title: A conciliation mechanism for self-organizing dynamic small groups.
abstract: A group of individuals, organizations or things in internet of things (IoT) often dynamically self-organizes in small groups to accomplish certain tasks. This is common in virtual organization, social networks and the evolving field of IoT. These small groups have different behavioral characteristics than large groups. Members individually have some requirements and contribute some resources to the group. The organization and operation of such a group requires dynamic identification of group requirements that can be fulfilled by available resources and is approved by the group. We apply design science methods to develop an artifact that helps in conciliation of collective requirements and resources of small groups while maintaining each member's satisfaction. The mechanism also supports dynamic conciliation as members leave and new members join the group. Each member's requirement is specified as an explicit/implicit objective that is feasible/not feasible based on resources available to the group and whether the requirement is in alignment with other members' objectives. We validate the artifact by using it for a manufacturing service group and simulating the change in collective group requirements and resources as group membership changes dynamically.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Process Optimization and Intelligent Decision-making, Ministry of Education, School of Management, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009 China.
authors.forename: Minglun
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Process Optimization and Intelligent Decision-making, Ministry of Education, School of Management, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009 China.
authors.forename: Zhongfeng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Management, The University of Tennessee Chattanooga, 615 McCallie Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37403 USA.
authors.forename: Hemant
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jain
keywords: Collective requirement; Group decision; Internet of things; Self-organizing dynamic group; Social network; Virtual organization