Post by account_disabled on Dec 31, 2023 8:37:24 GMT
Psychologist Owen Janis ( ) describes how certain types of cooperative tendencies can go awry, noting that groups tend to make collectively bad decisions under certain types of conditions, such as when they have homogeneous knowledge and perspective. In contrast, James Surowiecki ( ), in his book The Wisdom of Crowds, reverse-engineered Janis's groupthink principles: he argued that groups can come together and do things more powerfully than individuals decisions because they bring different opinions. Professor Thomas Malone of the MIT Sloan School of Management calls this phenomenon collective intelligence.
To some extent, it seems natural that digital platforms promote diverse knowledge and perspectives because the technology allows people to connect regardless of time and place. However, digital platforms can only foster diverse perspectives if an organization truly employs diverse people to connect. Furthermore, even if a company has a sufficiently diverse workforce, digital platforms may enable or hinder Job Function Email List diversity of opinion, depending on how they are used. tendencies The human brain is inherently social People often have certain innate tendencies to interact with others in particular ways. Digital platforms often reinforce these natural patterns of collaboration by making it easier to connect with others, but people are often attracted to other like-minded individuals.
Homogeneous connections may be enjoyable, but they often reinforce existing decision biases and reduce the overall results of cross-enterprise collaboration; establishing new connections with like-minded individuals typically does not provide new insights or alternative perspectives that broaden one's knowledge resources. About the author is a professor of information systems at Boston College's Carroll School of Management and guest editor of the Digital Business Initiative at MIT Sloan Management Review. You can contact him at and . Tags: Big Ideas: Digital Leadership Collaboration Digital Commerce Diversity More Like This Our Winter Issue Guide to Using Open Source for Safer Generative AI Experiments AI on Mars: Unilever’s AI Ethics: From Policy To Process Thomas Davenport and Randy Bean You must be logged in to post a comment. First time here? Sign up for a free account: comment on articles and access.
To some extent, it seems natural that digital platforms promote diverse knowledge and perspectives because the technology allows people to connect regardless of time and place. However, digital platforms can only foster diverse perspectives if an organization truly employs diverse people to connect. Furthermore, even if a company has a sufficiently diverse workforce, digital platforms may enable or hinder Job Function Email List diversity of opinion, depending on how they are used. tendencies The human brain is inherently social People often have certain innate tendencies to interact with others in particular ways. Digital platforms often reinforce these natural patterns of collaboration by making it easier to connect with others, but people are often attracted to other like-minded individuals.
Homogeneous connections may be enjoyable, but they often reinforce existing decision biases and reduce the overall results of cross-enterprise collaboration; establishing new connections with like-minded individuals typically does not provide new insights or alternative perspectives that broaden one's knowledge resources. About the author is a professor of information systems at Boston College's Carroll School of Management and guest editor of the Digital Business Initiative at MIT Sloan Management Review. You can contact him at and . Tags: Big Ideas: Digital Leadership Collaboration Digital Commerce Diversity More Like This Our Winter Issue Guide to Using Open Source for Safer Generative AI Experiments AI on Mars: Unilever’s AI Ethics: From Policy To Process Thomas Davenport and Randy Bean You must be logged in to post a comment. First time here? Sign up for a free account: comment on articles and access.