There are times when group behaviour is a good thing, and times when it is a very bad thing. Either way, it influences any system centred around people
When people form a group, they form a system. Behaviours will emerge that cannot be seen by examining each individual within the group. (That's why picking a 'dream' team will not guarantee winning a championship.) An extreme example is fundamentalism, as explained in the article 'Meeting of Minds' published in NewScientist magazine, 8th October 2005:
The psychology of fundamentalism is, literally, more than the sum of its parts; taken individually, fundamentalists are rather unremarkable. "The notion that you might be able to find something in a fundamentalist's brain scan is a non-starter," says John Brooke, professor of science and religion at the University of Oxford.
| Link | Description |
| Participative Management | Article in Strategy+Business, describing how to create high-performance systems through self-organising teams and participative management (Dec 2007) |
| Too much information |
Article in the New York Times covering the protest that began when Facebook introduced a new feature with unexpected consequences. Danah Boyd has written an essay covering the story with some excellent observations (Sept 2006) |
| Shop affronts | Article in The Economist, describing how Chinese consumers are grouping up to haggle with retailers, using online social networking tools to organise activities. (June 2006) |
| Tribes of the Internet | Good blog post by Nicholas Carr (December 2005) describing how Internet communities may come to challenge the structure of decentralised organisations and democratic societies |
| Fundamentalists are just like us | NewScientist magazine article (October 2005) describing the psychology of fundamentalism and how it exists in groups, not individuals |
| Tapping the wisdom of crowds | Article in by Dave Pollard (November 2004) discussing the book + follow up blog post (January 2005) |
| The Wisdom of the Crowds | Book by James Surowiecki (publ. 2004) looking into why the many can often be smarter than the few |
| Smart Mobs | Book by Howard Rheingold (publ. 2002) looking at how mobile technologies will influence the next social revolution |
| Crowds are not always wise | Blog post |