Diversity and Social Network Structure in Collective Decision Making: Evolutionary Perspectives with Agent-Based Simulations

Collective, especially group-based, managerial decision making is crucial in organizations. Using an evolutionary theoretic approach to collective decision making, agent-based simulations were conducted to investigate how human collective decision making would be affected by the agents' diversity in problem understanding and/or behavior in discussion, as well as by their social network structure. Simulation results indicated that groups with consistent problem understanding tended to produce higher utility values of ideas and displayed better decision convergence, but only if there was no group-level bias in collective problem understanding. Simulation results also indicated the importance of balance between selection-oriented (i.e., exploitative) and variation-oriented (i.e., explorative) behaviors in discussion to achieve quality final decisions. Expanding the group size and introducing non-trivial social network structure generally improved the quality of ideas at the cost of decision convergence. Simulations with different social network topologies revealed collective decision making on small-world networks with high local clustering tended to achieve highest decision quality more often than on random or scale-free networks. Implications of this evolutionary theory and simulation approach for future managerial research on collective, group, and multi-level decision making are discussed.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables; accepted for publication in Complexit

Effects of Network Connectivity and Diversity Distribution on Human Collective Ideation

Human collectives, e.g., teams and organizations, increasingly require participation of members with diverse backgrounds working in networked social environments. However, little is known about how network structure and the diversity of member backgrounds would affect collective processes. Here we conducted three sets of human-subject experiments which involved 617 participants who collaborated anonymously in a collective ideation task on a custom-made online social network platform. We found that spatially clustered collectives with clustered background distribution tended to explore more diverse ideas than in other conditions, whereas collectives with random background distribution consistently generated ideas with the highest utility. We also found that higher network connectivity may improve individuals' overall experience but may not improve the collective performance regarding idea generation, idea diversity, and final idea quality.Comment: 43 pages, 19 figures, 4 table

"We the people . . . ": levels of analysis and the US Constitution

Abstract Purpose -Levels of analysis and multi-level issues have a long history and are becoming increasingly important in many areas of management and the organizational sciences. Nevertheless, specifics and clarity regarding these issues can be elusive for scholars and educators. To help overcome this difficulty, the paper aims to use the Constitution of the United States of America and the US presidential election to illustrate levels of analysis and multi-level issues. Design/methodology/approach -The paper uses the example of the Constitution of the United States of America and the US presidential election to illustrate levels of analysis and multi-level issues in the areas of management and the organizational sciences. Findings -The paper reveals the levels of analysis and multi-level issues using the US Constitution and US presidential elections. Originality/value -The value of the paper to scholars and educators is the explanation and illustration of levels of analysis and multi-level issues using the US Constitution and US presidential elections

Transformational and charismatic leadership: the road ahead 10th anniversary edition

This is the 10th anniversary edition, we seek to update the theoretical and empirical work and professional practice issues associated with transformational and charismatic leadership that have transpired over the past decade

Assassination and leadership : traditional approaches and historiometric methods

Research on the assassinations and attempted assassinations of leaders seems warranted, as leaders and their interactions with extreme followers (e.g., fanatics) and non-followers (e.g., assassins) can have tremendous consequences not only for the leaders but also their larger collectives (e.g., nations, social movements). Based on the traditional and established leadership approaches of power orientation and outstanding leadership, we explored whether particular types of leaders were more likely victims of assassinations and targets of assassination attempts. Using historiometric methods, we found that socialized as well as pragmatic and ideological leaders were the most frequent victims of assassinations; but personalized as well as pragmatic and ideological leaders were the most frequent targets of assassination attempts; and for U.S. Presidents, socialized charismatics were the most frequent victims of assassinations and targets of assassination attempts. Results regarding leader paranoia, regions of the world, and assassins operating alone or as a group in relation to assassinations and leadership approaches also are presented. Implications of these findings for future leadership research involving leaders and their extreme followers, non-followers, and larger collectives are discussed

Collectivistic Leadership Approaches: Putting The We In Leadership Science And Practice

We introduce the notion of we or collectivistic leadership. A general collectivistic approach to leadership is developed and contrasted with traditional and contemporary approaches to leadership. An overview of five collectivistic leadership approaches-team, network, shared, complexity, and collective leadership-is then presented. Key notions, constructs, and levels of analysis; the role of a focal leader; operationalizations and empirical results; and implications for leadership development, assessment, and practice of each approach are summarized. Common themes across, and our perspective on, the approaches and future directions for collectivistic leadership science and practice are discussed. © 2012 Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology