This study examines how interdisciplinary groups of scientists collaborate to produce explanations that are highly integrative and original. This intellectual process, which is called synthesis, has the potential to transform fields of science and to address challenges concerning environment, energy, and other matters. It does so by integrating theories, methods, or data across disciplines, professional sectors, or spatial and temporal scales to produce explanations that are deeply original and exceptionally broad in applicability. Synthesis is important to science and society, but the organizational and social conditions necessary to achieve it are not well understood, and so the ability to manage them is limited. This project uses sociometric sensor badges, a new research technology for the study of small group behavior, in combination with well-established methods in social studies of science, small-group research, sociology, and organizational behavior, to examine how patterns of group organization and interaction influence performance and creativity.
Studies of small groups, particularly groups of scientists, tend to rely on observation. Valuable as this is, observation is necessarily limited by the observer's attention or focus and tends to produce qualitative data. Sociometric sensors can complement observation by revealing new facets of group dynamics and measuring them precisely and unobtrusively, and can also tap the affective dimension of collaboration. Sociometric sensors, and the new insights into group behavior they will produce, may transform studies of collaboration, synthesis, and emotion in science, and advance research in related fields.
Interdisciplinary synthesis and innovation are vital for addressing societal problems, and policies to encourage synthesis are high on the national science agenda. By improving our understanding of synthesis and our methods for studying it, this project will lay a strong empirical foundation for better policies, decisions, and organizational practices concerning collaboration, interdisciplinarity, and synthesis.
