Nonlinear Dynamics and Work Group Coordination
Stephen J. Guastello
Psychology Department
Marquette University
Synchronicity has been observed in both living and nonliving systems, including the coordination of human work teams. The presentation describes a suite of experiments on work group coordination that utilize principles of implicit learning and game theory. Performance dynamics displayed evolutionarily stable states, chaos and self-organization. The Lyapunov exponent was treated as an index of adaptability in an experiment involving emergency response behavior that could be used to compare experimental conditions. The effects of verbal communication, personnel replacements, leadership and work group size on coordination were also considered.