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Productivity Through Coffee Breaks: Changing Social Networks by Changing Break Structure
Abstract
In this paper we present a two-phase study undertaken to experimentally study in a real world setting the effects of social group strength and how to increase the strength of groups in the workplace. In the first phase of our study we measured interactions between workers at the call center of a large bank based in the United States using Sociometric Badges. We confirmed our hypothesis that the strength of an individual’s social group was positively related to productivity (average call handle time) for the employees that we studied. In the second phase of our study we show that by giving employees breaks at the same time we increased the strength of an individual’s social groups, demonstrating that low-cost management decisions can be used to act on these results.
... Whether through in-person or virtual communication, call-center workers must agilely map organizational knowledge and strategically connect to one another to optimize work performance. Existing works have qualitatively established the positive correlation between communication and performance in traditional work settings [16,26,10,30], characterized the contribution of centrality [21,60,56], and tie strength [48,4,54,5] and network formation [61,17,20] to work performance through surveys with broad scales and reliance on human memory. However, none of these works has attempted to precisely quantify the interpersonal interactions among call-center workers and the impact on work performance in the real world using ubiquitous Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. ...
... In such networks, an edge between two nodes indicates that an interaction occurred between the individuals represented by the nodes. Empirical studies centered around social network analysis have demonstrated that certain characteristics of social networks positively correlate with performance [45,4,54]. However, they have not observed the effects of additional conditions. ...
... A sociometric badge worn by participating employees (MIT Media Lab[54]). ...
Cloud technologies and artificial intelligence are transforming call centers into intelligent relationship hubs. Such transformation requires call-center employees to be strategically connected based on the distribution of expertise. However, today’s organizations lack a real-time method to agilely and pervasively map knowledge-distribution and optimize information flow. We present a pilot study showing that the interactions captured by Zigbee and infrared (IR) Internet of things (IoT) sensors on sociometric badges (a business-card-sized printed circuit board) worn by 36 employees in a call center can be used to characterize interactions and their impact on employee performance. Specifically, we quantify an employee’s centrality, weak ties, and strong ties from sensor network data and analyze the effects on average task-processing time. Further analysis reveals insights into interactions among workers that were previously limited by coarse qualitative data in survey studies. This study points to the potential of a “living lab” approach for investigating the effects of employee interactions and behaviors on their performance quantitatively in the real word using ubiquitous IoT.
... En particulier, il a souligné la distinction entre : 1) la forme ou la structure des relations sociales (la structure du réseau) et 2) leur contenu (les catégories et les attributs). Les dernières recherches dans ce domaine suggèrent que nous n'avons pas besoin d'analyser le contenu des interactions d'un groupe pour comprendre la circulation des idées ou les comportements au sein du groupe (Pentland, 2015 ;Waber et al., 2010). D'autres chercheurs tentent de comprendre quand et comment les individus interagissent, en concentrant leur attention sur le processus des interactions plutôt que sur celui des explications, conflits ou négociations liés au contenu de ces interactions (Baker, 2002). ...
... et d'autres chercheurs ont étudié un nombre élevé de types différents de groupes, d'organisations et d'institutions dans différents contextes(Montjoye et al., 2014 ;Olguín et al., 2009 ;Waber et al., 2010), et ils ont constaté que les groupes les plus inventifs et productifs ont toujours un point commun : les individus du groupe maintiennent des niveaux élevés d'interaction avec divers individus à l'extérieur du groupe, ce que les chercheurs appellent une « haute exploration », et ils restent également en contact étroit les uns avec les autres avec une bonne cohésion à l'intérieur du groupe, ce qu'ils appellent un « engagement élevé ». ...
... Comme une extension à cela, la « théorie de la physique sociale » étudie également les modèles d'interactions sociales. Un modèle d'interaction sociale fait référence au groupe d'un individu et à la manière dont cet individu interagit avec les autres individus au sein du groupe ; il inclut des éléments comme le nombre d'interactions d'un individu avec les autres individus et la cohésion de ces interactions(Christakis et Fowler, 2009).5.3.1 Au niveau individuelAu niveau individuel, la recherche dans le cadre de la « théorie de la physique sociale » montre que les individus les plus inventifs et les plus productifs dans un groupe ont tendance à être ce que l'on peut appeler des « explorateurs » et des « connecteurs », ce sont des individus qui recherchent constamment de nouvelles idées et points de vue différents, et qui le font en interagissant avec un large éventail d'individus en dehors du groupe(Waber et al., 2010).En plus de ces caractéristiques individuelles, les individus les plus inventifs et les plusproductifs ont aussi tendance à rester en contact étroit avec les individus à l'intérieur du groupe, en formant ce que nous pouvons appeler une « structure en étoile » dans le groupe(Pentland, 2015). On peut distinguer deux caractéristiques individuelles importantes lorsque ces structures apparaissent dans un groupe grâce à la présence des individus agissant comme « connecteurs » : premièrement, ces individus maintiennent un fort engagement avec les autres individus de leur groupe. ...
Design groups are often expected to be creative and inventive. The performance of an inventive design group can be measured by three factors: the total number of contributions (ideas), the even distribution of the contribution rate within the group, and the exploration of new ideas. Since digital technologies challenge the uses, form, design and interactions proposed by digital learning artifacts, many digital resources for academic learning are similar to digital facsimiles of print resources. Thus, the supposed potential of digital techniques is not being fully realized and there is a lack of inventiveness in the design of digital versions of learning artifacts. This thesis proposes a design method that promotes collaborative interactions - as opposed to cooperative interactions - that would influence the level of inventiveness in the process of designing digital learning artifacts. The cooperative organization organizes shared design tasks that are distributed among educational players who are experts in their fields, whereas the collaborative organization relies on the confrontation of views, ideas and contributions of all participants in design workshops that bring together groups of educational players with heterogeneous profiles and competencies. To test our hypothesis, we chose the digital textbook as a digital learning artifact, as it is emblematic of educational resources and lends itself both to a simple digitization of printed textbooks and to transpositions that benefit from the new functionalities made possible by the use of digital technology. We proposed an experimental study by forming six cross-category design groups composed of all the actors of the educational system and working online. In this way, we traced and quantified all the online interactions between the participants in each group during the three months of the design process. We found 1) that collaborative interactions in the design process improved the quality of the flow of ideas compared to the cooperative design groups that divided the work; 2) a positive correlation between the collaboration coefficient of each design group and the level of inventiveness of the designed artifact; and 3) a correlation at the individual level between the number of confrontations with a given idea during the design process and the probability of adopting it. We observed that the designed artifact could be a representation of the collective flow of ideas of the entire group, with the group's ideas being translated into the designed artifact. We postulate that this artifact could then have the potential to influence those same designers. Following this study, we tested the proposed design method several times to make it evolve. The new versions of the design method use both collaborative and cooperative design work sessions depending on the nature of the task to be performed in each step of the design process. Finally, given that we are interested in the collaborative and cooperative dynamics in the design method proposed by this research, it is important to note the importance of taking into account the risks of simplification assumed in this thesis regarding methodological choices when interpreting the results.
... The literature on the science of creative, innovative and productive organizations guide this study. This work is grounded in the assumption that meaningful interactions or "collisions," between individuals working within organizational settings breed creativity, innovation and productivity (Brown et al, 2013;Harvey, 2014;Pentland, 2012Pentland, , 2014Waber et al, 2010Waber et al, , 2014. Collisions refer to meaningful exchanges or interactions between individuals and can be understood through the lens of social physics or the science behind how people exchange ideas in ways that subsequently shape behavior (Pentland, 2014). ...
... The literature on the science of creative, innovative and productive organizations guide this study. This work is grounded in the assumption that meaningful interactions or "collisions," between individuals working within organizational settings breed creativity, innovation and productivity (Brown et al., 2013;Harvey, 2014;Pentland, 2012Pentland, , 2014Waber et al., 2010Waber et al., , 2014. Collisions refer to meaningful exchanges or interactions between individuals and can be understood through the lens of social physics or the science behind how people exchange ideas in ways that subsequently shape behavior (Pentland, 2014). ...
... As individuals collide, they acquire new ideas, strategies and values (Pentland, 2014), which contribute to their Fostering collisions SGPE creative and innovative approaches to problems. For instance, researchers measured interactions between employees who worked in a large bank using sociometric badges (Waber et al, 2010) or wearable devices that quantify social interactions in real-time. They found that when the bank put in place practices to increase employee interactions (e.g. ...
Purpose
Using the lens of social physics, this study aims to examine how, if at all, one graduate training program fostered collisions or meaningful interactions, between students and faculty from different disciplinary backgrounds.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative, ethnographic case study methods.
Findings
The University of Maryland’s National Research Traineeship program fostered collisions between students and faculty from different disciplinary backgrounds by facilitating exploration, idea flow and engagement within an interdisciplinary scholarly community. These collisions generated productive opportunities for student learning, development and collaborations, but at times also produced non-generative outcomes.
Practical implications
This study names specific, strategic activities (e.g. regular research talks, physical space) that graduate programs can use to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations among students and faculty and considers the extent to which such activities contribute to organizational change.
Originality/value
This paper applies new theories (collisions and social physics) to understanding interdisciplinary collaboration and identifies aspects of graduate training programs that may be replicable in other institutional settings.
... Deze sociale momenten zijn belangrijk voor de (ontwikkeling van) krachtige leerculturen in rechtbanken en gerechtshoven. Onderzoek laat zien dat investeringen in dergelijke 'softe' interventies (zoals samen koffiedrinken) tot 'harde' resultaten kan leiden in concrete verbeteringen van de kwaliteit en uitkomsten van het werk (Waber et al., 2010). ...
... Om de leercultuur te veranderen is het belangrijk dat gerechten hun eigen leercultuur onderzoeken. De inzet van een socialenetwerkanalyse (zie het eerdere voorbeeld in dit hoofdstuk), in combinatie met bijvoorbeeld (groeps)interviews en/of observaties op de werkvloer, kan inzicht geven in zowel de kracht van de eigen leercultuur als de obstakels daarbinnen (Spruyt et al., 2020;Waber et al., 2010). Uitkomsten kunnen vervolgens in teams besproken worden. ...
De Rechtspraak is een context waarin een leven lang ontwikkelen van groot belang is, niet alleen voor de deskundige professionals die erin werken, maar ook in bredere zin voor de kwaliteit van de rechtspraak in onze maatschappij. Zoals ook in andere beroepscontexten het geval is (SER, 2017), worstelt de Rechtspraak met het ontwikkelen van een leercultuur waarin men een leven lang ontwikkelen vanzelfsprekend vindt en stimuleert. In de eerste paragraaf van dit hoofdstuk kijk ik naar de rol die leren op dit moment in de Rechtspraak speelt, in het bijzonder voor rechters. De tweede paragraaf bevat aanbevelingen om in deze context verder te bewegen naar een krachtige leercultuur waarin medewerkers zichzelf en hun beroepspraktijk kunnen blijven ontwikkelen.
... Recently developed new technologies of wearable wireless devices made possible a giant leap in this direction, as they allowed for large-scale experiments to observe offline interactions in multiple settings like in schools [4,5], museums or conferences [6], hospitals [7,8], or even between animals [9,10]. These experiments highlighted novel behavioural patterns [11,12] and their consequences on ongoing dynamical processes like epidemic spreading [13][14][15][16] or the adoption of different behavioural forms [12]. However, all these studies have some methodological similarities. ...
... However, all these studies have some methodological similarities. First, although they have been implemented in rather different ways using centralised radio-frequency identification (RFID) [11,[16][17][18][19][20][21] or autonomous LPWD [8,22,23] technologies, they all provide the same output as sequences of radio signals pairs. Second and more importantly, using the collected data streams, the reconstruction methods of temporal interactions were commonly based on naïve assumptions [18,24], which may seem convenient at first, but have indisputable consequences on the reconstructed event structure and any observed process taking place on it. ...
The emerging technologies of wearable wireless devices open entirely new ways to record various aspects of human social interactions in a broad range of settings. Such technologies allow to log the temporal dynamics of face-to-face interactions by detecting the physical proximity of participants. However, despite the wide usage of this technology and the collected datasets, precise reconstruction methods transforming the raw recorded communication data packets to social interactions are still missing.
In this study we analyse a proximity dataset collected during a longitudinal social experiment aiming to understand the co-evolution of children’s language development and social network. Physical proximity and verbal communication of hundreds of pre-school children and their teachers are recorded over three years using autonomous wearable low power wireless devices. The dataset is accompanied with three annotated ground truth datasets, which record the time, distance, relative orientation, and interaction state of interacting children for validation purposes.
We use this dataset to explore several pipelines of dynamical event reconstruction including earlier applied naïve approaches, methods based on Hidden Markov Model, or on Long Short-Term Memory models, some of them combined with supervised pre-classification of interaction packets. We find that while naïve models propose the worst reconstruction, Long Short-Term Memory models provide the most precise way to reconstruct real interactions up to ∼ 90 % accuracy. Finally, we simulate information spreading on the reconstructed networks obtained by the different methods. Results indicate that small improvement of network reconstruction accuracy may lead to significantly different spreading dynamics, while sometimes large differences in accuracy have no obvious effects on the dynamics. This not only demonstrates the importance of precise network reconstruction but also the careful choice of the reconstruction method in relation with the data collected. Missing this initial step in any study may seriously mislead conclusions made about the emerging properties of the observed network or any dynamical process simulated on it.
... Moreover, by quantifying social contacts, infection transmissions were investigated [29], and terms that had been abstract before, like "trust" [30], were operationalized in terms of computational models. Finally, quantitative data was presented on how work performance is influenced by factors such as physical space design [31], schedule of work breaks [32], [33], or temperature and noise [34]. All in all, these few selected examples already show the potential results that sociometric methods based on pervasive sensing could yield during missions in habitats. ...
... Yet, while to date these methods have been utilized in numerous settings, including offices [26], [33], social events [35], schools [36], hospitals [37], and museums [38], to name just a few applications, analog missions in habitats have hardly been targeted. A major problem is the very nature of such missions. ...
In October 2017, an international crew participated in an emulated Mars colonization mission. For two weeks, they stayed confined in a special complex, a so-called analog habitat, where they were isolated from the outside world, including a lack of natural lighting and exterior noises, and lived on particularly adjusted Martian time. The mission followed a strict schedule, involving actual scientific work and activities envisioned as necessary for survival and exploration of the red planet. The main objective was to study the behavior and group dynamics of the crew in conditions recreating colonization of Mars, albeit under some unique circumstances compared to previous similar experiments. What was also special about the mission was the use of sociometric methods utilizing custom pervasive sensing solutions that we had built and deployed to complement classic methods based on self-reports and interviews. Based on that experiment, in this paper we contribute twofold. First, we share our deployment experiences to highlight the potential of pervasive distributed sensing systems in sociometric studies of habitat-based missions. The examples presented to this end include quantitative results that we obtained, among others, on social interactions between the astronauts, the impact of atypical situations on the crew, and the ergonomics of the habitat. Second, drawing from the experiences, in cooperation with the astronauts we attempt to highlight some unique challenges that space habitats pose for distributed support systems, such as ours. Among others, the challenges pertain to system deployment, autonomy, resilience, and flexibility. We believe that these challenges and, in general, space colonization constitute exciting research opportunities for the distributed systems community.
... Olguín et al. continued the development and presented the SocioMetric badges which rely on similar sensors and have been employed in several organizations to study interaction patterns and people behaviour [40,41]. Other deployments of the same technology investigated how social interactions can aect productivity [51] and how they relate to electronic communication [54]. Lepri et al. employed the SocioMetric badges to collect a multilayer dataset comprising dierent information sources (sensor data, surveys and experience sampling) about fty-three employees of an Italian research centre [35]. ...
... Waber et al. [51] Company with assigned desks Eect of social groups on productivity Productive employees belong to the strongest social groups. Achieve stronger social groups by changing breaks schedule. ...
A recent trend in corporate real-estate is Activity-Based Working (ABW). The ABW concept removes designated desks but o ers di erent work settings designed to support typical work activities. In this context there is still a need for objective data to understand the implications of these design decisions. We aim to contribute by using automated data collection to study how ABW’s principles impact o ce usage and dynamics. To this aim we analyse team dynamics and employees’ tie strength in relation to space usage and organisational hierarchy using data collected with wearable devices in a company adopting ABW principles. Our ndings show that the o ce fosters interactions across team boundaries and among the lower levels of the hierarchy suggesting a strong lateral communication. Employees also tend to have low space exploration on a daily basis which is instead more prevalent during an average week and strong social clusters seem to be resisting the ABW principles of space dynamics. With the availability of two additional data sets about social encounters in traditional o ces we highlight traits emerging from the application of ABW’s principles. In particular, we observe how the absence of designated desks might be responsible for more rapid dynamics inside the o ce. In more general terms, this work opens the door to new and scalable technology-based methodologies to study dynamic o ce usage and social interactions.
... Olguín et al. continued the development and presented the SocioMetric badges which rely on similar sensors and have been employed in several organizations to study interaction patterns and people behaviour [40,41]. Other deployments of the same technology investigated how social interactions can affect productivity [51] and how they relate to electronic communication [54]. Lepri et al. employed the SocioMetric badges to collect a multilayer dataset comprising different information sources (sensor data, surveys and experience sampling) about fifty-three employees of an Italian research centre [35]. ...
... Waber et al. [51] Company with assigned desks Effect of social groups on productivity Productive employees belong to the strongest social groups. Achieve stronger social groups by changing breaks schedule. ...
A recent trend in corporate real-estate is Activity-Based Working (ABW). The ABW concept removes designated desks but offers different work settings designed to support typical work activities. In this context there is still a need for objective data to understand the implications of these design decisions. We aim to contribute by using automated data collection to study how ABW’s principles impact office usage and dynamics.
To this aim we analyse team dynamics and employees’ tie strength in relation to space usage and organisational hierarchy using data collected with wearable devices in a company adopting ABW principles. Our findings show that the office fosters interactions across team boundaries and among the lower levels of the hierarchy suggesting a strong lateral communication. Employees also tend to have low space exploration on a daily basis which is instead more prevalent during an average week and strong social clusters seem to be resisting the ABW principles of space dynamics. With the availability of two additional data sets about social encounters in traditional offices we highlight traits emerging from the application of ABW’s principles. In particular, we observe how the absence of designated desks might be responsible for more rapid dynamics inside the office.
In more general terms, this work opens the door to new and scalable technology-based methodologies to study dynamic office usage and social interactions.
... The fact that encounter rates are higher for managers and workers co-located on the same floor is not surprising, as it is straightforward to imagine how spending time co-located in the same space would offer more opportunities for spontaneous encounters as managers and workers move about the office. The model set out to quantify is the extent or potential magnitude of this difference, given the difficulty that the typical organization would have collecting such data or otherwise measuring this phenomenon in vivo, without the aid of sensor technology like sociometric badges (Waber et al., 2010). Such technology may not be permissible in particularly sensitive work facilities, where no sensors or recording devices (including smartphones) of any kind can be carried. ...
Organizational and psychological science have historically relied on experimental and correlational research. Computational modeling and simulation have emerged as a “third” way of doing science, though the use of modeling is inconsistent across subfields of psychology. Organizational psychology, the psychological study of individuals, groups, and work organizations, is a subdiscipline of psychology that has seen limited use of computational modeling. This dissertation constructs a series of agent-based models applied to topics in the organization sciences and psychology, motivated by research challenges encountered as an applied researcher in the organization sciences. Three models – a spatial ABM, a network ABM, and a population ABM – explore manager- subordinate proximity, formal organization hierarchy and informal networks and IQ- environment feedback loops, respectively.
Model 1, “A Spatial Agent-Based Model of Manager-Subordinate Proximity” uses ABM to explore the extent to which a spatial model can quantify the spontaneous encounters between managers and subordinates based on their relative locations in a multi-floor office setting. Results demonstrate that subordinates located on a different floor than their manager are substantially less likely to have even a single spontaneous encounter with their manager in a workday, despite relatively short geographic separation. Imposing top-down requirements to travel between floors may do surprisingly little to abate this problem. The model suggests several implications for how managers and subordinates are co-located, how certain co-locations can result in fewer unplanned encounters between managers and subordinates, and the effect of closed office versus open office seating on serendipitous contact frequency with team members. Potential extensions and applications germane to post-COVID19 return to office (RTO) efforts as well as possible uses for future infectious disease issues in work settings are discussed.
Model 2, “A Network Agent-Based Model of Formal Organization and Informal Networks” uses agent-based modeling to explore the extent to which informal networks affect organizational performance when added to a formal organization hierarchy, using an information-seeking task as part of a work process. Results indicate that the addition of informal network ties to a formal organization can improve overall organization performance, but there is a point of diminishing returns beyond which the presumed cost of additional informal ties and maintenance of those ties may exceed the benefit.
Model 3, “A Population Agent-Based Model Exploring the Flynn Effect” uses a population agent-based model to explore aspects of the reciprocal, gene-environment correlation formal model proposed by William Dickens and James Flynn in 2001 to explain the phenomenon of rising IQ in the 20th century known as the Flynn Effect. While the model does not reproduce the full FE gains, emergence of segregation by IQ and assortative mating were observed, and the model demonstrates the value of computational approaches for studying process dynamics for phenomena that are otherwise generally limited to infrequent, point-in-time measurement or static snapshots, as well as the need for continued modeling and research in this area as the possible complex environmental causes of the FE remain elusive. The model also leverages a twin-based study design, operationalizing in silico the study of identical twin agents raised apart.
... [...] From Interview with Michael Kim, Art Department Lead [...] Interviewer: What takes place during these meetings?Michael: We use these meetings to coordinate our work, share progress updates, and discuss any issues we might encounter. It's essential for everyone to be85 aware of what others are working on so that we can offer assistance when needed.Interviewer: How are these meetings conducted? Do you physically gather inMichael: Yes, all our meetings take place in the tech department, in what we call the "fish bowl." ...
This research explores the topic of organizational culture in the remote setting through a case study from the game development industry.
The objective of this research is to examine whether a startup in the game development industry benefits from a remote organizational culture.
The author's interest in investigating startup culture arose from personal experience, which ultimately led to the development of an academic paper.
The selected case study, Creon Games, is a startup that launches mobile games with innovative game mechanics and has experienced steady growth in the last two years, eventually becoming larger and is currently under negotiation to receive its first venture capital funding in the seed round.
The theoretical framework is based on two paradigms, functionalism and symbolism, which complement each other and thus provide a comprehensive understanding of the analysis.
The analysis demonstrates that Creon Games organizational culture is influenced by artifacts that promote a startup culture, where values prioritize an agile work environment with minimal procedures and high individual responsibility to ensure high-quality work. The underlying assumptions of Creon Games reflect the current situation and may evolve over time.
Employees at Creon Games fear the possibility of transitioning to a classical corporate culture, but they recognize that growth may lead them in that direction. The analysis also reveals that classical organizational culture theories can be applied to startup organizations, but further investigation requires adjustments. The primary challenge is to reliably analyze the underlying assumptions, which may provide only a snapshot of the organization at a particular moment.
Overall, the startup at an early stage benefits from remote work organizational culture that can provide startups with access to top talent, cost savings, increased productivity, improved work-life balance, enhanced employee engagement, diversity, scalability, and flexibility. By embracing remote work, startups can create a culture that supports their growth, innovation, and long-term success.
... Despite being intuitive, we are very cautious about concluding that developers should take fewer breaks to be more productive since such a relation was not significant at wave 2 (although still negative). Further, prior work shows that breaks can increase wellbeing (Dababneh et al. 2001) and can improve the quality of professionals' social networks (Waber et al. 2010). Similarly, correlation does not equate to causation: participants might have taken more breaks because they felt less productive for various reasons (e.g., more exhaustion, distractions at home). ...
Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, the daily lives of software engineers were heavily disrupted as they were abruptly forced to work remotely from home. To better understand and contrast typical working days in this new reality with work in pre-pandemic times, we conducted one exploratory (N = 192) and one confirmatory study (N = 290) with software engineers recruited remotely. Specifically, we build on self-determination theory to evaluate whether and how specific activities are associated with software engineers’ satisfaction and productivity. To explore the subject domain, we first ran a two-wave longitudinal study. We found that the time software engineers spent on specific activities (e.g., coding, bugfixing, helping others) while working from home was similar to pre-pandemic times. Also, the amount of time developers spent on each activity was unrelated to their general well-being, perceived productivity, and other variables such as basic needs. Our confirmatory study found that activity-specific variables (e.g., how much autonomy software engineers had during coding) do predict activity satisfaction and productivity but not by activity-independent variables such as general resilience or a good work-life balance. Interestingly, we found that satisfaction and autonomy were significantly higher when software engineers were helping others and lower when they were bugfixing. Finally, we discuss implications for software engineers, management, and researchers. In particular, active company policies to support developers’ need for autonomy, relatedness, and competence appear particularly effective in a WFH context.
... Research has shown that tea or coffee breaks at work are important for social exchange and cohesion, as they offer opportunity to ventilate feelings and feel supported (Lee, 2001). As coffee breaks might also increase productivity within the organization (Waber et al., 2010), it is important to make sure this time is still available in a shorter workweek. According to Pernille Stroebaek (2013), these types of "coping communities" at work can also be formed in more formal coffee break encounters. ...
In 2019, Femma Wereldvrouwen, a Belgian women's organization experimented with a 30-hour workweek on organizational level. All full-time employees reduced their weekly working hours from 36, 34, or 32 (depending on their age) to 30. The experiment lasted one calendar year. By integrating a sociological temporal lens and considering the different levels in the organization, this study investigates how the organization has adapted their work to a shorter workweek based on 20 in-depth interviews and 4 focus-group interviews with employees. We find that Femma Wereldvrouwen combined structural changes on organizational and team level in a formalized way, with room for individual employees to find their own new temporal strategies in a shorter workweek. These strategies relate to focused work and consciousness of time. Although this combined responsibility of making a shorter workweek work was fairly successful, Femma Wereldvrouwen also faced some challenges, such as the lack of "fun" interaction through breaks, and time for "white space" in work.
... In some cases, such informal interactions may be crucial to exchange work-related ideas and knowledge, but also to informally share working (or personal) challenges and frustrations. Such relational bonds may generate mechanisms to create 'informal collective coping strategies' (Stroebaek 2013) and may also have a positive impact on productivity (Waber et al. 2010). ...
This paper presents a sociological approach to coffee consumption as a performance management strategy in work contexts, particularly in professions with intense work rhythms and highly responsive demands. Focusing on the daily work of three professional groups (nurses, police officers, and journalists), we analyze the social expression of coffee and how it is mobilized to deal with sleep problems, fatigue, concentration, or stress. For this purpose, three intertwined dimensions are explored: (1) the nature of these professionals’ work and the pressures for certain forms and levels of performance; (2) sleep problems as both a result of those work characteristics and a constraint on performance; and (3) the role of coffee in managing professional imperatives. The use of coffee appears as a legitimate practice in everyday working routines, due to its socializing markers, whereas additional benefits are attributed to the pharmacological properties of caffeine, given the perceived improvement in performance. The empirical data derive from a study carried out in Portugal on the use of medicines and food supplements for performance management, following a mixed methods approach. In particular, data from a questionnaire survey in a sample of 539 workers and information collected through seven focus groups with a total of 33 participants were used.
... Se han llevado a cabo algunas investigaciones sobre el comportamiento y los efectos de las redes informales en el lugar de trabajo; entre ellas, la realizada por el Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Productivity Through Coffee Breaks: Changing Social Networks by Changing Break Structure (Waber et al., 2010), o el realizado dentro del colectivo de bomberos por Kniffin, profesor adjunto de Ciencias de la Conducta Aplicadas de la Universidad de Cornell, Eating together at the firehouse: How workplace commensality relates to the performance of firefighters (Kniffin et al., 2015). ...
Este artículo adopta una noción de competencia desde una perspectiva fenomenológica interpretativa, que vincula de forma específica el conjunto de creencias y representaciones que maneja el docente sobre sí mismo y sobre la realidad que lo rodea con su competencia y actuación profesional. Al mismo tiempo, defiende la
naturaleza compleja de los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje y del hecho organizacional que, desde nuestro punto de vista, reside no tanto en los aspectos y estructuras formales de las organizaciones como en las personas que las integran y en sus interacciones. Combinamos ambas perspectivas para sostener que un desarrollo de
la competencia docente en el ámbito de las lenguas para fines específicos pasa por abrir incrementalmente la puerta a explorar esa complejidad y a incorporarla a nuestro sistema de creencias y a nuestras prácticas profesionales.
... Barbara Plester shows that it is embodied experiences regarding food and drink and the ritual aspects of the experience that create the social, inclusive component, which would appear to be a potent combination, and that it may result in (mostly) positive sense-making and the creation of an organizational culture by employees (Plester, Lo 2011, Plester 2015. Other research reveals that social interaction during work breaks may provide employees with a valuable opportunity to discuss difficult issues, as well as to exchange knowledge about their jobs (Waber et al. 2010, citing Wegener et al. 2015. These kinds of social interaction between co-workers help them create strong social groups, enhance work productivity, increase motivation, etc. ...
Based on an analysis of eating during work hours, this article looks at the issue of maintaining informal social relations. Various forms of the gathering together of individuals are important in the maintenance of social relations. Very often, casual or leisure-time gatherings, whether they are to mark an important event or celebration, or are just a coffee or lunch break during work hours, involve eating or drinking. However, colleagues and co-workers do not always eat at the same time, especially regarding day-to-day eating during work hours. In this paper, the focus is on the relative importance of eating alone or eating in a group when researching the maintenance of informal relations. The first objective of this research is to clarify the social aspects in research on eating and to survey the scientific literature on commensality and eating alone. Second the paper looks at how eating in a group as opposed to individual eating are expressed as part of the daily eating routine with ones co-workers. By going through these objectives, the question is raised – how would ways of maintaining informal relations change if there an ever greater number of co-workers decided to eat alone?
... This type of research usually analyzes communication for a longer term, typically for several weeks or months. [2] used Sociometric Badges to collect data of the social network of workers at a call center of a large bank, and drew implication that was demonstrated to increase productivity. [3] developed software for visualizing communication flow and showed differences in communication patterns and network structures among three global communities on technology development. ...
Visualizing behavioral states of teams is useful when providing effective reflection on teamwork for team members, monitoring and intervening teams, and analyzing team processes for teamwork researchers. This paper aims to develop a method to visualize behavioral states in meeting settings. We assumed that team processes follow several periods where behavioral states are stable and tried to detect these periods by focusing on change of communication patterns and facial expression. Detailed methods of detection and subsequent visualization are provided. We then test our method by comparing visualized team states in an idea generation workshop with qualitative observation of its team process. The result shows our method can effectively express some team states and provides viewpoints for more rigid quantitative verification.
... Despite being intuitive, we are very cautious about concluding that developers should take fewer breaks to be more productive since such a relation was not significant at wave 2 (although still negative). This is also because breaks can increase well-being [16] and breaks can also improve the quality of professionals' social networks [82]. Also, correlation does not equate causation: Participants might have taken more breaks because they felt less productive for various reasons (e.g., more exhaustion, distractions at home). ...
Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, software engineers' daily life was disrupted and they were abruptly forced into working remotely from home. Across one exploratory and one confirmatory study (N = 482), we tested whether a typical working day is different to pre-pandemic times and whether specific tasks are associated with task-specific satisfaction and productivity. To explore the subject domain, we first run a two-wave longitudinal study, where we found that the time software engineers spent doing specific tasks (e.g., coding, bugfixing, helping others) from home was similar to pre-pandemic times. Also, the amount of time developers spent on each task was unrelated to their general well-being, perceived productivity, and other variables such as basic needs. In our confirmatory study, we found that task satisfaction and productivity are predicted by task-specific variables (e.g., how much autonomy software engineers had during coding) but not by task-independent variables such as general resilience or a good work-life balance. Additionally, we found that satisfaction and autonomy were significantly higher when software engineers were helping others and lower when they were bugfixing. Also, contrary to anecdotal evidence, software engineers' satisfaction and productivity during meetings is not lower compared to other tasks. Finally, we discuss implications for software engineers, management, and researchers.
... Usulan perbaikan untuk kondisi pekerjaan yang membutuhkan fokus dan konsentrasi tinggi adalah perusahaan memberikan waktu coffee break atau tea break selama ±10-15 menit di selasela jam kerja. Pemberian waktu coffee break atau tea break dapat meningkatkan kekuatan kelompok sosial di tempat kerja yang bermanfaat bagi produktivitas dalam perusahaan (Stroebaek, 2013;Waber et al., 2010). Selain itu dapat dilakukan dengan mendengarkan musik pada saat bekerja terutama musik dengan tempo yang lambat dan menggunakan kursi ergonomis yang sesuai dengan kriteria untuk memenuhi kebutuhan dan kenyamanan pekerja saat duduk dan bekerja. ...
Conarch Bangun Sejahtera merupakan perusahaan konsultan arsitektur yang bergerak dibidang desain bangunan dan konstruksi bangunan. Beban kerja mental yang tinggi dan kondisi sistem kerja yang tidak sesuai menyebabkan pekerja mengalami gejala stress kerja seperti timbulnya kebosanan dalam bekerja, kurangnya motivasi dan semangat dalam bekerja dan kekhawatiran terhadap karirnya dimasa depan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh dari komponen sistem kerja terhadap stress kerja. Metode yang digunakan adalah Macroergonomic Organizational Questionnare Survey (MOQS) dan dianalisis menggunakan analisis jalur (path analysis). Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa terdapat pengaruh sangat sigifikan dari variabel sistem kerja secara simultan terhadap stress kerja. Variabel sistem kerja secara parsial mempunyai pengaruh terhadap stress kerja dengan menghitung kontribusi efektifnya menunjukkan bahwa pada variabel lingkungan fisik berkontribusi sebesar 7.82%, variabel lingkungan sosial sebesar 15.08%, variabel kondisi pekerjaan sebesar 30.53%, variabel kondisi organisasi sebesar 10.89%, variabel teknologi dan peralatan kerja sebesar 7.14% dan variabel karakteristik individu sebesar 11.94%. Dari keenam variabel tersebut, diketahui bahwa variabel yang paling berpengaruh terhadap stress kerja adalah kondisi pekerjaan dan lingkungan sosial sehingga diberikan usulan perbaikan pada kedua variabel tersebut untuk mengurangi stress kerja.
... But these efforts have fallen short when trying to transform the learning experience (Tricot, 2017 ;Cuban, 2008 ;2001). Research context aiming to measure performance and inventiveness in networks of people ranges from brainstorming sessions with 2 to 5 participants per team (Woolley et al., 2010 ;Gersick et Hackman, 1990) to interactions between people in entire companies (Waber et al., 2010). In this context, we can identify two ways of working interactions: 1) cooperation, where partners divide the work, solve the subtasks individually or in subgroups, and then gather the partial results to obtain the final result, and 2) collaboration, where partners do the entirety of the work together without dividing it (Helle et al., 2006 ;Dillenbourg, 1999). ...
Les groupes de conception doivent être créatifs et inventifs. La performance d'un groupe de conception inventif est essentiellement mesurée en fonction de trois facteurs : le nombre total de contributions (idées), l'égalité du taux de contribution et l'exploration de nouvelles idées. Les technologies numériques remettent en question les utilisations, la forme, la conception et les interactions des artefacts d'apprentissage numériques. Nous avons identifié que dans l'écosystème éducatif, il y a un manque d'inventivité lors de la conception des versions numériques des artefacts d'apprentissage. Nous proposons un nouveau modèle d'interactions collaboratives qui favoriserait le niveau d'inventivité dans le processus de conception des artefacts d'apprentissage numériques. Pour tester notre hypothèse, nous avons choisi le manuel scolaire numérique comme un artefact d'apprentissage numérique, car il peut être décrit comme une simple numérisation de manuels imprimés, avec un manque considérable d'inventivité. Nous avons conçu une étude expérimentale, formant six groupes de conception hétérogènes composés de tous les acteurs de l'écosystème éducatif. Ainsi, nous avons tracé et quantifié toutes les interactions en ligne entre les participants de chaque groupe de conception. Nous avons constaté que 1) les interactions collaboratives dans le processus de conception des artefacts d'apprentissage améliorent significativement la qualité de la circulation des idées par rapport aux groupes de conception coopératives qui ont divisé le travail et 2) une corrélation positive entre le coefficient de collaboration de chaque groupe de conception et l’inventivité de son prototype conçu. Ces résultats suggèrent que le modèle d'interactions collaboratives peut créer un équilibre entre l'espace individuel d'une personne et l'espace collectif du groupe de conception, facilitant les interactions collaboratives au sein du groupe et favorisant ainsi l'inventivité.
... Today, in the USA, drinking coffee entails a ritual for each person, whether it be "morning coffee" or a coffee break [4]. At work, coffee and tea consumption has become an integral part of the day that not only increase social interactions between employees but also productivity [4,5]. With coffee and tea being consumed so frequently, there is a need to better understand their effects on cognition and task performance. ...
Coffee and tea are two of the most popular beverages in the world and have been consumed for more than a thousand years. They have become an integral part of the day for many consumers and may aid not only increased social interactions but also productivity. However, there is no conclusive evidence of their comparative effect on cognitive ability. This study investigated the impact of tea and coffee products on cognitive performance in typical office work-related tasks using brain, body, and behavioral measures. In a controlled multi-day study, we explored the effects of both traditional and cognition-enhancing hot beverages through task performance and self-reported measures. A total of 120 participants completed three work-related tasks from different cognitive domains and consumed either a traditional or cognition-enhancing hot beverage. During the study, we measured brain activity in the prefrontal cortex using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as well as arousal from skin conductance through electrodermal activity (EDA) while participants completed cognitive tasks and consumed the beverages. Neural efficiency was used to evaluate cognitive performance in the tasks. Neural efficiency was calculated from a composite score of behavioral efficiency and cognitive effort, and emotional arousal was estimated from EDA activity. Results indicated that for different cognitive domains, the enhanced hot beverages showed improved neural efficiency over that of a traditional hot beverage. This is the first study to assess the impact of both traditional and cognition-enhancing drinks using a multimodal approach for workplace-related assignments.
... These interaction moments can be institutionalized through team structures, regular team meetings, or departmental meetings. Interaction moments can also be fluid in the sense that colleagues could meet in the social hub to discuss the latest events, or have lunch together (Hunter & Wu, 2016;Waber, Olguin Olguin, Kim, & Pentland, 2010). We also recommend looking into networking trainings that enhance awareness for social resources and facilitate their mobilization (Lin, 2005). ...
Recently, an alarmingly high number of burnout cases in the work world has been reported. Burnout is an indicator of unsustainable careers because it evokes undesirable aspects in various career-related variables. Based on the conservation of resources theory and rationales from the sustainable career framework, the aim of this study is to
explore the mechanisms that explain the relationship between burnout and career turnover intentions, which presents a major indicator of career unsustainability. We assume that this relationship is mediated by the reduced personal resources of perceived internal marketability and career satisfaction. We also assume that the contextual resource of perceived departmental support moderates the mediated paths, and therefore plays a buffering role within unsustainable career development. We verified our
assumptions by means of a moderated mediation analysis with Haye's PROCESS Macro. The sample consisted of 385 academic scientists from diverse research fields who participated in an online survey across three points of time (each one year apart, totaling two years). Our results suggest that burnout is positively related to career turnover intentions, and that perceived internal marketability, as well as career satisfaction, mediate the relationship between burnout and career turnover intentions. We found no moderation of perceived departmental support for the direct relationship between burnout and career turnover intentions. However, we found support for the notion that perceived
departmental support moderates the relationship between burnout and perceived internal marketability and career satisfaction. Our findings help to further our understanding of how burnout is a risk to sustainable careers, and how perceived departmental support is a promising resource toward sustainable careers.
... Research evidence indicated that a short break involving relaxation in office work could improve health conditions and work performance of employees (Burkland, 2013). Additionally, social gathering, such as a coffee break, can improve social interactions among co-workers and thus enhance the team effectiveness (Waber, Olguin Olguin, Kim, & Pentland, 2010). Work breaks can be identified in different lengths, ranging from minutes to hours. ...
The rapid penetration of labor-saving devices and task-oriented workplace norms have substantially reduced physical exercises while increasing sedentary behaviors in many office-based jobs. The prevalence of physical inactivity at work increases the risks of developing metabolic disorders, mental illnesses, and musculoskeletal injuries, threatening office workers’ physical and psychological well-being. To tackle such issue, many strategies have been proposed to facilitate workplace fitness initiatives, such as public policies, organizational wellness programs, promotional materials, and socioenvironmental changes, etc. However, it is challenging to reach the goals of these top-down strategies, once their applications fail to blend physical activity into everyday work and persuade individuals to keep up fitness levels in office settings. The emerging fitness-promoting technologies may be leveraged to support active lifestyles in the workday context. Through integrating ubiquitous sensing and human-computer interaction (HCI), interactive technologies can sense physical states of office workers and use that information to engage them in office exercises in the short-term as well as encourage their systemic behavior change in the long-term. This doctoral dissertation therefore explores this new perspective of office vitality: How to design interactive technology to facilitate workplace fitness promotion?
... Se han llevado a cabo algunas investigaciones sobre el comportamiento y los efectos de las redes informales en el lugar de trabajo; entre ellas, la realizada por el Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Productivity Through Coffee Breaks: Changing Social Networks by Changing Break Structure (Waber et al., 2010), o el realizado dentro del colectivo de bomberos por Kniffin, profesor adjunto de Ciencias de la Conducta Aplicadas de la Universidad de Cornell, Eating together at the firehouse: How workplace commensality relates to the performance of firefighters (Kniffin et al., 2015). ...
... One of the most promising proposals for the collection of face-to-face interaction are sociometric badges (Pentland, 2008) that can be experimentally applied to collect data within bounded settings, such as within organizations, schools, or at conferences (e.g., Elmer & Stadtfeld, 2018;Pachucki, Ozer, Barrat, & Cattuto, 2014;Scholz, Atzmueller, Stumme, Barrat, & Cattuto, 2013;Waber, Olguin Olguin, Kim, & Pentland, 2010). These sensors are worn by study participants and automatically record when two study participants face each other in close physical distance. ...
Face-to-face interactions are important for a variety of individual behaviors and outcomes. In recent years, a number of human sensor technologies have been proposed to incorporate direct observations in behavioral studies of face-to-face interactions. One of the most promising emerging technologies is the application of active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) badges. They are increasingly applied in behavioral studies because of their low costs, straightforward applicability, and moderate ethical concerns. However, despite the attention that RFID badges have recently received, there is a lack of systematic tests on how valid RFID badges are in measuring face-to-face interactions. With two studies, we aim to fill this gap. Study 1 (N = 11) compares how data assessed with RFID badges correspond with video data of the same interactions (construct validity) and how this fit can be improved using straightforward data processing strategies. The analyses show that the RFID badges have a sensitivity of 50%, which can be enhanced to 65% when flickering signals with gaps of less than 75 s are interpolated. The specificity is relatively less affected by this interpolation process (before interpolation 97%, after interpolation 94.7%)—resulting in an improved accuracy of the measurement. In Study 2 (N = 73) we show that self-report data of social interactions correspond highly with data gathered with the RFID badges (criterion validity).
... Se han llevado a cabo algunas investigaciones sobre el comportamiento y los efectos de las redes informales en el lugar de trabajo; entre ellas, la realizada por el Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Productivity Through Coffee Breaks: Changing Social Networks by Changing Break Structure (Waber et al., 2010), o el realizado dentro del colectivo de bomberos por Kniffin, profesor adjunto de Ciencias de la Conducta Aplicadas de la Universidad de Cornell, Eating together at the firehouse: How workplace commensality relates to the performance of firefighters (Kniffin et al., 2015). ...
Durante los días 31 de marzo y 1 de abril de 2017 celebramos la sexta edición del CIEFE (Congreso Internacional de Español para Fines Específicos) en el Congrescentrum del Ayuntamiento de Ámsterdam, ubicado en la calle Weesperstraat número 113. Un edifico moderno y acogedor de un barrio renovado y modernizado durante los años 60 del siglo pasado situado a dos pasos del centro histórico de la ciudad de los canales. Durante esta sexta edición, se presentaron tres conferencias plenarias, 37 comunicaciones y 13 talleres que dieron pie a un intenso, ameno y constructivo diálogo e intercambio de ideas entre los más de 120 asistentes, docentes e investigadores sobre el papel de la lengua española y la enseñanza de la misma ya sea como lengua extranjera o segunda lengua o primera lengua en el mundo cambiante de las profesiones. También en esta ocasión se estableció un puente entre los hablantes, ciudadanos, instituciones gubernamentales, el mundo empresarial, las organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro y el mundo de la enseñanza y la investigación de la lengua española como lengua de especialidad. Especialmente, dedicamos atención a los nuevos perfiles profesionales, su carácter, a menudo, interdisciplinar y el lugar y el papel de la lengua, de su aprendizaje y conocimiento, como vehículo fundamental para adquirir e integrar los nuevos conocimientos y competencias necesarios para las profesiones de hoy y del futuro.
El presente volumen reúne nueve artículos redactados a partir de los contenidos expuestos en la conferencia inaugural y las comunicaciones presentadas durante el VI CIEFE. La actual edición de las actas la abre el artículo titulado Las profesiones, las lenguas y el español. Una mirada hacia el futuro en el que Violeta Demonte ofrece una serie de reflexiones y plantea preguntas fundamentales sobre la relación de la lengua, los lingüistas, los docentes de lengua española y la intersección de nuevas profesiones con nuevas tecnologías en sociedades multilingües y una comunicación cada vez más transnacional. Primero y después de establecer un marco general, la autora describe y evalúa los contenidos de recientes currículos interdisciplinarios que tienen como objetivo dar una respuesta a la demanda actual y futura de una sociedad en continuo proceso de cambio. En segundo lugar, Violeta Demonte ubica, determina y reivindica el papel de los lingüistas y expertos en lenguas en toda una serie de actividades entroncadas directamente con las tecnologías de la información y comunicación motores de los cambios en que estamos inmersos hoy en día.
... One of the most promising proposals for the collection of face-to-face interaction are sociometric badges (Pentland, 2008) that can be experimentally applied to collect data within bounded settings, such as within organizations, schools, or at conferences (e.g., Elmer & Stadt-feld, 2018;Pachucki, Ozer, Barrat, & Cattuto, 2014;Scholz, Atzmueller, Stumme, Barrat, & Cattuto, 2013;Waber, Olguin Olguin, Kim, & Pentland, 2010). These sensors are worn by study participants and automatically record when two study participants face each other in close physical distance. ...
Face-to-face interactions are important for a variety of individual behaviors and outcomes. In recent years a number of human sensor technologies have been proposed to incorporate direct observations in behavioral studies of face-to-face interactions. One of the most promising emerging technologies are active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) badges. They are increasingly applied in behavioral studies because of their low costs, straightforward applicability, and moderate ethical concerns. However, despite the attention that RFID badges have recently received, there is a lack of systematic tests on how valid RFID badges are in measuring face-to-face interaction. With two studies we aim to fill this gap. Study 1 (N = 11) compares how data assessed with RFID badges correspond with video data of the same interactions (construct validity) and how this fit can be improved using straightforward data processing strategies. The analyses show that the RFID badges have a sensitivity of 50% that can be enhanced to 65% when flickering signals with gaps of less than 75 seconds are interpolated. The specificity is relatively less affected by this interpolation process (before interpolation 97%, after interpolation 94.7%) - resulting in an improved accuracy of the measurement. In Study 2 (N = 73) we show that self-report data of social interactions correspond highly with data gathered with the RFID badges (criterion validity).
... We envision a new opportunity to promote synchronized breaks among coworkers, during which they stand up and move together. Taking break together could also help enhance the communication among employees, and thus improve organization productivity [67]. ...
Extended periods of uninterrupted sedentary behavior are detrimental to long-term health. While prolonged sitting is prevalent among information workers, it is difficult for them to break prolonged sedentary behavior due to the nature of their work. This work aims to understand information workers' intentions & practices around standing or moving breaks. We developed Time for Break, a break prompting system that enables people to set their desired work duration and prompts them to stand up or move. We conducted an exploratory field study (N = 25) with Time for Break to collect participants' work & break intentions and behaviors for three weeks, followed by semi-structured interviews. We examined rich contexts affecting participants' receptiveness to standing or moving breaks, and identified how their habit strength and self-regulation are related to their break-taking intentions & practices. We discuss design implications for interventions to break up periods of prolonged sedentary behavior in workplaces.
... The most direct form of social interaction occurs through conversations. A deep understanding of social and psychological contexts during conversation helps improve interpersonal communication skills through taking and giving turns at the right moment in social and professional settings, and improves overall mental well-being, work performance, and productivity [43,58]. ...
Monitoring of in-person conversations has largely been done using acoustic sensors. In this paper, we propose a new method to detect moment-by-moment conversation episodes by analyzing breathing patterns captured by a mobile respiration sensor. Since breathing is affected by physical and cognitive activities, we develop a comprehensive method for cleaning, screening, and analyzing noisy respiration data captured in the field environment at individual breath cycle level. Using training data collected from a speech dynamics lab study with 12 participants, we show that our algorithm can identify each respiration cycle with 96.34% accuracy even in presence of walking. We present a Conditional Random Field, Context-Free Grammar (CRF-CFG) based conversation model, called rConverse, to classify respiration cycles into speech or non-speech, and subsequently infer conversation episodes. Our model achieves 82.7% accuracy for speech/non-speech classification and it identifies conversation episodes with 95.9% accuracy on lab data using a leave-one-subject-out cross-validation. Finally, the system is validated against audio ground-truth in a field study with 32 participants. rConverse identifies conversation episodes with 71.7% accuracy on 254 hours of field data. For comparison, the accuracy from a high-quality audio-recorder on the same data is 71.9%.
... In the workplace, serendipitous interactions between employees have been demonstrated to be key in team coordination, cohesiveness, and productivity [24,60,68]. Architects have studied how to increase unplanned interactions by changing the layout and design of physical spaces [22,38,69,106,113]. ...
The proxemics of social interactions (e.g., body distance, relative orientation) influences many aspects of our everyday life: from patients’ reactions to interaction with physicians, successes in job interviews, to effective teamwork. Traditionally, interaction proxemics has been studied via questionnaires and participant observations, imposing high burden on users, low scalability and precision, and often biases.
In this paper we present Protractor, a novel wearable technology for measuring interaction proxemics as part of non-verbal behavior cues with ne granularity. Protractor employs near-infrared light to monitor both the distance and relative body orientation of interacting users. We leverage the characteristics of near-infrared light (i.e., line-of-sight propagation) to accurately and reliably identify interactions; a pair of collocated photodiodes aid the inference of relative interaction angle and distance. We achieve robustness against temporary blockage of the light channel (e.g., by the user’s hand or clothes) by designing sensor fusion algorithms that exploit inertial sensors to obviate the absence of light tracking results.
We fabricated Protractor tags and conducted real-world experiments. Results show its accuracy in tracking body distances and relative angles. The framework achieves less than 6◦ error 95% of the time for measuring relative body orientation and 2.3-cm – 4.9-cm mean error in estimating interaction distance. We deployed Protractor tags to track user’s non-verbal behaviors when conducting collaborative group tasks. Results with 64 participants show that distance and angle data from Protractor tags can help assess individual’s task role with 84.9% accuracy, and identify task timeline with 93.2% accuracy.
... The Human Dynamics Laboratory group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a multi-sensor badge for people interaction applications that has been trialled in several large corporate organisations . I was attracted by their system's success in improving office productivity (Waber et al. 2010), but wished for a system that used commercially available components and a flexible data processing structure. ...
The action research component is conducted by developing a system that delivers insights into teamwork dynamics, as revealed by tracking the social network interactions that occur within collaborative work environments. I constructed a working prototype that utilised an indoor people tracking system that captures people's movements as they operate within their workspace. It is capable of simultaneously monitoring the progress of multiple cohabitating project teams. Focusing on providing context specific insights, I designed a flexible behaviour model that constructed customised social networks to extract interactions of interest from the tracked data. The visually rich analysis reporting that was layered with contextual cues enabled quick cognition by the intended viewer. The targeted user covers all levels of the organisation from project collaborators to the support personnel and upper management. With this setup, everyone can participate in a data-supported reflective learning process.
The original contribution of my research is two-fold. Firstly, the people tracking system and analytics I developed demonstrated the technical capability to provide real time insights to workspace design, project management and human resource management applications. Secondly, through reference to my three case studies, I argue that a user-centric approach is critical for the successful integration and adaptation of people tracking systems and analytics into real world workplace practices.
... Indeed, spontaneous face-to-face interactions between employees (e.g., during coffee breaks) have been shown to improve task completions [38], to foster innovation and creativity by enabling the flow of ideas and inspiring fresh thinking [19,25,27,34,39]. ...
Face-to-face interactions have proven to accelerate team and larger organisation success. Many past research has explored the benefits of quantifying face-to-face interactions for informed workplace management, however to date, little attention has been paid to understand how the feedback on interaction behaviour is perceived at a personal scale. In this paper, we offer a reflection on the automated feedback of personal interactions in a workplace through a longitudinal study. We designed and developed a mobile system that captured, modelled, quantified and visualised face-to-face interactions of 47 employees for 4 months in an industrial research lab in Europe. Then we conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 employees to understand their perception and experience with the system. Our findings suggest that the short-term feedback on personal face-to-face interactions was not perceived as an effective external cue to promote self-reflection and that employees desire long-term feedback annotated with actionable attributes. Our findings provide a set of implications for the designers of future workplace technology and also opens up avenues for future HCI research on promoting self-reflection among employees.
... Social Devices can make this information available more easily in the situations where it is needed. Coffee is a good motivator and makes early morning meetings less painful [34]. Social Devices can help to make fresh coffee available when needed: If Coffee app is running at the office, it can ask if Dave wants to have coffee when it detects that he is on his way to work (e.g. when Dave meets a certain geofence, and it is a weekday morning). ...
Recent device shipment trends strongly indicate that the number of Web-enabled devices other than PCs and smart phones are growing rapidly. Marking the end of the dominant era of these two traditional device categories, people will soon commonly use various types of Internet-connected devices in their daily lives, where no single device will dominate. Since today's devices are mostly standalone and only stay in sync in limited ways, new approaches are needed for mastering the complexity arising from the world of many types of devices, created by different manufacturers and implementing competing standards. Today, the most common denominator for dealing with the differences is using clouds. Unfortunately, however, while the cloud is well suited for numerous activities, there are also serious limitations, especially when considering systems that consist of numerous, battery-powered computing devices that have limited connectivity. In this paper, we provide an insight to our research where totally cloud-based orchestration of cooperating devices is partitioned into more local actions, where constant communication with the cloud backend can be at least partially omitted.
... The aim is to monitor if the user takes sufficient breaks during work. The overreaching goal is to encourage timely breaks and interactions with colleagues through activities such as foosball that in turn improves productivity at work place [4], [18]. ...
Prolonged working hours are a primary cause of stress, work related injuries (e.g, RSIs), and work-life imbalance in employees at a workplace. As reported by some studies, taking timely breaks from continuous work not only reduces stress and exhaustion but also improves productivity, employee bonding, and camaraderie. Our goal is to build a system that automatically detects breaks thereby assisting in maintaining healthy work-break balance. In this paper, we focus on detecting foosball breaks of employees at a workplace using a smartwatch. We selected foosball as it is one of the most commonly played games at many workplaces in the United States. Since playing foosball involves wrist and hand movement, a wrist-worn device (e.g., a smartwatch), due to its position, has a clear advantage over a smartphone for detecting foosball activity. Our evaluation using data collected from real workplace shows that we can identify with more than 95% accuracy whether a person is playing foosball or not. We also show that we can determine how long a foosball session lasted with an error of less than 3% in the best case.
... A study performed among students and faculty at MIT demonstrates that Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones can be used to recognize social patterns, infer relationships between people and model organizational behaviour [20]. The information for this study was collected mainly from the cellular phones of the involved people. ...
Smartphones are powerful sensing devices that can help us capture not only information from the environment, but also the users' activities. Based on that information, mobile systems can identify the user's behavioural patterns and adjust their services to better fit his needs. This paper presents a software infrastructure, named Collaborative Sensing Platform (CoSP), which facilitates the automatic collection and collaborative distribution of the data gathered from smartphone sensors. CoSP also helps to save energy during the sensing and data sharing processes. This platform was evaluated empirically in a laboratory experiment. The preliminary results indicate that this infrastructure is useful not only for data gathering and sharing, but also for reducing the battery consumption involved in the sensing tasks.
... Such interventions can take at least four different forms (Valente 2012): identification of individuals (e.g., change agents) based on some network property; "segmentation," i.e., identifying groups of people whose behavior is to be changed at the same time (e.g., detecting core members of a network); "induction," i.e., stimulating peer-to-peer diffusion of information or behavior; and "alteration," i.e., changing the network by adding or removing actors and/or their relationships or changing the content of the ties. An example for an alteration intervention is a study in a call center of a large bank, where company policy required workgroup members to schedule non-overlapping breaks (Waber et al. 2010). After a change in the structure of the breaks that allowed for more overlap, the social cohesion of the teams increased significantly. ...
Intraorganizational networks are the aggregate of the formal and informal relationships between the members of an organization. Depending on the presence or absence of formal and informal elements in the tie between two members of the organization, four elementary types of intraorganizational relationships can be distinguished. Together they form the intraorganizational network.
... Using these badges in a user study showed that informal conversations account for 40- 60% of the variation of the productivity of creative teams in an organization [18] . In a study on call center productivity , it was found that facilitating informal interactions led to savings of $15 million per year [26]. Researchers have also used these badges in behavioral studies to investigate the impact of social interactions on behavioral health (e.g., diet choice, exercise) [14], epidemiological behavior change [13], consumer behavior during shopping [8], etc. ...
... More detailed information can be found in [80]. ...
Distributed collaboration is often more challenging than co-located collaboration as many of the social signals become lost in computer-mediated communication. I propose a system that improves the performance of distributed groups using sociometric feedback. Sociometric feedback is a real-time visualization of the quantitative measurement of social interactions. Sociometric feedback helps distributed group members have a better understanding of the members that are not co-present. Moreover, a persuasively-designed sociometric feedback can control the direction of change in the communication pattern of groups, so that the change can lead to a performance increase. Laboratory studies verify the strong relationship between communication patterns and group performance in two types of tasks. Based on these relationships, sociometric feedback is introduced to enhance both the communication pattern and the performance of distributed groups. Results show that sociometric feedback influences the communication patterns of distributed groups to be more like that of co-located groups, which results in an increase in performance. Additionally, sociometric feedback helps groups to have a more consistent pattern of communication even when they face a change in member distribution; this effect also results in an increase in performance. Data from two pilot studies of real-world teams suggests that sociometric feedback may be applicable to real-world organizations to benefit their performance.
The recent rise of hybrid work poses novel challenges for synchronizing in-office work schedules. Using anonymized building access data, we quantified coattendance patterns among ~43k employees at a large global technology company. We used two-way fixed effects regression models to investigate the association between an employee’s presence in the office and that of their manager and teammates. Our analysis shows that employee in-person attendance was 29% higher when their manager was present. Moreover, a 1-SD increase in the share of teammates who were present yielded a 16% increase in the individual employee’s attendance. We also observed greater coattendance among employees who were recently hired, have a Corporate or Operations role, or work in shared office spaces. Thus, we find evidence of some voluntary alignment of work schedules. Companies could bolster such organic coordination by leveraging digital scheduling tools or providing guidance specifically aimed at increasing coattendance.
The rising interest in coffee consumption has caught the attention of many local businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in Malaysia. Thus, there is an urgent need for understanding the consumers’ behaviours and needs, particularly in their purchase decision of coffee. This research aims to study the factors that influence the purchase decision of coffee in Shah Alam. An online survey was distributed to 308 respondents to gather customers’ opinion on the factors that influence their purchase decision of coffee. The result of the study reveals that price, digital marketing and job performance are the significant predictors, with digital marketing as the most influential factor. The findings suggest that business owners should focus more on digital marketing and pay attention to advertise the coffee as a means to improve job performance. Based on the variables presented in the study, the business owners particularly in the coffee industry able to gain competitive advantages to boost the sales and to sustain in a highly competitive market. From the angle of emphasizing digital marketing, putting a good price point for products and location of promotion in focus for enhancing job performance among coffee drinkers would increase consumer purchase decision towards their coffee at their cafes.
This study aims to determine and evaluate dynamic idling policies where an agent can idle while some customers remain waiting. This type of policies can be employed in situations where the flow of urgent customers does not allow the agent to spend sufficient time on back‐office tasks. We model the system as a single‐agent exponential queue with abandonment. The objective is to minimize the system's congestion while ensuring a certain proportion of idling time for the agent. Using a Markov decision process approach, we prove that the optimal policy is a threshold policy according to which the agent should idle above (below) a certain threshold on the queue length if the congestion‐related performance measure is concave (convex) with respect to the number of customers present. We subsequently obtain the stationary probabilities, performance measures, and idling time duration, expressed using complex integrals. We show how these integrals can be numerically computed and provide simpler expressions for fast‐agent and heavy‐traffic asymptotic cases. In practice, the most common way to regulate congestion is to control access to the service by rejecting some customers upon arrival. Our analysis reveals that idling policies allow high levels of idling probability that such rejection policies cannot reach. Furthermore, the greatest benefit of implementing an optimal idling policy occurs when the objective occupation rate is close to 50% in highly congested situations.
No one discipline or person can encompass all the knowledge necessary to solve complex, ill-defined problems, or problems for which a solution is not immediately obvious. The concept of Concurrent Engineering (CE) – interdisciplinary, but with an engineering focus – was developed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Product Creation Process (PCP) by conducting different phases of a product’s life concurrently. Transdisciplinary Engineering has transcended CE, emphasizing the crucial importance of interdisciplinary openness and collaboration.
This book presents the proceedings of the 28th ISTE International Conference on Transdisciplinary Engineering (TE2021). Held online from 5 – 9 July 2021 and entitled ‘Transdisciplinary Engineering for Resilience: Responding to System Disruptions’, this is the second conference in the series held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The annual TE conference constitutes an important forum for international scientific exchange on transdisciplinary engineering research, advances, and applications, and is attended by researchers, industry experts and students, as well as government representatives. The book contains 58 peer-reviewed papers, selected from more than 80 submissions and ranging from the theoretical and conceptual to strongly pragmatic and addressing industrial best practice. The papers are grouped under 6 headings covering theory; education and training; PD methods and digital TE; industry and society; product systems; and individuals and teams.
Providing an overview of the latest research results and knowledge of product creation processes and related methodologies, the book will be of interest to all researchers, design practitioners, and educators working in the field of Transdisciplinary Engineering.
In this chapter, the authors investigate the correlation between characteristics of the four social networks and employee task and contextual performance. The chapter focuses on the degree centrality and betweenness centrality of the four social networks (Job Advisory, Work Discussion, Friendship and Email Networks) of a Chinese state-owned enterprise as well as the individual attributes of knowledge sharing behavior and IT capability. The findings of this research are 1) employee contextual performance is uncorrelated with the network characteristics; 2) it is significantly and positively correlated with knowledge sharing behavior, but significantly and negatively correlated with individual IT capability, and 3) task performance is correlated, both positively and negatively, with various network characteristics, but not with knowledge sharing behavior and individual IT capability. In addition to discussing the cultural dimension of these results, the authors draw theoretical and managerial implications based on our research framework and findings.
Face-to-face interactions have proven to accelerate team and larger organisation success. Many past research has explored the benefits of quantifying face-to-face interactions for informed workplace management, with little attention being paid to how this information is perceived by the employees. In this paper, we offer a reflection on the automated feedback of personal interactions in a workplace through a longitudinal study of capturing, modelling and visualisation of face-to-face interactions of 47 employees for 4 months in an industrial research lab in Europe. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 employees to understand their perception and experience with the system. Our findings suggest that the short-term feedback on personal face-to-face interactions was not perceived as an effective external cue to promote self-reflection by most, and that employees desire long-term feedback annotated with actionable attributes.
This paper objective is to explain conceptually about the idea to use sociometric badge for lecturer generally in Indonesia
higher education institution linked with organizational effectiveness perspective. Indonesian higher education institutions
faced the globalization competition, therefore it would be challenge to check and improve Indonesian lecturer quality.
Descriptive method used in this paper is based on linked secondary data (research journals). Based on Tri Dharma higher
education in Indonesia, lecturers as knowledge worker have three main roles (as educator, researcher and community server).
Every lecturer’s roles have different interactions with different parties (internally and externally). These lecturer’s three main
roles is associated with the sociometric badge featurers which designed to collect face to face interactions data. This paper is
unique because it links between the role-based lecturer face to face interactions, sociometric badge features and higher
education institution from organizational effectiveness. Lecturer sociometric badge has the potential to collect important
behavior data related to the interaction based Tridharma activity such as collaboration, leadership, communication style,
conflict management, team work, role play. Furthermore, this paper has the potential to be a scientific basis for the empirical
research on the detail activity analysis based on tridharma lecturers roles to known the Indonesian lecturer behavior face to
face interactions pattern.
Keywords: Digital, Platform, Sociometric, Badge, Higher Education, Organization, Effectiveness, Interactions, Lecturer
Elsbach and Hargadon (2006) note that organisations eventually may begin to experience long-term underperformance and lack of creativity and innovation owing to intense workload pressures and stress. Constant speed makes you move forward; however, it may be in the wrong direction (towards failures, or even accidents) or it may be a short ride (stress and burnout). Lebbon and Hurley (2013) reported survey research that found 44 per cent of employees feel unmotivated to work and pointed to the fact that, although US employees work longer hours and take less vacation time than employees working in the European Union, productivity remains at similar levels to those in the European Union.
In this chapter, the authors investigate the correlation between characteristics of the four social networks and employee task and contextual performance. The chapter focuses on the degree centrality and betweenness centrality of the four social networks (Job Advisory, Work Discussion, Friendship and Email Networks) of a Chinese state-owned enterprise as well as the individual attributes of knowledge sharing behavior and IT capability. The findings of this research are 1) employee contextual performance is uncorrelated with the network characteristics; 2) it is significantly and positively correlated with knowledge sharing behavior, but significantly and negatively correlated with individual IT capability, and 3) task performance is correlated, both positively and negatively, with various network characteristics, but not with knowledge sharing behavior and individual IT capability. In addition to discussing the cultural dimension of these results, the authors draw theoretical and managerial implications based on our research framework and findings.
Balancing the competing objectives of efficiency and service typically requires management compromises to be made. However, some call centers have found that a compromise is not necessary. By using a “sacrificial HR strategy”, they achieve both efficiency and high levels of service at the same time. This is possible because part of the sacrificial HR strategy is the deliberate, frequent replacement of employees in order to provide enthusiastic, motivated customer service at low cost to the organization. Describes a multiple-case analysis of four call centers and the sacrificial HR strategy they used. The contingencies leading to the appearance of this strategy are discussed.
This article reviews and summarizes two decades of empirical literature concerned with both direct and moderating variable-based analyses of the relationship of organizational stress with job satisfaction and job performance. Moderating influences of various constructs operationalized at the individual, group and organizational level of analysis are classified and then reviewed systematically. An evaluative summary of this research suggests that although there have been significant improvements in the analytical methods employed to investigate such phenomena, much of this research still does not consider the role of reciprocal relationships that evolve over time. We provide four guidelines for improving the quality of both theoretical rigor and methodological robustness in this important area of organizational inquiry.
Organizational commitment and burnout were related to interpersonal relationships of nurses in a small general hospital. Regular communication contacts among personnel were differentiated as supervisor or coworker contact, and these categories were further differentiated into pleasant and unpleasant contacts. The results were consistent with a view of burnout in which emotional exhaustion leads to greater depersonalization which subsequently leads to diminished personal accomplishment. Interpersonal contact with personnel in the organization was related to the development of burnout at each stage. Patterns of pleasant and unpleasant contacts with supervisors and coworkers were related to the three aspects of burnout in a distinct manner. High burnout was related to diminished organizational commitment, which was also related to aspects of the interpersonal environment of the organization. The results are discussed in the context of a comprehensive approach to psychological adjustment to a worksetting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Organizational Behavior is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
The structure and dynamics of informal communication networks are of central importance for the functionality of enterprise workflows and for performance and innovation of knowledge-centric organizations. While most executives are aware of this fact, there is a general lack of (semi-) automated, IT-supported methods and instruments to make informal communication networks measurable. Although logging of electronic communications has made considerable progress over the past few years, it is still extremely difficult to map personal interaction; manual approaches in particular are extremely error-prone. The article shows how informal communication networks can be investigated by IT-based methods. At the same time, the authors will be presenting an instrument (“Social Badges”) that collects personal communications automatically and more precisely than legacy approaches allow. The practical applicability of the approach is evaluated through a case study.
This paper calculates indices of central bank autonomy (CBA) for 163 central banks as of end-2003, and comparable indices for a subgroup of 68 central banks as of the end of the 1980s. The results confirm strong improvements in both economic and political CBA over the past couple of decades, although more progress is needed to boost political autonomy of the central banks in emerging market and developing countries. Our analysis confirms that greater CBA has on average helped to maintain low inflation levels. The paper identifies four broad principles of CBA that have been shared by the majority of countries. Significant differences exist in the area of banking supervision where many central banks have retained a key role. Finally, we discuss the sequencing of reforms to separate the conduct of monetary and fiscal policies. IMF Staff Papers (2009) 56, 263–296. doi:10.1057/imfsp.2008.25; published online 23 September 2008
Much research in sociology and labor economics studies proxies for productivity; consequently, little is known about the relationship between personal contacts and worker performance. This study addresses, for the first time, the role of referral contacts on workers' performance. Using employees' hiring and performance data in a call center, the author examines the performance implications over time of hiring new workers via employee referrals. When assessing whether referrals are more productive than nonreferrals, the author also considers the relationship between employee productivity and turnover. This study finds that referrals are initially more productive than nonreferrals, but longitudinal analyses emphasize posthire social processes among socially connected employees. This article demonstrates that the effect of referral ties continues beyond the hiring process, having long-term effects on employee attachment to the firm and on performance.
This paper addresses the question “To what extent can job satisfaction be explained as the revenue of social capital?” By conceiving someone’s social network as social capital we specify conditions under which social ties do lead to job satisfaction. We inquire into the idea of goal specificity of social capital, which implies that a network with a given structure and content will have different impacts on various aspects of job satisfaction. If the content of the ties and the structure of the network at the job engender material well-being or produce social approval, satisfaction with the corresponding job aspects increases. Data were collected in 1993 using written questionnaires in two Dutch governmental agencies, one with 32 and the other with 44 employees. These workers’ networks were charted using nine name-generating questions.
We argue that the debate regarding the performance implications of demographic diversity can be usefully reframed in terms of the network variables that reflect distinct forms of social capital. Scholars who are pessimistic about the performance of diverse teams base their view on the hypothesis that decreased network density--the average strength of the relationship among team members--lowers a team's capacity for coordination. The optimistic view is founded on the hypothesis that teams that are characterized by high network heterogeneity, whereby relationships on the team cut across salient demographic boundaries, enjoy an enhanced learning capability. We test each of these hypotheses directly and thereby avoid the problematic assumption that they contradict one another. Our analysis of data on the social networks, organizational tenure, and productivity of 224 corporate R&D teams indicates that both network variables help account for team productivity. These findings support a recasting of the diversity-performance debate in terms of the network processes that are more proximate to outcomes of interest.
In recent years much work has been done on human activity recognition using wearable sensors. As we begin to deploy hundreds and even thousands of wearable sen-sors on regular workers, hospital patients, and army sol-diers, the question shifts more toward a balance between what information can be gained and their broad immedi-ate user acceptance. In this paper we compare the activ-ity classification accuracy of four different configurations of accelerometer placement on the human body using hid-den Markov models (HMMs). We find the classification ac-curacy of a single accelerometer placed in three different parts of the body and evaluate whether there is a signifi-cant improvement in recognition accuracy by adding multi-ple accelerometers or not. We also find the number of hid-den states that best models each activity by achieving the lowest test error using K-fold cross-validation.
Social network theories (e.g. Granovetter 1973, Burt 1992) and information richness theory (Daft & Lengel 1987) have both been used independently to understand knowledge transfer in information intensive work settings. Social network theories explain how network structures covary with the diffusion and distribution of information, but largely ignore characteristics of the communication channels (or media) through which information and knowledge are transferred. Information richness theory on the other hand focuses explicitly on the communication channel requirements for different types of knowledge transfer but ignores the population level topology through which information is transferred in a network. This paper aims to bridge these two sets of theories to understand what types of social structures are most conducive to transferring knowledge and improving work performance in face-to-face communication networks. Using a novel set of data collection tools, techniques and methodologies, we were able to record precise data on the face-to-face interaction networks, tonal conversational variation and physical proximity of a group of IT configuration specialists over a one month period while they conducted their work. Linking these data to detailed performance and productivity metrics, we find four main results. First, the face-to-face communication networks of productive workers display very different topological structures compared to those discovered for email networks in previous research. In face-to-face networks, network cohesion is positively correlated with higher worker productivity, while the opposite is true in email communication. Second, network cohesion in face-to-face networks is associated with even higher work performance when executing complex tasks. This result suggests that network cohesion may complement information-rich communication media for transferring the complex or tacit knowledge needed to complete complex tasks. Third, the most effective network structures for latent social networks (those that characterize the network of available communication partners) differ from in-task social networks (those that characterize the network of communication partners that are actualized during the execution of a particular task). Finally, the effect of cohesion is much stronger in face-to-face networks than in physical proximity networks, demonstrating that information flows in actual conversations (rather than mere physical proximity) are driving our results. Our work bridges two influential bodies of research in order to contrast face-to-face network structure with network structure in electronic communication. We also contribute a novel set of tools and techniques for discovering and recording precise face-to-face interaction data in real world work settings.
We introduce a system for sensing complex social systems with data collected from 100 mobile phones over the course of 9 months. We demonstrate the ability to use standard Bluetooth-enabled mobile telephones to measure information access and use in different contexts, recognize social patterns in daily user activity, infer relationships, identify socially significant locations, and model organizational rhythms.
We present the design, implementation, and deployment of a wearable computing platform for measuring and analyzing human behavior in organizational settings. We propose the use of wearable electronic badges capable of automatically measuring the amount of face-to-face interaction, conversational time, physical proximity to other people, and physical activity levels in order to capture individual and collective patterns of behavior. Our goal is to be able to understand how patterns of behavior shape individuals and organizations. By using on-body sensors in large groups of people for extended periods of time in naturalistic settings, we have been able to identify, measure, and quantify social interactions, group behavior, and organizational dynamics. We deployed this wearable computing platform in a group of 22 employees working in a real organization over a period of one month. Using these automatic measurements, we were able to predict employees' self-assessments of job satisfaction and their own perceptions of group interaction quality by combining data collected with our platform and e-mail communication data. In particular, the total amount of communication was predictive of both of these assessments, and betweenness in the social network exhibited a high negative correlation with group interaction satisfaction. We also found that physical proximity and e-mail exchange had a negative correlation of r = -0.55 (p 0.01), which has far-reaching implications for past and future research on social networks.
The impact of frequent short rest breaks on the productivity and well being of a group of 30 workers in a meat-processing plant was studied. Two rest break schedules were tested, both of which provided 36 min of extra break time over the regular break schedule (30-min lunch and two 15-min breaks). In the first experimental rest break schedule, workers were given 12 3-min breaks evenly distributed over the workday (3-min break for every 27 min of work). In the second schedule, workers were given four 9-min breaks evenly distributed over the workday (9-min break every 51 min of work). Outcome measures included production rate and discomfort and stress ratings. Results showed that neither of the two experimental rest break schedules had a negative effect on production, and the 9-min break schedule improved discomfort ratings for the lower extremities. The workers in the study mostly preferred the 9-min rest break schedule, indicating that workers in general might not as readily accept fragmentation of break time into short, frequent breaks.
Knowledge of how people interact is important in many disciplines, e.g. organizational behavior, social network analysis, information diffusion and knowledge management applications. We are developing methods to automatically and unobtrusively learn the social network structures that arise within human groups based on wearable sensors. At present researchers mainly have to rely on questionnaires, surveys or diaries in order to obtain data on physical interactions between people. In this paper, we show how sensor measurements from the sociometer can be used to build computational models of group interactions. We present results on how we can learn the structure of face-to-face interactions within groups, detect when members are in face-to-face proximity and also when they are having a conversation.
Although developers of communication-support tools have certainly tried to create products that support group thinking, they usually do so without adequately accounting for social context, so that all too often these systems are jarring and even downright rude. In fact, most people would agree that today's communication technology seems to be at war with human society. Technology must account for this by recognizing that communication is always socially situated and that discussions are not just words but part of a larger social dialogue. This web of social interaction forms a sort of collective intelligence; it is the unspoken shared understanding that enforces the dominance hierarchy and passes judgment about it. We have found nonlinguistic social signals to be particularly powerful for analyzing and predicting human behavior, sometimes exceeding even expert human capabilities. Psychologists have firmly established that social signals are a powerful determinant of human behavior and speculate that they might have evolved as a way to establish hierarchy and group cohesion.
Workforce Allocation in Cyclical Scheduling Problems: A Survey
- K R Baker
- M Lawson