[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/ Skip to main content
Log in

The virtual design team: A computational model of project organizations

  • Published:
Computational & Mathematical Organization Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Large scale and multidisciplinary engineering projects (e.g., design of a hospital building) are often complex. They usually involve many interdependent activities and require intensive coordination among actors (i.e., designers) to deal with activity interdependencies. To make such projects more effective and efficient, one needs to understand how coordination requirements are generated and what coordination mechanisms should be applied for given project situations. Our research on the Virtual Design Team (VDT) attempts to develop a computational model of project organizations to analyze how activity interdependencies raise coordination needs and how organization design and communication tools change team coordination capacity and project performance. The VDT model is built based on contingency theory (Galbraith, 1977) and our observations about collaborative and multidisciplinary work in large, complex projects. VDT explicitly models actors, activities, communication tools and organizations. Based on our extended information-processing view of organizations, VDT simulates the actions of, and interactions among actors as processes of attention allocation, capacity allocation, and communication. VDT evaluates organization performance by measuring emergent project duration, direct cost, and coordination quality. The VDT model has been tested internally, and evaluated externally through case-studies. We found three way qualitative consistency among predictions of the simulation model, of organization theory, and of experienced project managers. In this paper, we present the VDT model in detail and discuss some general issues involved in computational organization modeling, including level of abstraction of tasks and actors' reasoning, and model validation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
£29.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price includes VAT (United Kingdom)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.

References

  • Baligh and Burton (1981), “Describing and Designing Organizational Structures and Processes,”International Journal of Policy Analysis Information Systems, 5, 251–266.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baligh and Damon (1980), “Foundation for a Systemic Process of Organization Structure Design,”Journal of Information Optimization Science, 1, 133–165.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burton, R. M., and B., Obel (1984),Designing Efficient Organizations: Modeling and Experimentation, New York: North-Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burton, R. M., and B., Obel (1995a), “The Validity of Computational Models in Organization Science: From Model Realism to Purpose of the Model,”Journal of Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory. 1(1), 57–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burton, R. M., and B., Obel (1995b),Strategic Organization Diagnosis and Design—Developing Theory for Application, Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carley, K. (1992), “Organizational Learning and Personnel Turnover,”Organization Science, 3(1), 20–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carley, K., J., Kjaer-Hansen, A., Newell, and M., Prietula (1992), “Plural-Soar: A Prolegomenon to Artificial Agents and Organizational Behavior,” in M., Masuch and M., Warglien (Eds.)Artifical Intelligence in Organization and Management Theory, Amsterdam: North-Holland, pp. 87–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carley, K., and M., Prietula (1994). “ACTS Theory: Extending the Model of Bounded Rationality,” in K. M., Carley and M. J., Prietula, (Eds.)Computational Organization Theory, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chachare, J., W., Nasrallah, and G., Okhuysen (1994), “Coordination and Communication in a Software Engineering Company.” Unpublished term paper for CE251, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christainsen, R. T. (1993), “Modeling Efficiency and Effectiveness of Coordination in Engineering Design Teams.” Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.

  • Cohen, M. D., J. G., March, and J. P., Olsen (1972), “A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice,”Administrative Science Quarterly, 17(1), 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, G. P. (1992), “The Virtual Design Team: An Information Processing Model of the Design Team Management,” Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.

  • Cyert, R. M., and J. G., March (1965),A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidow, W. H. (1992),The Virtual Corporation. New York: HarperBusiness.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, S. M., and P. R., Lawrence (1977),Matrix, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fergusson, K. J. (1993), “Impact of Integration on Industrial Facility Quality.” Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.

  • Galbraith, J. R. (1977),Organization Design, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gebala, D., and S. D. Eppinger (1991), “Methods for analyzing design procedures,”Third Intnl. ASME Conference on Design Theory and Methodology, Miami, Florida.

  • Hauser, J., and D. Clausing (1988), “The house of quality,”Harvard Business Review, May 1988.

  • Jin, Y., and R. E., Levitt (1993), “i-AGENTS: Modeling Organizational Problem Solving in Multiagent Teams,”International Journal of Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, 2(4), 247–270.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence, P. F., and J. W., Lorsch (1967),Organizations and Environment. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, R. E., G. P., Cohen, J. C., Kunz, C. I., Nass, T., Christiansen, and Y., Jin (1994), “The ‘Virtual Design Team’: Simulating How Organization Structure and Information Processing Tools Affect Team Performance,” in K. M., Carley and M. J., Prietula, (Eds.)Computational Organization Theory, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malone, T. (1987), “Modeling Coordination in Organizations and Markets,”Management Science, 33, 1317–1332.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malone, T., and K. Crowston (1991), “Towards an Interdisciplinary Theory of Coordination,” MIT Sloan School Working Paper #3294-91-MSA.

  • March, J. G., and H. A., Simon (1958),Organizations, New York: John Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, J. G. (1988),Decisions and Organizations, Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Masuch, M. and P., LaPotin (1989), “Beyond Garbage Cans: An AI Model of Organizational Choice,”Administrative Science Quarterly, 34, 38–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mintzberg, H. (1979),The Structuring of Organizations, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nass, C., and L., Mason (1990), “On the Study of Technology and Task: A Variable-Based Approach,” in J., Faulk and C., Steinfield (Eds.),Organizations and Communication Technology Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, W. R. (1992),Organizations: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems, 3rd ed., NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, H. A. (1969),The Science of the Artificial. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, H. A. (1976),Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization. NY: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, J. D. (1967),Organizations in Action: Social Science Bases in Administrative Theory, New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, M. (1924)The Theory of Social and Economic Organization (1947 trans. A. H. Henderson and T. Parsons, Glencoe, IL), Free Press.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Jin, Y., Levitt, R.E. The virtual design team: A computational model of project organizations. Comput Math Organiz Theor 2, 171–195 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00127273

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00127273

Keywords

Navigation