Impact of informal networks on opinion dynamics in hierarchically formal organization

• The fact that organization consists of formally hierarchical network and informal network is emphasized.
• The impact of informal network to formal organization is studied with opinion dynamics.
• Three main impact factors are agents’ tolerances, informal network scale and number of links.

Traditional opinion dynamics model focused mainly on the conditions under which a group of agents would reach a consensus. Conclusion has been gained that continuous opinion dynamics are subject to the constraint that convergent opinion adjustment only proceeds when opinion difference is below a given tolerance. This conclusion is useful but neglected the fact that an organization often consists of overlapped networks including formally hierarchical network and small-world/scale-free informal networks. To study the impact of different types of informal networks on converging speed or the number of opinion clusters, four typical types of informal networks (small-world, scale-free, tree and fully connected) are modeled and proposed as complements to formal communications. Experiments to compare formal network and hybrid networks are then carried out. It is observed that opinion dynamics with supplemented communications of informal networks can benefit convergence speed and reduce opinion clusters. More importantly, it is revealed that three key factors of informal networks affect their impact on formal network. These factors of informal network in descending orders are: agents’ tolerances, scale and number of links.