Interest in the problem of method biases has a long history in the behavioral sciences. Despite this, a comprehensive summary of the potential sources of method biases and how to control for them does not exist. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which method biases influence behavioral research results, identify potential sources of method biases, discuss the cognitive processes through which method biases influence responses to measures, evaluate the many different procedural and statistical techniques that can be used to control method biases, and provide recommendations for how to select appropriate procedural and statistical remedies for different types of research settings.

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Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies.

Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

Machine Learning is the study of methods for programming computers to learn. Computers are applied to a wide range of tasks, and for most of these it is relatively easy for programmers to design and implement the necessary software. However, there are many tasks for which this is difficult or impossible. These can be divided into four general categories. First, there are problems for which there exist no human experts. For example, in modern automated manufacturing facilities, there is a need to predict machine failures before they occur by analyzing sensor readings. Because the machines are new, there are no human experts who can be interviewed by a programmer to provide the knowledge necessary to build a computer system. A machine learning system can study recorded data and subsequent machine failures and learn prediction rules. Second, there are problems where human experts exist, but where they are unable to explain their expertise. This is the case in many perceptual tasks, such as speech recognition, hand-writing recognition, and natural language understanding. Virtually all humans exhibit expert-level abilities on these tasks, but none of them can describe the detailed steps that they follow as they perform them. Fortunately, humans can provide machines with examples of the inputs and correct outputs for these tasks, so machine learning algorithms can learn to map the inputs to the outputs. Third, there are problems where phenomena are changing rapidly. In finance, for example, people would like to predict the future behavior of the stock market, of consumer purchases, or of exchange rates. These behaviors change frequently, so that even if a programmer could construct a good predictive computer program, it would need to be rewritten frequently. A learning program can relieve the programmer of this burden by constantly modifying and tuning a set of learned prediction rules. Fourth, there are applications that need to be customized for each computer user separately. Consider, for example, a program to filter unwanted electronic mail messages. Different users will need different filters. It is unreasonable to expect each user to program his or her own rules, and it is infeasible to provide every user with a software engineer to keep the rules up-to-date. A machine learning system can learn which mail messages the user rejects and maintain the filtering rules automatically. Machine learning addresses many of the same research questions as the fields of statistics, data mining, and psychology, but with differences of emphasis. Statistics focuses on understanding the phenomena that have generated the data, often with the goal of testing different hypotheses about those phenomena. Data mining seeks to find patterns in the data that are understandable by people. Psychological studies of human learning aspire to understand the mechanisms underlying the various learning behaviors exhibited by people (concept learning, skill acquisition, strategy change, etc.).

Machine learning

This study examines the relationship between use of Facebook, a popular online social network site, and the formation and maintenance of social capital. In addition to assessing bonding and bridging social capital, we explore a dimension of social capital that assesses one’s ability to stay connected with members of a previously inhabited community, which we call maintained social capital. Regression analyses conducted on results from a survey of undergraduate students (N = 286) suggest a strong association between use of Facebook and the three types of social capital, with the strongest relationship being to bridging social capital. In addition, Facebook usage was found to interact with measures of psychological well-being, suggesting that it might provide greater benefits for users experiencing low self-esteem and low life satisfaction.

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The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites

This paper differs from previous examinations of organizational learning in that it is broader in scope and more evaluative of the literatures. Four constructs related to organizational learning knowledge acquisition, information distribution, information interpretation, and organizational memory are articulated, and the literatures related to each are described and critiqued.

The literature on knowledge acquisition is voluminous and multi-faceted, and so the knowledge acquisition construct is portrayed here as consisting of five subconstructs or subprocesses: 1 drawing on knowledge available at the organization's birth, 2 learning from experience, 3 learning by observing other organizations, 4 grafting on to itself components that possess knowledge needed but not possessed by the organization, and 5 noticing or searching for information about the organization's environment and performance. Examination of the related literatures indicates that much has been learned about learning from experience, but also that there is a lack of cumulative work and a lack of integration of work from different research groups. Similarly, much has been learned about organizational search, but there is a lack of conceptual work, and there is a lack of both cumulative work and syntheses with which to create a more mature literature. Congenital learning, vicarious learning, and grafting are information acquisition subprocesses about which relatively little has been learned.

The literature concerning information distribution is rich and mature, but an aspect of information distribution that is central to an organization's benefitting from its learning, namely how units that possess information and units that need this information can find each other quickly and with a high likelihood, is unexplored. Information interpretation, as an organizational process, rather than an individual process, requires empirical work for further advancement. Organizational memory is much in need of systematic investigation, particularly by those whose special concerns are improving organizational learning and decision making.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2634941.pdf

Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures

During the past several years, a number of investigators have hypothesized that electronic mail and other computer-mediated communication technologies greatly attenuate social context cues (Hiltz and Turoff, 1978; Short, Williams, and Christie, 1976; Kiesler, Siegel, and McGuire, 1984). Equalization across status categories has been observed in studies of electronic communication in organizations (Sproull and Kiesler, 1986; Eveland and Bikson, 1988). The equalization phenomenon has been demonstrated in experiments showing that the distribution of discussion remarks was more equal when groups of peer members made decisions electronically than the same groups made decisions face-to-face (Siegel et al., 1986, McGuire et al., 1987; Weisband, 1989). However, no experimental test was made to examine the effect of electronic communication on preexisting differences in social status. The purpose of this study was to experimentally examine status equalization in computer-mediated group decision making.

Expected and unexpected effects of computer media on group decision making

The Internet is widely valued for distributing control over information to a lateral network of individuals, but it is not clear how these networks can most effectively organize themselves. This chapter presents a descriptive study of distributed networks of volunteers that emerged online following Hurricane Katrina. Online communities responded to the disaster by facilitating the distribution of donated goods from ordinary people directly to hurricane survivors. These “connected giving” groups faced several challenges: establishing authority within the group, providing relevant information, developing trust in one another, and sustaining the group over time. Two forms of computer-mediated connected giving were observed: small blog communities and large forums. Small blog communities had a centralized authority figure in the form of a moderator. These groups were more immediately successful in managing information and developing trust, but over time blog communities were difficult to sustain. Large forums with more decentralized authority structures had greater difficulties focusing the community’s communication and developing trust but sustained themselves over a longer period of time. Authority in Online Disaster Relief Communities 3 Approaches to Authority in Online Disaster Relief Communities after Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina flooded 80% of New Orleans and left four million residents of the southern United States in need of assistance (American-Red-Cross, 2006). The magnitude of the disaster overwhelmed institutions normally responsible for providing relief, such as the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Displaced residents of the city of New Orleans waited days for shelter, clothing, and financial aid. Meanwhile, people around the United States felt compelled to help. Some used Internet bulletin boards to offer jobs, services, and financial assistance to hurricane evacuees. When the Red Cross specifically discouraged “in-kind” donations of goods due to sorting and delivery overhead, website owners created online spaces to promote “connected giving.” Connected giving allowed people with goods to donate (such as clothing, tools, or diapers) to connect with people in the disaster area (Harris, 2005). Donors saw their distributed efforts as an appropriate complement to the distributed needs of those affected by the disaster. They saw gaps left by large, institutionalized organizations that could be filled by a peer-to-peer approach. Individuals with no training in disaster relief found one another through online communities and organized the distribution of an ad hoc collection of resources. People appropriated the Internet technologies that were readily available to them—forums, bulletin boards, blogs, and personal websites—to coordinate a massive grassroots response to the disaster. Two forms of computer-mediated connected giving were common: small blog communities and large forum communities. Small communities benefit from the strong relationships between members; these strong ties make cohesive, trusting groups. Large communities have the advantage of more resources, larger networks of participants, and diverse Authority in Online Disaster Relief Communities 4 information (Granovetter, 1973). Weak ties within large communities link people to new sources of information while the information from strong ties—which are often based on interpersonal similarity—may be redundant. Some connected giving communities used a moderator to establish authority and group norms. In Usenet groups, owners assume administrative authority, maintain the technical infrastructure, and help sustain the viability of the community by monitoring and encouraging on-topic posts (Butler et al. this book). Other communities distribute authority equally to members and establish group norms by consensus. The Internet is widely valued as a technology that connects people directly to one another without formal leadership. For example, Wikipedia allows the public to author a continually evolving encyclopedia and relies on its members to monitor one another’s contributions (Bryant, Forte, & Bruckman, 2005). Open source software communities grant commit privileges to a subset of participants in order to maintain quality (Mockus, Fielding, & Herbsleb, 2002). Slashdot uses thousands of moderators to rate the information the group receives (Lampe & Resnick, 2004). The absence of a single, centralized authority does not imply that these groups lack organizational structure. Communities that distribute authority must establish group norms as well, but they do so collectively. Committed members often emerge in these groups as informal leaders to sustain norms, initiate activity, and inspire members. In order to investigate the successes and challenges encountered by small blog communities and large forums, we sampled four representative sites. Connected giving groups faced several challenges: establishing authority within the group, providing relevant information, developing trust in one another, and sustaining the group over time. We observed small blog communities utilizing a centralized authority structure that appeared more immediately Authority in Online Disaster Relief Communities 5 successful in managing information and developing trust, but over time blog communities were difficult to sustain. Without a centralized authority, large forums appeared to have greater difficulties focusing the group’s communication and developing trust but managed to sustain themselves over a long period of time. Challenges of Connected Giving A connected giving community includes both donors and hurricane survivors, a mix of people offering and seeking help. Donors post offers and include their contact information. Hurricane survivors tell their stories and request specific items for their families. Other members offer logistical information, such as which zip codes are not flooded and open for postal deliveries. Working remotely, groups coordinating disaster relief face challenges beyond those of face-to-face groups. For example, remote teams often take longer to complete tasks (Herbsleb, Mockus, Finholt, & Grinter, 2000) and have more disagreements than teams working locally (Straus, 1997). Like many groups, connected giving communities after Hurricane Katrina had to coordinate information and establish trust, but they did so with a unique sense of urgency. The pressing need for disaster relief attracted large numbers of potential participants in a very short time and increased the likelihood of organization and communication failure. Connected giving communities faced several challenges—establishing authority, accessing information, establishing trust, and sustaining group activity. Authority in Online Disaster Relief Communities 6 Establishing Authority A centralized authority exists when decisions are made by one or a few individuals, such as a moderator or blog owner. Centralization helps achieve two goals: quality control and accountability. A moderator establishes interaction norms and standard operating procedures for the site. Contributions from visitors are subject to review by the moderator to determine appropriateness. In some cases, a moderator may establish interaction norms simply through leading by example, but moderators may actively edit or delete posts of community members as well. Decentralized authority structures are those in which decisions are made locally, distributed among members of the community. Decentralization has an advantage in making use of local expertise and on-the-scene contextual knowledge. However, no single person is accountable for problems. In decentralized online communities, the burden of developing interaction norms and standard operating procedures occurs through open discussion. Some decentralized communities use voting systems to influence the behavior of other members, such as allowing members to flag inappropriate posts. Heavily flagged posts are removed. In theory, there is no right answer as to which authority structure is better for an online community. Centralized authority supports smooth coordination, accountability, and consistency. Decentralized authority supports speedy action and local expertise. Authority in Online Disaster Relief Communities 7 Accessing Information In order for joint work to be successful, people must have access to the right information and people at the right times. Individuals often join online communities to exchange information (Ridings & Gefen, 2004). In context of urgent disaster relief, the need for access to information becomes even more important. Potential donors want their offers to be accepted; requestors want to be heard.

Approaches to Authority in Online Disaster Relief Communities After Hurricane Katrina

Many online communities experience insufficient contributions from their members. In order to encourage contributions to the community, we examined a website tailoring approach to fit a community's website interface with the motivations of the community. In particular, we used the characteristics of other websites as a method of gauging user motivation. We built two different websites with financial and altruistic themes, and conducted an online experiment with 122 users to test the impact of both segmenting and tailoring on contributions to a recycling community. Preliminary results show that both tailoring and segmenting techniques were effective with altruistic users.

http://www.tawannadillahunt.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Tailoring-Websites.pdf

Tailoring websites to increase contributions to online communities

Many people go online for information and support in response to life experiences such as parenting or investigating an illness. Online resources may be particularly important to those with a chronic illness whose diagnosis and treatment is uncertain. This paper focuses on people with Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne illness in the U.S. today. The patient experience of Lyme disease is fraught with variability in symptoms and uncertainty surrounding treatment and the progress of the disease. This uncertainty is reflected in an active, vocal, and contradictory presence on the web. We interviewed 21 patients about their real world and online health-related experiences. Here we discuss the strategies that support effective online resource use. An unexpectedly prevalent form of online activity was patient activism.

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Uncertainty in Chronic Illness and Patientsʼ Online Experiences

Watching video online is becoming increasingly popular, and new video streaming technologies have the potential to transform video-watching from a passive, isolating experience into an active, socially engaging experience. However, the viability of an active social experience is unclear: both chatting and watching video require attention, and may interfere with one another and detract from the experience. In this paper, we empirically examine the activity of chatting while watching video online. We examine how groups of friends and strangers interact, and find that chat has a positive influence on social relationships, and people chat despite being distracted. We discuss the benefits and opportunities provided by mixing chat and video, uncover some of the attentional and social challenges inherent in this combination of media, and provide guidance for structuring the video-watching experience.

Sara Kiesler

Papers

Expected and unexpected effects of computer media on group decision making

Approaches to Authority in Online Disaster Relief Communities After Hurricane Katrina

Tailoring websites to increase contributions to online communities

Uncertainty in Chronic Illness and Patientsʼ Online Experiences

Watching Together: Integrating Conversation with Video