Human Behaviour and Organisational Innovation

Human Behaviour & Organisational Innovation helps organisations to cooperate more effectively at user, organisation and chain levels. We focus on two aspects:

• the development and optimisation of influence strategies for measures and decisions geared to the preferred behaviour of target groups. What interventions ensure the adoption of sustainable behaviour among consumers or independence among citizens? How do we maintain the upper hand over crowds in situations that threaten to get out of hand, also during foreign military missions?
• the design and facilitation of cooperation processes between industry, government, citizens and consumers. From a scientific starting point we examine how cooperation and decision-making come about and how a networked partnership functions best. We use the possibilities for future internet technology, like social media, to involve people and boost adoption.

Human behaviour

We focus on influencing human behaviour using technology, with the realisation that:

• behaviour tends to be unconscious and set in habits, making interventions (more) difficult.
• behaviour is socially determined to a large extent – in addition to individual experiences, standards, motivators, etc. people are highly driven by their social context.

We study the influence of technology on behavioural change: online environments can release enormous social forces, as during the Arabian Spring. New platforms emerge to further shape social experiences and influence opinion. Armed with this knowledge we have a powerful tool for (or against!) behavioural change. Such tools include:

• Customer Experience Model: explanation for retention, churn and customer behaviour
• User Experience Framework: measurement and control by customer value and temptation
• Behaviour models: behavioural interventions, using ICT possibilities

Organisational innovation

Societal challenges in areas like energy, mobility and security are so complex that government, industry, citizens and consumers have to cooperate in order to solve them. Our expertise is the facilitation of networked, cross-organisational partnerships that require a base for (online) cooperation, management & control. Like crisis management, network management of infrastructure such as waterways, roads and rail, trans-sectoral partnerships in providing a renewable energy supply. Recommendations are geared to the organisation of (online) cooperation through facilitating the base and structuring the process.
Examples of our methods are:

• Integral approach to the New Way of Working: ICT, organisation, workplace and culture
• Online co-creation: cooperating on a large scale, independent of time and place
• Integrated Command Environment: decision-making, adaptive teams, interfaces and workload