Organizational culture in multiagent systems: metaphorical contributions to a discussion

The general goal of this research is to study the relationships between individual and social cognition (e.g., organizational culture development), an approach to the micro-macro link in social and cognitive sciences [Sawyer, 2003] [Schillo, 2000]. More specifically, this work aims to represent, in a multiagent system, how does organizational knowledge changes according to individual’s character, knowledge and their convergence to organizational values. This approach can improve the understanding of organizational dynamics, cognitive convergence/divergence processes, and in a general way the understanding of how to improve organizational performance and adaptability to dynamic and complex environments. From a methodological point of view, this research attempts to represent the link between agent cognition and organizational culture. To do so, two distinct metaphors are used to model organizational culture. The first one is a cognitive metaphor, based on previous work concerning cognitive mapping and agency [Louçã, 2003a, b & c], and introducing the use of schemata to depict collective cognitive values. The second is a complementary perspective, the quantum metaphor, founded on recent propositions adopting quantum principles to explain individuals in society [Lawless, 2003]. The advantage of such approach is the notion of organizational culture not as a collection of stable cognitive structures but as forms of transient interacting processes. Contact: Prof. Jorge Louçã ISCTE DCTI c.296 Av.das Forças Armadas 1649-026 Lisboa Portugal Email: [email protected]