Digital platforms reinforce natural collaborative

Because they bring different opinions. Professor Thomas Malone of the MIT Sloan School of Management calls this phenomenon collective intelligence. To some extent, it seems natural that digital platforms promote diverse knowledge and perspectives because the technology allows people to connect regardless of time and place. However, digital platforms can only foster diverse perspectives if an organization truly employs diverse people to connect. Furthermore, even if a company has a sufficiently diverse workforce, digital platforms may enable or hinder diversity of opinion, depending on how they are used.

Tendencies The human brain is inherently social People often have certain innate tendencies to interact with others in particular ways. Digital platforms often reinforce these natural patterns of collaboration by making it easier to connect with others, but people are often attracted to other like-minded individuals. Homogeneous Job Function Email List connections may be enjoyable, but they often reinforce existing decision biases and reduce the overall results of cross-enterprise collaboration; establishing new connections with like-minded individuals typically does not provide new insights or alternative perspectives that broaden one's knowledge resources. About the author is a professor of information systems at Boston College's Carroll School of Management and guest editor of the Digital Business Initiative at MIT Sloan Management Review.



You can contact him at and . Tags: Big Ideas: Digital Leadership Collaboration Digital Commerce Diversity More Like This Our Winter Issue Guide to Using Open Source for Safer Generative AI Experiments AI on Mars: Unilever’s AI Ethics: From Policy To Process Thomas Davenport and Randy Bean You must be logged in to post a comment. First time here? Sign up for a free account: comment on articles and access more articles. Comments Princeton Blue Year Great article. The idea that digital platforms enhance natural patterns of collaboration will interact with others in specific ways and enhance the diversity of organizations in both the makeup of their workforce and the connections between employees. In today’s digital age, parts are often designed and manufactured.