The Community of ORINFORMS Combined Colloquia

November, 2005Michael Trick

Tepper School,Carnegie Mellon

Social Capital (from Bowling Alone)

Value we get from interactions, even if no obvious learning (human capital) gets done

Results are often hard to recognize, but a career without social capital is sterile and ineffective

Definition Social Capital : measures of the

value of social networks. Those tangible substances that count

for most in the daily lives of people: namely good will, fellowship, sympathy, and social intercourse [Hanifan, 1916]

Why is Social Capital Important/Useful?

“Lubricant” that makes interactions go (like money in economic transactions)

Leads to Trust Reciprocity Cooperation Institutional Effectiveness

Examples of activities Working for Political Party Serving as officer in a club Church Attendence Membership in professional

organization Entertainment at home Bowled in a League

Decline of Social Capital 1970-1995

Worked for political party

7% 2.8%

Served as officer in club

10% 6%

Attended Church 42% 36%

Member of Institute of Architects

41% 28%

Entertained at home 14 9

Bowled in a league 69/ 1000

31/ 1000

Further Sign? INFORMS Membership

1994 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Total 13,100

11,752

11,058 10,499

10,532

10,208

10,536

10,437

Student 2700 2253 1985 1755 1731 1782 1998 2105

Retired 325 492 504 516 525 522 524 506

Decline of Social Capital By almost any measure, the

activities that lead to social capital are declining after having reached a peak in 1950-1970 period

Decrease is strongest in youngest cohorts (relative to involvement of others at that age)

Effects of this decline Society is measurably more

doubtful of others (people don’t trust each other as much)

People break “little laws more” (at a set of stop signs in NY, stopping went from 38% in 1978 to 1%)

Charitable giving has decreased Many more signs of breakdown

Why? Many suspects No one reason Careful study does remove some

possibilities: hard to blame internet when the decline from 1970 is steady

Pressures of time, money, sprawl at work. Key issues are television usage and generational shifts

Television and technology

There are now 2.4 TV sets per household, and the average household watches TV 7.5 hours/day

Isolated and isolating activity that correlates most strongly with other measures of social disengagement

Trick’s TV situation: 5 TVs

TV Usage: “TV is my primary form of entertainment”

Strongly Agree

Strongly Disagree

Volunteered 4.1 9.1

Letters written 12 18

Club meetings 5 9

Worked on community project

1.5 3

Gave finger to another driver

3 1.4

Generational Shifts Two ways these changes could

come about: uniform across all ages or replacement of “civic generation” with a less civic generation

Data is clearly in favor of the latter. Matches with TV results

Implications: Unique for OR

By our nature, we are Alone in our organization, or part of a

small group Dependent on outside interactions to

generate projects, ideas, creative research directions

It is arguable that OR professionals are more dependent on social capital than many other professions

Effect on Young Professionals

Tempting to view time spent not in research as “wasted time” Wrong! In addition to the importance

of finding balance in your life, social capital can result in unexpected successes

Half of my vita is due to hallway conversations with colleagues in economics, finance, and other areas

I am better in the classroom due to what I learn from colleagues

Types of Social Capital Two main types

Bonding: forming “in-groups” (not a pejorative). This colloquium is a great opportunity

Bridging: interacting with other groups. Bridging people tend to be very central and successful in organizations

Do both!

Advertisement INFORMS can help

Meet those in your field and those in related fields

Outreach campaign such as “The Science of Better”

Be active and involved Attend meetings, follow up interactions Volunteer

Message 2: Be part of the Community and Improve the Field

Not just by having a nice new theorem

Tell people about what we do! OR is exciting

Tell people what we do The more people know about OR,

the more Students Funding Projects Success

Tell people what we do Doesn’t have to be own work Have 3 or 4 good stories, and tell

them as often as you can Great opportunity at this colloquium

to collect stories Don’t be shy, modest, analytical

(all those things OR people normally are)

Message 3: But not too much community: Don’t listen to others (even me!)

More exactly, listen, evaluate, and accept/reject

Many different paths in this career: tendency to suggest “just do what I did!”

Example My first web page was in 1994,

when there were 800 web servers One of which was

http://akebono.stanford.edu

Bottom line Don’t forget the most important

take-away from this colloquium

The People you have met!

Pittsburgh 06