On building an organizationally realistic agent-based model of local interaction and emergent network structure

We describe research intended to build an agent-based model that is "organizationally realistic". By this we mean that the attributes of the artificial organization of agents conform to empirical results for human organizational systems. We build upon the definitional structure of computational organization theory (Carley and Prietula, 1994) and represent an organization as a network of agents, tasks, resources, and knowledge (Krackhardt and Carley, 1998). We do not assume an a priori design requirement. Rather, organizational structures are posited to emerge endogenously, the particulars being a key area of study. Agent interactions are governed by local network dynamics, agent-specific rules, and explicit universal constraints (Hazy and Tivnan, 2003).