Understanding Impact of Supervisory Support on Work Outcomes using Agent based Simulation

Support service environments are stressful with stringent demands on individual and workgroup performance that have to be met day a‰er day. In earlier work we have modeled the impact of stress within such environments on the performance of the individual and correspondingly that of the team. Since teams are social environments, we can intuitively realise that social dimensions such as supervisory support would impact a team member’s performance for the beŠer or the worse. But what is the precise impact of supervisory support on a team’s macro outcome parameters such as productivity and performance? Using the results of a ground study of a support services organization, we use an agent based simulation approach to understand the dynamics and the implications of supervisory support on individuals and consequently the macro parameters of the team. We show that supervisory support plays a critical role in ensuring that the team as a whole meets its performance parameters particularly in the presence of disruptive factors such as work spikes.