From the Ecological to the Social: Applying “Levins Lessons” to the Workplace Brian Rubineau, PhD (MSPH 2000) [email protected] Levins85 | May 22,

From the Ecological to the Social: Applying “Levins Lessons” to the

WorkplaceBrian Rubineau, PhD (MSPH 2000)

[email protected] | May 22, 2015 | Harvard T.H. Chan SPH

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3 “Levins Lessons” Applied to Organizational Problems/Puzzles

• Leslie Matrices -> Job Segregation• Refugia -> Workplace Violence• Core/Periphery Effects on Contagion -> Org. Behavior Change

Problem or Puzzle: Word-of-Mouth Recruitment

& Job SegregationIntuitive understanding

Inconsistent empirical findingsOrganizational agency?

Levins Lesson:Understanding Population

Dynamics via Leslie Matrices

Problem or Puzzle: Co-Worker Violence

Enduring or increasing despite general trendsWidespread WPV Prevention Policy adoption – Effectiveness?

Individual focus

Levins Lesson:Refugia & Rates of Adaptation

Image Source:http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/agriculture_04

Refugia and Co-Worker Violence

Problem or Puzzle: Leveraging Social Contagion

Small effect sizesLimited to population level – not intra-firm

Paradoxical

Levins Lesson:Core/Periphery

Effects on Contagion

Flu vs.

Gonorrhea

Social contagion has an additional complication

Additional concerns: complex contagion

• Flu vs gonorrhea – different approaches– Population vs “efficient transmitters”

• Even worse in social contagion:– Threshold effects & complex contagion

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Treatment

8 Units

HR-identified change agents

Network-identified core cluster contacts

Control

9 units

HR-identified change agents

Network-matched contacts

Results: Sign-ups to Attendees Conversion Rates

From the Ecological to the Social

COMMUNITY

Brian likes puzzles

Thank You!