Simulating the emergence of the organizing structures of work

This article is a first step toward a visualization and classification system for studying dynamic organizing structures of work. As a first step toward this research objective, this study brings together two active projects. One called "relatonics" studies work group formation and is primarily empirical and inductive. The other called "Human Interaction Dynamics (HID)" imports concepts, relationships and modeling from complexity science and is therefore primarily theoretical and deductive. The vision is to use social media, data gathering, and process simulation technologies to rigorously describe, systematically visualize, and validly model the complex dynamics of work processes of different types. This work will serve as a means to classify, study and improve the performance of work systems. We describe our progress to data and suggest further research

Value Sinks: A Process Theory of Corruption Risk during Complex Organizing

Theories and studies of corruption typically focus on individual ethics and agency problems in organizations. In this paper, we use concepts from complexity science to propose a process theory that describes how corruption risk emerges from conditions of uncertainty that are intrinsic in social systems and social interactions. We posit that our theory is valid across multiple levels of scale in social systems. We theorize that corruption involves dynamics that emerge when agents in a system take actions that exploit disequilibrium conditions of uncertainty and ethical ambiguity. Further, systemic corruption emerges when agent interactions are amplified locally in ways that create a hidden value sink which we define as a structure that extracts, or ‘drains’, resources from the system for the exclusive use of certain agents. For those participating in corruption, the presence of a value sink reduces local uncertainties about access to resources. This dynamic can attract others to join the value sink, allowing it to persist and grow as a dynamical system attractor, eventually challenging broader norms. We close by identifying four distinct types of corruption risk and suggest policy interventions to manage them. Finally, we discuss ways in which our theoretical approach could motivate future research

Advances in Computational Social Science and Social Simulation

Aquesta conferència és la celebració conjunta de la "10th Artificial Economics Conference AE", la "10th Conference of the European Social Simulation Association ESSA" i la "1st Simulating the Past to Understand Human History SPUHH".Conferència organitzada pel Laboratory for Socio­-Historical Dynamics Simulation (LSDS-­UAB) de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.Readers will find results of recent research on computational social science and social simulation economics, management, sociology,and history written by leading experts in the field. SOCIAL SIMULATION (former ESSA) conferences constitute annual events which serve as an international platform for the exchange of ideas and discussion of cutting edge research in the field of social simulations, both from the theoretical as well as applied perspective, and the 2014 edition benefits from the cross-fertilization of three different research communities into one single event. The volume consists of 122 articles, corresponding to most of the contributions to the conferences, in three different formats: short abstracts (presentation of work-in-progress research), posters (presentation of models and results), and full papers (presentation of social simulation research including results and discussion). The compilation is completed with indexing lists to help finding articles by title, author and thematic content. We are convinced that this book will serve interested readers as a useful compendium which presents in a nutshell the most recent advances at the frontiers of computational social sciences and social simulation researc

Understanding and Facilitating Creative Group Processes : The GroPro Model

Collaborating individuals can often find better solutions, still individual creativity is in focus both among managers and academics. There is a need for theorizing about groups’ creativity. The GroPro model, described in this article, uses a process ontology to support increased group creativity. GroPro is based on theories about group dynamics, actor-structure processes, human interaction, and leadership. It was developed as a sub-task in several research projects about the group and its first line manager. The GroPro model integrates all phenomena relevant to group creativity, is complex enough to consider individual and collective interdependences, and examples of how GroPro has been employed show its potential use as a practical guide in one’s own creative group processes

Understanding and Facilitating Creative Group Processes : The GroPro Model

Collaborating individuals can often find better solutions, still individual creativity is in focus both among managers and academics. There is a need for theorizing about groups’ creativity. The GroPro model, described in this article, uses a process ontology to support increased group creativity. GroPro is based on theories about group dynamics, actor-structure processes, human interaction, and leadership. It was developed as a sub-task in several research projects about the group and its first line manager. The GroPro model integrates all phenomena relevant to group creativity, is complex enough to consider individual and collective interdependences, and examples of how GroPro has been employed show its potential use as a practical guide in one’s own creative group processes

Understanding and Facilitating Creative Group Processes : The GroPro Model

Collaborating individuals can often find better solutions, still individual creativity is in focus both among managers and academics. There is a need for theorizing about groups’ creativity. The GroPro model, described in this article, uses a process ontology to support increased group creativity. GroPro is based on theories about group dynamics, actor-structure processes, human interaction, and leadership. It was developed as a sub-task in several research projects about the group and its first line manager. The GroPro model integrates all phenomena relevant to group creativity, is complex enough to consider individual and collective interdependences, and examples of how GroPro has been employed show its potential use as a practical guide in one’s own creative group processes

Kan ett systematiskt arbete med psykosociala riskbedömningar påverka psykosocialt säkerhetsklimat?

Session 8Stress och psykosociala faktorerBeskrivning av en pågående studie: Kan ett systematiskt arbete med psykosociala riskbedömningar påverka psykosocialt säkerhetsklimat?Rachael Berglund, Ulrika Hultgren & Tomas BackströmStressrelaterad ohälsa i arbetslivet kostar Europa €617 miljard om året och påverkar 40 miljoner enligt International Labour Organisation (ILO). Det psykosociala säkerhetsklimatet (PSK) lig-ger till grund för hur en organisation eller arbetsgrupp verkligen mår. Enligt lagstiftningen idag i Europa ska alla arbetsplatser arbeta förebyggande för att eliminera eller minska identifierade riskfaktorer, vilket inkluderar psykosociala risker. Denna studie har som syfte att undersöka om ett systematiskt arbete med riskbedömningar av den psykosociala arbetsmiljön kan påverka det psykosociala säkerhetsklimatet, välbefinnande och arbetets effektivitet i arbetsgrupper. Två glo-bala industriföretag i Sverige ingår i studien. Interventionen riktar sig mot ledare och förväntas påverka cirka 200 medarbetare per företag. Undersökningen har en kvasiexperimentell design med kontrollgrupp. Enkäter som mäter PSK, stressorer, välbefinnande och effektivetet används vid tre tidpunkter: en mätning före interventionen, en efter och en mätning efter ytterligare sex månader. Interventionen innefattar tre faser. Under fas 1 utbildas ledarna i psykosocial säker-het, PSK, riskbedömningar och team-coaching. Vid fas 2 arbetar ledaren tillsammans med sin arbetsgrupp för att upprätta och följa en handlingsplan med syfte att eliminera eller minska arbetsgruppens prioriterade risker. Fas 3 överlappar delvis med fas 2 och innehåller fyra möten med fokus på psykosocial säkerhet där chefen träffar sina peers för chefsstöd och för att stärka coachningsbeteenden. Studien är unik eftersom PSK tidigare inte har används tillsammans med Health and Safety Executives’s management standards och dessutom för att team coachning används i ett systematiskt arbete med psykosociala riskbedömningar

Interview Supported Innovation Audit: how does a complementary interview affect the understanding of an innovation audits results when the interview is based on the audit statements

Abstract: SMEs tend to lack the ability of sustainable development through cost-effective and repeated innovation. One way to find out a current innovation state is to run a self-assessment innovation audit, which are well used but got critics to not show reliable results The authors formed research question: How might a complementary interview affect the understanding of the result of the innovation audit when the interview is based on the same statements used in the audit? The study was conducted at two Swedish SMEs with a mix of management and personnel. 21 respondents at both companies answered 840 audit-statements and equal amount of interview questions rephrased from a "how-perspective". 4 audit-statements were left blank and 103 interview questions were answered, "I don't know". A great differ in the respondents understanding appeared and the conclusion was that a selfassessment innovation audit might not show reliable results conducted without a complementing interview

Creativity at a distance

 More and more meetings in working life are conducted remotely via digital media. How are creative meetings affected by participants being at a distance? Some experiment suggests group creativity to improve with remote work, other show challenges. How is it in real practice? Ten well performing leaders working from home have been interviewed. They reported several challenges. Some have been found in earlier research, the preparation phase is harder and the tools for remote communication aren’t yet good and simple enough for practitioners. But some might be new discoveries, the long time needed for creative meetings being too tiresome for the remote situation, and participants becoming disturbed by irrelevant activities in the home context.Most of the interviewed managers see a hybrid as the future, where some work will be performed from home and some at a shared workplace. Creative meetings are suggested to be performed with physical closeness