An Agent-based Simulation Study for Exploring Organizational Adaptation

Agile enterprises with different organizational structures manifest different organizational behaviors when responding to environmental changes. In this paper, we use a computational model to examine organizational adaptation on four dimensions: Agility, Robustness, Resilience, and Survivability. We analyze the dynamics of organizational adaptation by a simulation study on the interaction between tasks and organization in a sales enterprise. The 'what if' analyses in different scenarios show that more flexible communication between employees and less hierarchy level with the suitable centralization can improve organizational adaptation. The developed simulation model supports the exploration of the parametric space that defines alternative organizing processes for the optimal strategy given the specified environmental dynamics.