Vaughn Tan

Graduate Student in Organizational Behavior / Sociology

Biographical Note

I use old skool ethnography to investigate how groups organize themselves to come up with new ideas and ways of working—in other words, I hang out with innovative groups to see how they form and what makes them more likely to succeed. My field sites are teams in Europe and North America working on culinary research and development.

I grew up in Singapore, served in the Singapore Army as a logistician, and concentrated in Social Studies at Harvard College (my thesis examined the adoption of Japanese food as haute cuisine in 1980s America). Inexplicably hired by Google after college, I worked there on advertising partnerships, Google Maps and Earth, the Lunar XPRIZE, and structured data products. I moved to the Anderson Ranch Art Foundation in May 2008 before returning to Cambridge.

I am currently affiliated with the Center for European Studies at Harvard, and with ID3 in Cambridge, Mass.

04/28/2012

Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

Organizations, small groups, ambiguity, innovation

Previous Degrees

AB, Social Studies; Harvard 2005

Qualifying Paper Title

The pains and pleasures of joining up

Committee

Michèle Lamont (chair), Christopher Winship, Michel Anteby

Abstract

Although there are many ways to join a task-oriented group in a work setting, organizational scholars to date have focused mostly on hiring processes in which new group members are selected from a candidate pool. I use interview and ethnographic data from task-oriented groups working in high-end cuisine to develop a phase theory of an alternative to selection-oriented hiring: Negotiated joining processes. These processes take place over sequential phases, feature aspirant roles and group objectives that are left persistently and intentionally undefined, are effort- and time-intensive, and involve relatively symmetrical information exchange over sequential interactions. Respondents report that these costly negotiated joining processes produce good relations between members and effective and adaptable groups. My findings may generalize to task-oriented groups with a mandate for innovation (such as R&D teams in more conventional firms) or that work in rapidly changing environments.

Prospectus Title

Intentional ambiguity

Committee

Christopher Winship (co-chair), Amy Edmondson (co-chair), Jeffrey Polzer

Abstract

Organizational research suggests that individuals and groups need clear and stable roles and goals to function effectively. I use ethnographies of five culinary R&D groups in the US and Europe to explore a paradox: Groups that are innovative and effective despite having intentionally ambiguous member roles and group goals. I describe how intentional ambiguity modifies group and interpersonal processes, and show that these modifications allow groups to respond effectively to changing resources and environments and enable their members to teach and learn complex things such as house style.

Suggested Links

Contact

617-496-5794 (FAX)

Morgan Hall T71
Harvard Business School
Boston, MA 02163

William James Hall 563
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Cambridge, MA 02138