Module: Communaut

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Module Communautés virtuelles,Agents
intelligentsC2 People differences.Theories
and consequences
KM-Master Course, 2005
Thierry NABETH
INSEAD CALT The Centre for Advanced Learning
Technologies, Fontainebleau, France
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People difference implication

• People are different
• personality, motives, competence, cognitive style
  (learning style, working style), culture, etc.
• Implications (individual perspective)
• How people fulfil Roles and responsibilities, how
  they are motivated the individuals, dysfunction,
  etc..
• Implications on groups communities
• Group dynamics (competitive or collaborative)
• diffusion of knowledge, ideas and beliefs
• How to take into account people specificity in
  social digital environments?

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Some theories taking into account this difference

• Psychological theories
• Personality
• Motivation
• Age experience
• Cognitive styles
• Gender
• Etc.
• Theories about groups, communities society
• teams work
• innovation diffusion
• social epidemics
• culture (European latin, Asian, United State,
  etc.)
• Etc.

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Psychological theories

• An individual perspective.
• How people behave individually
• Has implication on the interaction with others
• Note do people change over the time (biological
  or not?)?
• Some theories
• Personality theories (Big five, etc.)
• Motivation theories (16 basic factors, by Reiss)
• Age Experience (Andragogy by Malcolm Knowles)
• Learning styles (Learning Orientations Model,
  etc.)
• Etc.

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Personality Big Five

• Description
• Proposed by Costa McCrae
• People behaviours depends on the value of 5
  independent traits.
• Note The traits are behavioural orientation
  since the context is also used when people act
• The 5 traits
• Extroversion (Sociable / Reserved)
• Conscientiousness (Self-disciplined / Impulsive)
  
• Emotional Stability (Self-Confident / Insecure)
• Agreeableness (Sympathetic / Cold)
• Openness to Experience (Curious / Unimaginative)

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Motivation 16 basic desires

• Description
• Proposed by Stephen Reiss (from statistical
  analysis)
• People are motivated by 16 independent basic
  desires.
• Note Basic means they do represent self
  satisfying desires
• The 16 desires
• Power, Independence, Curiosity, Acceptance
• Order, Saving, Honour, Idealism
• Social contact, Family, Status, Vengeance
• Romance, Eating, Physical exercise, Tranquillity

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Age experience Andragogy adult learning

• Description
• Proposed by Malcolm Knowles
• For Knowles, andragogy is premised on at least
  four (1) crucial assumptions about the
  characteristics of adult learners that are
  different from the assumptions about child
  learners.
• The 5 assumptions
• Self-concept more self-directed human being
• Experience accumulation a growing reservoir of
  experience that becomes an increasing resource
  for learning.
• Readiness to learn. The readiness to learn
  becomes oriented increasingly to the
  developmental tasks of his social roles.
• Orientation to learning. immediacy of
  application and problem centred (versus
  subject-centred).
• Motivation to learn the motivation to learn
  becomes internal

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Learning style Learning orientation model

• Description
• Proposed by several researcher and has its roots
  in Neurosciences.
• The Learning Orientation Model highlights the
  whole-person perspective as it presents ranges
  for four learning orientations
• It is based on a three-factor construct
• Conative/Affective Aspects
• Strategic Planning and Committed Effort
• Learning Autonomy
• The four learning orientations
• Transforming Learners
• Performing Learners
• Conforming Learners
• Resistant Learners

http//www.trainingplace.com/source/research/lomat
rix.htm
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Sociological, group theories

• A social group perspective.
• How people behave with others (role, leadership,
  etc.)
• Implication on work, social network, etc.
• Some theories
• Forming performing teams (Belbin)
• Innovation diffusion (Everett Rogers)
• Social Epidemics (Malcolm Gladwell)
• Etc.

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Team role Belbin theory

• Description
• Proposed by Meredith Belbin
• A team role is defined as
• A tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate
  with others in a particular way.
• The eight roles individuals play in a team
• Plant (PL).
• Resource investigator (RI).
• Co-ordinator (CO)
• Shaper (SH).
• Monitor evaluator (ME).
• Teamworker (TW).
• Implementer (IM).
• Completer (CP).

http//www.belbin.com/belbin-team-roles.htm
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Innovation diffusion Everett Rogers theory

• Description
• Proposed by Everett Rogers (originate from
  statistics)
• People are different related to their readyness
  to adopt innovation. Important related to social
  networking.
• The level of innovation
• Innovators (2.5) venturesome, cosmopolite,
  networked with other innovators, financial
  resources, cope with uncertainty, .
• Early Adopters (13.5) respectable, more local
  than innovators, strong opinion leadership.
• Early Majority (34) interact frequently with
  peers, rarely opinion leadership, long period of
  deliberation.
• Late Majority (34) adoption might result from
  economic/social necessity due to the diffusion
  effect, skeptical and cautious, .
• Laggards (16) most localite, point of
  reference is the past, suspicious of change
  agents and innovations, few resources.

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Social epidemics Malcolm Gladwell

• Description
• Proposed by Malcolm Gladwell (the tipping point)
• Gladwell explains that the power to start idea
  epidemics rests with the few, influential beyond
  their meager numbers, who are connectors, mavens
  and salesmen.
• The influential people in spreading of ideas
• The Connector is someone who traffics in people,
  who has extraordinary social connections.
• The Maven is someone who traffics in
  information.
• The Salesman is someone who can win over those
  who are on the sidelines.

http//carquinezreview.com/Columns/Articles/connec
tors_20mavens_salesmen.htm
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Cultural differences

• Description
• People adhere in their life to different
  cultural values such as
• Individualism / looking for consensus honour
  etc.
• Gender issues
• Theories
• Sociology
• Common ground Theory
• Psychology cognition
• Cultural psychology. (e.g. the work of Richard
  Nisbett)
• Management
• Cross-cultural research
• Anthropology
• Theories about the structure of power. (for
  instance the theory of the Big Man)

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Cultural differences. Illustration

• Some books by Richard Nisbett
• The Geography of Thought Why We Think the Way
  We Do
• The Geography of Thought shows that East Asia
  and the West have had different systems of
  thought, including perception, assumptions about
  the nature of the world, and thinking processes,
  for thousands of years. Ancient Greek
  philosophers were "analytic. Psychological
  experiments show the same is true of ordinary
  Westerners today. Ancient Chinese philosophers
  and ordinary East Asians today share a "holistic"
  orientation. Differences in thought stem from
  differences in social practices, with the West
  being individualistic and the East
  collectivistic.
• Culture of Honor
• Culture of Honor shows that the U.S. South is
  more violent than the North. The greater violence
  is limited to situations where there has been an
  insult or a threat to home or property.
  Laboratory experiments show that southerners
  respond with more anger and greater increases in
  testosterone and cortisol levels when insulted
  than do northerners and surveys show they feel
  that violence is an appropriate response to
  insult or threat to property.

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Cultural differences. Illustration (2)

• Article by Michael Segalla
• E-mail le comportement des managers européens
• In Les Echos. L'Art du management - 4/10
  Maîtriser le choc technologique - 03/11/2005
• Dimensions that have been observed
• long and unclear emails
• spanish and italian concerned.
• French and German less concerned
• emails that are irrelevant for the receiver
• badly written emails
• Badly perceived by Germans, spanish italians
• More accepted by frenchs
• reading the email as soon as it arrives.
• etc.

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Integrating people specificity in social digital
environments

• Elements.
• Motivation, Autonomy,
• Roles,
• Translucence, (trust and reputation), support of
  empathy
• Personalization,
• etc.
• Applications
• Blogging,
• virtual communities
• wikis,
• Forum,
• Recommanders systems,
• Class discussion