The performance of edge organizations in a collaborative task

Abstract

The rapidly changing and asymmetric threat environment that we are facing today has called into question the effectiveness of the traditional approach of hierarchical command and control (C2) structures. Edge organizations have been proposed as a more suitable alternative in the current information age. Beside task-related factors, the characteristics and behavior of the people in an edge organization play an important role in determining the performance of the organization. In this thesis, we look at how the various characteristics of agents influence the efficiency of an edge organization in an intelligence gathering task, using an agent-based simulation model developed in Java. We also look at the attributes of an agent that performs well in an organization, and whether a reward system that encourages individual success in an edge organization is detrimental to the organizationâ s performance. Comparison between edge organizations with similar mean group attributes but different variability in agent characteristics, and comparison between an edge organization and a hierarchical organization are also performed.