A Re-analysis of the Effects of Task Decomposition and Organizational Structure on Performance and Robustness

Computational models of organizations evaluate the impact of different organizational designs on organizational performance. Organizational design comprises a number of variables, each computational organization being specified in terms of a unique combination of values for each of these variables. Organizational performance is modelled by assigning each formal organization specified the same series of tasks. Evaluation of each organizational design is in terms of its comparitive accuracy in carrying out the tasks assigned. A further aspect of performance is robustness. This is a measure of the extent to which organizational performance can be maintained under sub-optimal conditions. The robustness of each design is measured by repeating the simulation of tasks having degraded each organization in the same way; for example, by absenting n personnel from each.