Research Interests:
Social Robustness, Cooperation, Social Hierarchy, Social Influence, Robust Decision-Making
Social Robustness, Cooperation, Social Hierarchy, Social Influence, Robust Decision-Making
My research examines the robustness of social systems in the face of potentially disruptive social forces. Robustness—the persistence of one aspect, or the entirety, of a system in the face of either internal or external perturbations—has received growing attention among the natural and engineering sciences, but has yet to formally permeate the study of organizations. For example, engineering studies examine the security performance of a cloud computing system in the face of hacking, biological studies focus on the antibody response of a human immune system in the face of an autoimmune disorder, and ecological studies analyze the health of fish population in the face of overfishing. Robustness is a unique lens for organizational research because it explicitly examines the persistence of a social system’s performance in the face of perturbations that should disrupt it. Perturbations are factors that create a change in the system’s composition, core relational dynamics, or fundamental assumptions about the environment in which it operates. They can be external to the system (e.g., changes in a legal code that adjust interaction patterns between firms), or internal to the system (e.g., an incentive system unintentionally incentivizes employees’ unethical behavior). As such, robustness can help differentiate between systems that appear to be high-performing because of their continued existence over time and those that are high-performing because they can resist disruptive pressures.
Dissertation:
My dissertation examines examines the robustness of systems of cooperation in the presence of performance rankings. A system of cooperation refers to a bounded set of actors in which cooperative behaviors are linked over time through ongoing, regular interactions. These systems often operate in contexts that feature performance rankings (e.g., the ride-sharing company Uber uses a “rank and yank” performance evaluation system while still expecting cooperation between employees on complex cooperative coding tasks). Yet, a growing body of research is highlighting potentially disruptive effects of performance rankings, such as extreme competition, sabotage, and deception. This suggests that performance rankings may unexpectedly introduce negative dynamics into a system that drive actors toward uncooperative behaviors. To this end, I investigate how systems of cooperation withstand or succumb to performance rankings. In Chapter 3, I use a between-groups, no-deception experimental design that includes 74 groups, 592 individuals, and 22,000 cooperation decisions to document the disruptive effects of performance rankings on systems of cooperation and provide an explanation as to why some systems can be robust. In Chapter 4, I use non-public archival data from an online community that features 7 million users’ performance ranking histories and records of cooperative behaviors and cheating to track how actors’ movements through rankings inspire both cooperative and uncooperative behaviors. In so doing, I examine whether systems of cooperation can absorb the negative externalities that performance rankings create.
Select Working Papers:
Chambers, CR and Baker, WE (Revise & Resubmit). The Disruption and Recovery of Cooperation
Chambers, CR (Dissertation chapter, Draft Available). With Cheaters we all Prosper?: Micro-Movements through Rankings and their Implications for System Robustness
Sytch, M and Chambers, CR (Preparing manuscript for submission). Following the Crowd: When a Decrease in Uncertainty Amplifies Social Influence
Chambers, CR (Preparing manuscript for submission). Between Two Extremes: Oscillation as a Mechanism for the Maintenance of Conflicting Organizational Identities
*Runner up for OMT’s Best Student Paper Award 2017
Baker, WE, and Chambers, CR (Data analysis stage). Shifting Cooperative Strategies: Micro-Movements through Systems of Cooperation
Chambers, CR, Baker, WE, and Uribe, J (Data collection in progress). The Ebb and Flow of Systems of Cooperation in Competitive Environments
Dissertation:
My dissertation examines examines the robustness of systems of cooperation in the presence of performance rankings. A system of cooperation refers to a bounded set of actors in which cooperative behaviors are linked over time through ongoing, regular interactions. These systems often operate in contexts that feature performance rankings (e.g., the ride-sharing company Uber uses a “rank and yank” performance evaluation system while still expecting cooperation between employees on complex cooperative coding tasks). Yet, a growing body of research is highlighting potentially disruptive effects of performance rankings, such as extreme competition, sabotage, and deception. This suggests that performance rankings may unexpectedly introduce negative dynamics into a system that drive actors toward uncooperative behaviors. To this end, I investigate how systems of cooperation withstand or succumb to performance rankings. In Chapter 3, I use a between-groups, no-deception experimental design that includes 74 groups, 592 individuals, and 22,000 cooperation decisions to document the disruptive effects of performance rankings on systems of cooperation and provide an explanation as to why some systems can be robust. In Chapter 4, I use non-public archival data from an online community that features 7 million users’ performance ranking histories and records of cooperative behaviors and cheating to track how actors’ movements through rankings inspire both cooperative and uncooperative behaviors. In so doing, I examine whether systems of cooperation can absorb the negative externalities that performance rankings create.
Select Working Papers:
Chambers, CR and Baker, WE (Revise & Resubmit). The Disruption and Recovery of Cooperation
Chambers, CR (Dissertation chapter, Draft Available). With Cheaters we all Prosper?: Micro-Movements through Rankings and their Implications for System Robustness
Sytch, M and Chambers, CR (Preparing manuscript for submission). Following the Crowd: When a Decrease in Uncertainty Amplifies Social Influence
Chambers, CR (Preparing manuscript for submission). Between Two Extremes: Oscillation as a Mechanism for the Maintenance of Conflicting Organizational Identities
*Runner up for OMT’s Best Student Paper Award 2017
Baker, WE, and Chambers, CR (Data analysis stage). Shifting Cooperative Strategies: Micro-Movements through Systems of Cooperation
Chambers, CR, Baker, WE, and Uribe, J (Data collection in progress). The Ebb and Flow of Systems of Cooperation in Competitive Environments