Jim Westaby
Workgroup Members:
- Jim Westaby
- Nathan Gerard
- Nick Redding
- Eugenia Song
- Naomi Woods
Research:
Dynamic Network Theory
This area of research examines how social networks influence human goal pursuit. This is a timely development given the ever increasing importance of social networks in our lives (socially and digitally). Further, this scholarship is the first to formally integrate the science of social networks and human goal pursuit, which have been largely separated in the past, to explain human systems at various levels of analyses. After years in development, this work has culminated in the development of a new "dynamic network theory" of goal pursuit. This theory examines how a finite set of only 8 social network roles (goal strivers, system supporters, interactants, observers, goal preventers, supportive resistors, system negators, and system reactors) are responsible for goal achievement and performance in numerous domains. Empirical results have thus far supported major propositions in this meta-theoretical approach.In this work, a variety of original concepts are introduced to explain human behavior, such as “network motivation” and the “network rippling of emotions.” The book integrates various phenomena that are often unduly separated by disciplines. For instance, at the micro level, it integrates research on human motivation, self-regulation, social conflict, dynamical processes, and cognitions about social networks. At a broader level, it explains the underlying dynamics involved in group and organizational formation, leadership, helping dynamics, and organizational learning. At a macro level, it illustrates key factors involved in anarchy, sovereignty, dark networks, and international relations. Lastly, the book introduces new methodologies and syntax, such as in “dynamic network charts,” to technically show how social networks influence goal pursuits in specific cases. It is hoped that readers will gain a novel and parsimonious way to explain highly complex forms of human behavior from a single unified theory.