An Agent-Based Simulation Model for Organizational Analysis

Abstract

In many fields, including engineering, management, and organizational science, simulation-based computational organization theory has been used to gain insight into the degree of match ("congruence") between the organization (people, work processes and structure) and the tasks carried out by the organization. Simulation helps identify the bottlenecks, and improve the quality and efficiency of an organization. In this paper, we propose an approach based on the congruence model for analyzing and simulating the performance of an organization in project-based mission environments. In our model, organizations are constructed in terms of interacting components, namely, work and agents. The organizational structure depicts the grouping of agents, and the hierarchical arrangement of the groups. The congruence model of organizational behavior is based on the degree to which different components of the organization fit together. We use a discrete event simulator, specifically the Extend(trademark) simulation package, to quantify the performance of an organization based on this model. We illustrate our approach using a symbolic example of an air operations center organization.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA463376

Entities

People

  • Krishna R. Pattipati
  • Sui Ruan
  • Swapna S. Gokhale

Organizations

  • University of Connecticut

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agent-Based Simulations
  • Command And Control
  • Communication Channels
  • Complex Systems
  • Computer Networks
  • Computer Science
  • Engineering
  • Information Operations
  • Information Processing
  • Military Operations
  • Organization Theory
  • Organizational Structure
  • Simulations
  • Simulators
  • Situational Awareness
  • Standards
  • Workload

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Organizational Process Management (OPM).
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.