Link to more info here.

Speakers:

Dorthe Døjbak Håkonsson, Professor, Centre Director
Department of Management
ICOA - Interdisciplinary Center for Organizational Architecture  

Christine Parsons, Associate Professor
Department of Clinical Medicine - Interacting Minds Centre

The purpose of the project is to understand the influence of formal and informal structures on realized interactions (who is actually talking to whom), and thus knowledge creation in organizations. Formal structures can be seen as a kind of management hypothesis about who should talk to whom. But as everyone knows, formal structures are not always followed. This has often proven to be good, as informal interactions are often the ones that ensure that employees gain new and important knowledge. Companies have been experimenting with formal as well as informal structures for years. However, the theoretical and empirical knowledge that they have been able to rely upon has been based on theory and simulation models, as data on realized interactions have been difficult to obtain. Using new, advanced technology that makes it possible to record precise patterns of interaction between employees, we will collect data at a micro level that has not been possible before. We can use this data to map how formal and informal structures influence realized interactions. In addition, we will make analyzes of e.g. whether employees synchronize psychophysiologically, to map whether personal relationships affect realized interactions. Combined, this enables the creation of new theory and a new understanding of knowledge creation - a relationship that is relevant to most modern companies – whether this knowledge creation takes place in private workplaces or public institutions.