Enhancing creative productivity in self-organizing social networks
Abstract
Enhancing creative productivity in self-organizing social networks Recent developments in technology and automation will necessarily lead to significant changes in the workplace. With advances in robotics, increasingly many traditional jobs, particularly low-skilled and labor-intensive ones, are being replaced by their automated counterparts. Furthermore, breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are beginning to threaten even high-skilled jobs, with AI-driven algorithms finding success in marketing, advertising and navigation, to name but a few domains. Demand is instead soaring for tasks involving socio-cognitive soft skills, such as leadership and creative problem-solving. Coupled with this is the shock of the recent COVID-19 pandemic that has necessitated the need for flexible work schedules, and a transition in the typical workplace from in-person meetings to interactions in virtual settingsÑin many cases with participants in different geographic locations and time-zones. In face of these twin challenges, the future workplace is likely to involve large ensembles of people interacting in virtual settings, such as online social networks, as they tackle complex challenges that are yet beyond the capability of machines. In view of this, (i) finding efficient ways to maximize productivity, (ii) redesigning the modern workplace, and (iii) devising optimal strategies in service of creative collaboration are the need of the hour. In this proposal, we will develop a comprehensive, data-driven framework that seeks to address these challenges. We will focus on creative performance as an example of socio-cognitive soft skills and conduct our analysis on online social networks, that represent the most likely setting for the future workplace. We will develop a set of controlled experiments in the virtual laboratory, that tests the influence of various attributes such as group composition, size, external signals and network-structure on the productivity of the participants as they self-organize into teams. To augment our analysis and overcome experimental limitations, we will develop a simulation architecture whose parameters will be tuned by our experimental investigations, such that we can extend our findings beyond creative problem-solving to a range of tasks relevant to the future of work. Building on these lessons, we will develop a suite of intervention strategies and test them in our experimental setting, with the goal of alleviating any bottle-necks, as well as enhancing the productivity of the creative process. Finally, we will implement a series of data collection campaigns, using it to validate our methods and claims. Relevance to DoD: Flexible work schedules, which were frowned upon in the past, is a matter of reality in current times. Given that national security threats are only increasing, particularly in the realm of cyber-attacks and malign foreign interests interfering in domestic affairs, (i) finding efficient ways to maximize productivity,(ii) redesigning the modern workplace, and (iii) devising optimal strategies in service of creative collaboration are the need of the hour. Beyond its relevance to national security, fostering creative collaboration in new virtual environments has fundamental relevance to the health of the economy. Year 1 (Empirical understanding of creativity-centric self-organizing social networks) a systematic analysis to investigate various mechanisms and key features of interests that drive the evolution of self-organized social networks, as the members perform various creative tasks. Year 2 (Capturing empirical insights in agent-based models) we will build agent-based models which will facilitate theoretical and simulation-based analyses of the considered systems. Year 3: Intervention approaches for elevating creative outcomes Year 3: Validation of results and insights
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 02, 2022
- Source ID
- W911NF2210182
Entities
People
- Ehsan Hoque
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- United States Army
- University of Rochester