Interactions between the individual and the group level in organizations: The case of learning and autonomous group adaptation

TL;DR

This paper introduces an agent-based model to study how individual learning and autonomous group adaptation interact within organizations, revealing complex effects on performance especially when tasks are interdependent.

Contribution

It presents a novel agent-based modeling approach to analyze the interactions between individual learning and group adaptation in organizations.

Findings

Interactions are underproportional when tasks are interdependent.

Overemphasizing learning and adaptation can decrease performance.

Simultaneous or sequential promotion of learning and adaptation affects outcomes.

Abstract

Previous research on organizations often focuses on either the individual, team, or organizational level. There is a lack of multidimensional research on emergent phenomena and interactions between the mechanisms at different levels. This paper takes a multifaceted perspective on individual learning and autonomous group formation and adaptation. To analyze interactions between the two levels, we introduce an agent-based model that captures an organization with a population of heterogeneous agents who learn and are limited in their rationality. To solve a task, agents form a group that can be adapted from time to time. We explore organizations that promote learning and group adaptation either simultaneously or sequentially and analyze the interactions between the activities and the effects on performance. We observe underproportional interactions when tasks are interdependent and show that pushing learning and group adaptation too far might backfire and decrease performance significantly.