ICoSS Project (Integration of Complex Social Systems)
Agent Based Models for Organisational Forms and Connectivity
It is known that organisational forms and connectivity have a significant impact on an organisation's ability to
Integration of Complex Social Systems (ICoSS) project, based at London School of Economics had the following objectives:
We had a number of business cases such as
•Business Reorganisation
–Are there patterns of connectivity that facilitate innovation?
–Can we use the simulator to form better organisations?
•Mergers & Acquisitions
–Can we assess potential outcomes of a merger?
•Growing New Organisations
–Can we grow organisations with given resources?
Used the modelling steps below:
•Identify : connectivity vectors, dimensions
•Visualise: organisations and connections
•Quantify: measures of connectivity
•Qualify: decide what is “good” (link quantity with quality)
•Grow: generate “good” organisational forms (as an optimisation task)
We divided connectivity vectors between agents into a number of "dimensions" by
•Selecting a small business unit as pilot
•Identified dimensions of connectivity vectors as:
–Team, Business, Technical, Social, Composite
Used personal competences in each dimension
Used Psychometric data to define individual preferences
Populated connectivity vectors with values by
–using Email Questionnaires and Interviews
–asking qualitative questions about perception
Visualised the organisation as a network graph
•Observed distributions of connections, communications pathways, bottlenecks
•Modified organisation
•Tried number of possible configurations
Quantified network properties by using Network Analysis measures
–Total distance between nodes
–Degree of separation between two nodes
–Sub networks and cliques
–Distribution of technical skills in clusters (teams)
–Communications overloads (bottlenecks)
Looked into qualitative differences in different organisational forms by•Using expert knowledge
–To link quantitative data from connections and network analysis with what is known to be “good” patterns
•Assessing known structures such as
–Flat, Hierarchical or mixed organisational forms
We could also grow organisations with
–“Good” level of connectivity
–Minimising communications overloads
–Even distribution of social/business/technical-oriented individuals in project teams, providing complementarity
We then looked into dynamic properties of organisations such as "ideas epidemics" to answer questions such as
–Can organisation spread innovation
–How good is the speed of epidemic of innovation within an organisation
–Individuals are modelled as simple autonomous agents processing and passing information
–On a social network with given structure and communications efficiency
Used results to simulate discussion and generate insights in company
Organisational Forms Simulator
•Uses Questionnaire to obtain network data
•Generates a number of network statistics
•Displays formal/informal networks
•Runs “Epidemic of Ideas” simulations, and displays the spread of epidemics
It is known that organisational forms and connectivity have a significant impact on an organisation's ability to
- use its resources efficiently
- improve its fitness for survival
- exploit innovation
- co-evolve with the changing environment
Integration of Complex Social Systems (ICoSS) project, based at London School of Economics had the following objectives:
- Gain insights and information about
- Organisational Forms and
- Connectivity Patterns
- Investigate the applicability of Complex Adaptive Systems approach to real life organisational questions
- Link qualitative and quantitative properties of organisational forms
- Investigate informal networks at workplace
We had a number of business cases such as
•Business Reorganisation
–Are there patterns of connectivity that facilitate innovation?
–Can we use the simulator to form better organisations?
•Mergers & Acquisitions
–Can we assess potential outcomes of a merger?
•Growing New Organisations
–Can we grow organisations with given resources?
Used the modelling steps below:
•Identify : connectivity vectors, dimensions
•Visualise: organisations and connections
•Quantify: measures of connectivity
•Qualify: decide what is “good” (link quantity with quality)
•Grow: generate “good” organisational forms (as an optimisation task)
We divided connectivity vectors between agents into a number of "dimensions" by
•Selecting a small business unit as pilot
•Identified dimensions of connectivity vectors as:
–Team, Business, Technical, Social, Composite
Used personal competences in each dimension
Used Psychometric data to define individual preferences
Populated connectivity vectors with values by
–using Email Questionnaires and Interviews
–asking qualitative questions about perception
Visualised the organisation as a network graph
•Observed distributions of connections, communications pathways, bottlenecks
•Modified organisation
•Tried number of possible configurations
Quantified network properties by using Network Analysis measures
–Total distance between nodes
–Degree of separation between two nodes
–Sub networks and cliques
–Distribution of technical skills in clusters (teams)
–Communications overloads (bottlenecks)
Looked into qualitative differences in different organisational forms by•Using expert knowledge
–To link quantitative data from connections and network analysis with what is known to be “good” patterns
•Assessing known structures such as
–Flat, Hierarchical or mixed organisational forms
We could also grow organisations with
–“Good” level of connectivity
–Minimising communications overloads
–Even distribution of social/business/technical-oriented individuals in project teams, providing complementarity
We then looked into dynamic properties of organisations such as "ideas epidemics" to answer questions such as
–Can organisation spread innovation
–How good is the speed of epidemic of innovation within an organisation
–Individuals are modelled as simple autonomous agents processing and passing information
–On a social network with given structure and communications efficiency
Used results to simulate discussion and generate insights in company
Organisational Forms Simulator
•Uses Questionnaire to obtain network data
•Generates a number of network statistics
•Displays formal/informal networks
•Runs “Epidemic of Ideas” simulations, and displays the spread of epidemics