. Risk perception is also influenced by risk representation, which is the way risk is presented to the decision-maker. Modifications were made to the choice architecture of a trade-off matrix to test whether representing risks as embedded characteristics of design options influences engineering choice. Senior civil engineering students (n=98) were asked to consider trade-off matrices for two design options using criteria provided in a decision scenario. Half of the participants randomly received the control version of the trade-off matrix where risk was shown as an additional sixth criteria. The other half of participants received the modified tradeoff matrix where risk shown as a confidence interval. Illustrating risk as a separate criteria appears to significantly (p=0.04) influence users decision making leading participants to discount risk. Nearly 70% chose the more risky option. Yet, when risk was shown as a confidence interval participants were evenly split between the high and low risky option. The risk representation seems to meditate or counter balance those with a high propensity for risk. When controlling for risk propensity the results are even more significant (p=0.02). Meaning, those with high risk propensity more frequently choose the risky choice given the control version (as expected) but that did not hold true for the modified version, when shown as a confidence interval. Understanding how decisions are influenced by risk representation can lead to designing choice architecture that helps engineers and contractors make decisions that are in their own, or their clients’ best interests