Informational Centrality in Decision Making Groups

大多数现实世界的决策群体面临的一个根本问题是，与决策相关的信息在成员之间分布不均。由于日常经验、正式培训和工作角色的不同，一些小组成员经常遇到小组中其他成员不具备的一定数量的决策相关信息。这种唯一拥有的知识被称为非共享信息，与许多组成员拥有的共享信息形成对比。尽管这种未共享信息的潜在价值，但过去的研究一直表明，群体倾向于做出与其共享信息的含义更一致的决定，而不是他们的未共享信息。本研究的目的是考察这样一个命题，即拥有更广泛共享信息的群体成员实际上比拥有较少共享信息的群体成员在决策群体中具有更大的影响力。这项研究将为决策小组中与分布式信息相关的过程和问题提供新的见解。更好地了解决策小组所面临的问题，将有助于制定今后克服这些问题的方法。这项研究还有助于NSF的知识和分布式智能(KDI)倡议的知识网络重点。

A fundamental problem facing most real-world decision-making groups is the uneven distribution of decision-relevant information among members. Due to differences in day-to-day experience, formal training, and work roles, some group members frequently encounter a certain amount of decision-relevant information that others in the group do not possess. This uniquely held knowledge is referred to as unshared information, and stands in contrast to shared information that many group members hold. Despite the potential value of this unshared information, past research has consistently shown that groups tend to make decisions that are more consistent with the implications of their shared rather than their unshared information. The purpose of the current research is to investigate the proposition that group members who possess more widely shared information actually have greater influence in decision making groups than do group members who possess less widely shared information. The research will provide new insight into the processes and problems associated with distributed information in decision-making groups. A better understanding of the problems faced by decision-making groups will facilitate the development of methods for overcoming those problems in the future. The research also contributes to the Knowledge Networking focus of NSF's Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence (KDI) initiative.