Hypothesis Testing of Edge Organizations: Simulating Performance Under Industrial Era and 21st Century Conditions
Abstract
The Edge represents a fresh approach to organizational design. It appears to be particularly appropriate in the context of modern military warfare, but also raises issues regarding comparative performance of alternate organizational designs. Building upon prior C2 research, we seek to understand the comparative performance of the Edge and all organizational forms, across 21st Century and all mission-environmental conditions, and hence characterize the entire organization design space systematically. Leveraging recent advances in computational organization theory, we extend our campaign of experimentation to specify six, diverse, archetypal organizational forms from theory, and to evaluate their comparative performance empirically. Results confirm that no single organizational form is best for all circumstances; highlight contingent circumstances for which the Edge and other kinds of organizations perform relatively better than one another; and elucidate seven specific performance measures that provide multidimensional insight into different aspects of organizational performance. This research grounds the Edge organization firmly in well-established organization theory, and provides empirical support for and against claims regarding this novel organizational form, particularly in terms of agility. We discuss the model, experimental setup and results in considerable detail, which offer theoretical implications for the organization scholar and actionable guidance for the C2 practitioner.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA460537
Entities
People
- Mark E. Nissen
- Ryan J. Orr
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School