Thomas Kilmann visualizations
The set of visualizations described on this page were developed ad-hoc for a game centered on workplace interactions developed for the EU H2020 RAGE project. The game design required the use of the Thomas–Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) to measure and display responses to different conflict situations exposed in the game (as the player works as a team leader in a simulated game development company).
The TKI is based on two dimensions of behavior, assertiveness and cooperativeness; and defines five different approaches based on the balance between both dimensions: competing, accommodating, avoiding, collaborating and compromising. A specific analysis and a set of visualizations were developed to display the TKI categorization for each player. Additionally, certain situations allowed the player to exhibit certain types of biases (e.g., based on gender, race, or fashion sense). The game also allowed players to track office morale, productivity (in terms of shipped games), and awards for quality.
The Kibana 5 plugin which uses the JavaScript to display Thomas Kilmann Classification visualization can be found here.
The Thomas Kilmann visualizations were the following:
- Thomas-Kilmann classifications of a specific student’s answers over time.
Figure 1.: Thomas Kilmann visualization: classifications of a student’s answers over time.
- Games shipped, a measure of team productivity.
- Awards won, a measure of team quality.
- Office morale, a percentage indicating the degree to which the player’s in-game co-workers are happy with the player’s choices.
Figure 2.: Thomas Kilmann visualization: games shipped, awards won and office morale.
- Overall Thomas-Kilmann classification for the player, displaying the category that has appeared more times from the five pre-set categories. This visualization is part of the standard TKI.
Figure 3.: Thomas Kilmann visualization: overall classification for the player.
- Pie chart displaying the distribution of answers according to the 5 TKI categories.
Figure 4.: Thomas Kilmann visualization: distribution of answers according to the 5 TKI categories.
- Bar chart displaying, for each bias, the ratio of responses where it was averted (green) or exhibited (red). Note that both counts are relevant, as most possible choices to the in-game conversations did not offer the opportunity to either avert or exhibit a bias.
Figure 5.: Thomas Kilmann visualization: ratio of responses for each bias.