Agent based model of effects of task allocation strategies in flat organizations

Authored by Pawel Sobkowicz

Date Published: 2016

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2016.04.003

Sponsors: No sponsors listed

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

A common practice in many organizations is to pile the work on the best performers. It is easy to implement by the management and, despite the apparent injustice, appears to be working in many situations. In our work we present a simple agent based model, constructed to simulate this practice and to analyze conditions under which the overall efficiency of the organization (for example measured by the backlog of unresolved issues) breaks down, due to the cumulative effect of the individual overloads. The model confirms that the strategy mentioned above is, indeed, rational: it leads to better global results than an alternative one, using equal workload distribution among all workers. The presented analyses focus on the behavior of the organizations close to the limit of the maximum total throughput and provide results for the growth of the unprocessed backlog in several situations, as well as suggestions related to avoiding such buildup. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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