LIST researcher awarded for paper on personality compatibility in crowd teams

On February 27–March 2, 2016, the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) participated in the 19th Conference organized by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2016) held in San Francisco, USA.

Dr Ioanna Lykourentzou received the Honorable Mention award for the paper “Personality Matters: Balancing for Personality Types Leads to Better Outcomes for Crowd Teams“ that she presented at CSCW 2016.It is the result of a collaboration between LIST, the University of Peloponnese (Greece) and Carnegie Melon University (USA).

About CSCW 2016

Top researchers and practitioners from academia and industry interested in the area of social computing took part in the conference. CSCW is the premier venue for presenting research in the design and use of technologies that affect groups, organizations, communities, and networks.

> More info on CSCW’s website.

Honorable mention paper

Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing offered multiple venues for contribution, including Papers, Workshops, Panels, Interactive Posters, Demonstrations, and a Doctoral Colloquium.

An Honorable Mention award was delivered to Dr Ioanna Lykourentzou for her paper: "Lykourentzou, I., Antoniou, A., Naudet, Y., Dow, S. P., Personality Matters: Balancing for Personality Types Leads to Better Outcomes for Crowd Teams. 19th ACM conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, CSCW ’16, February 27-March 02, 2016, San Francisco, CA, USA"

Abstract: When personalities clash, teams operate less effectively. Personality differences affect face-to-face collaboration and may lower trust in virtual teams. For relatively short-lived assignments, like those of online crowdsourcing, personality matching could provide a simple, scalable strategy for effective team formation. However, it is not clear how (or if) personality differences affect teamwork in this novel context where the workforce is more transient and diverse. This study examines how personality compatibility in crowd teams affects performance and individual perceptions. Using the DISC personality test, we composed 14 five-person teams (N=70) with either a harmonious coverage of personalities (balanced) or a surplus of leader-type personalities (imbalanced). Results show that balancing for personality leads to significantly better performance on a collaborative task. Balanced teams exhibited less conflict and their members reported higher levels of satisfaction and acceptance. This work demonstrates a simple personality matching strategy for forming more effective teams in crowdsourcing contexts.

> Congratulations to Ioanna! See the paper online