中国物理B ›› 2012, Vol. 21 ›› Issue (10): 100503-100503.doi: 10.1088/1674-1056/21/10/100503

• GENERAL • 上一篇    下一篇

Symmetry breaking in the opinion dynamics of a multi-group project organization

朱振涛a b, 周晶a, 李平c, 陈星光a   

  1. a School of Management and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China;
    b School of Economics and Management, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, China;
    c Department of Basic Sciences, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, China
  • 收稿日期:2012-02-07 修回日期:2012-04-23 出版日期:2012-09-01 发布日期:2012-09-01
  • 基金资助:
    Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 70831002) and Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. 12YJCZH017).

Symmetry breaking in the opinion dynamics of a multi-group project organization

Zhu Zhen-Tao (朱振涛)a b, Zhou Jing (周晶)a, Li Ping (李平)c, Chen Xing-Guang (陈星光)a   

  1. a School of Management and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China;
    b School of Economics and Management, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, China;
    c Department of Basic Sciences, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, China
  • Received:2012-02-07 Revised:2012-04-23 Online:2012-09-01 Published:2012-09-01
  • Contact: Zhu Zhen-Tao E-mail:zztnit@gmail.com
  • Supported by:
    Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 70831002) and Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. 12YJCZH017).

摘要: A bounded confidence model of opinion dynamics in multi-group projects is presented in which each group's opinion evolution is driven by two types of forces: (i) the group's cohesive force which tends to restore the opinion back towards the initial status because of its company culture; and (ii) nonlinear coupling forces with other groups which attempt to bring opinions closer due to collaboration willingness. Bifurcation analysis for the case of a two-group project shows a cusp catastrophe phenomenon and three distinctive evolutionary regimes, i.e., a deadlock regime, a convergence regime, and a bifurcation regime in opinion dynamics. The critical value of initial discord between the two groups is derived to discriminate which regime the opinion evolution belongs to. In the case of a three-group project with a symmetric social network, both bifurcation analysis and simulation results demonstrate that if each pair has a high initial discord, instead of symmetrically converging to consensus with the increase of coupling scale as expected by Gabbay's result (Physica A 378 (2007) p. 125 Fig. 5), project organization (PO) may be split into two distinct clusters because of the symmetry breaking phenomenon caused by pitchfork bifurcations, which urges that apart from divergence in participants' interests, nonlinear interaction can also make conflict inevitable in the PO. The effects of two asymmetric level parameters are tested in order to explore the ways of inducing dominant opinion in the whole PO. It is found that the strong influence imposed by a leader group with firm faith on the flexible and open minded follower groups can promote the formation of a positive dominant opinion in the PO.

关键词: opinion dynamics, pitchfork bifurcation, symmetry breaking, project management

Abstract: A bounded confidence model of opinion dynamics in multi-group projects is presented in which each group's opinion evolution is driven by two types of forces: (i) the group's cohesive force which tends to restore the opinion back towards the initial status because of its company culture; and (ii) nonlinear coupling forces with other groups which attempt to bring opinions closer due to collaboration willingness. Bifurcation analysis for the case of a two-group project shows a cusp catastrophe phenomenon and three distinctive evolutionary regimes, i.e., a deadlock regime, a convergence regime, and a bifurcation regime in opinion dynamics. The critical value of initial discord between the two groups is derived to discriminate which regime the opinion evolution belongs to. In the case of a three-group project with a symmetric social network, both bifurcation analysis and simulation results demonstrate that if each pair has a high initial discord, instead of symmetrically converging to consensus with the increase of coupling scale as expected by Gabbay's result (Physica A 378 (2007) p. 125 Fig. 5), project organization (PO) may be split into two distinct clusters because of the symmetry breaking phenomenon caused by pitchfork bifurcations, which urges that apart from divergence in participants' interests, nonlinear interaction can also make conflict inevitable in the PO. The effects of two asymmetric level parameters are tested in order to explore the ways of inducing dominant opinion in the whole PO. It is found that the strong influence imposed by a leader group with firm faith on the flexible and open minded follower groups can promote the formation of a positive dominant opinion in the PO.

Key words: opinion dynamics, pitchfork bifurcation, symmetry breaking, project management

中图分类号:  (Nonlinear dynamics and chaos)

  • 05.45.-a
05.70.Jk (Critical point phenomena) 89.65.Ef (Social organizations; anthropology ?) 02.30.Oz (Bifurcation theory)