Dehua Gao and his colleague identify the impact of artifacts-based exploration and exploitation on routines’ formation dynamics using ABM
Recently, Prof. Dehua Gao and his colleague publish a paper on JASSS. In this paper, they use an agent-based model to identify the impact of artifacts-based exploration and exploitation on routines’ formation dynamics.
Abstract：Organizational routines are at the core in capturing the typical way of how organizations accomplish their tasks. This paper primarily summarizes the development of scholars’ understanding of the crucial role that artifacts and the materiality play during the course of routines. We then focus on the material artifacts-based exploration and exploitation carried out by multiple human actors, and create a link between individual situated actions at the micro-level and the collective outcome as patterned routines. This discloses the underlying logic between human actors’ exploration and exploitation of material artifacts on the one hand, and the ‘(re)framing-overflowing’ interaction loop amidst routine performances and artifacts as artifactual representations (D’Adderio, 2008; 2011) on the other. Subsequently, this study uses an agent-based approach to formalize routines formation dynamics from the ‘bottom-up’. Our simulation results highlighted the relationships between the three crucial aspects – which include the interdependences between situated-actions within and between organizational tasks, artifacts-based explorative and exploitative activities carried out by multiple human actors, and organizational structures or the power asymmetry characterizing interpersonal relationships within the routine system. The research work theoretically enriches people’s understanding of routines formation dynamics over time, and provides indications for managers in designing routine performances via the artifacts.
Keywords: Organizational Routines, Routine Dynamics, Artifacts, Exploration and Exploitation, Agent-Based Modeling (ABM)
Figure 1. Development trajectory of the role that artifacts play in routines theory
(a) Relations between artifacts and the ostensive/performative (Source: Pentland & Feldman (2005)); (b) Artifacts from the periphery to the center of routines (Source: D’Adderio (2011)); (c) Artifacts as a nexus between individual situated actions and the collective outcome as patterned routines (Source: Gao (2019)).
Figure 2. Artifacts-based exploration and exploitation beneath the ‘(re)framing-overflowing’ interaction between routine performances and artifacts as artifactual representations.
6月30日，国际权威学术期刊《Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation》第26卷第3期在线发表高德华和合作者的研究论文“Identifying the Impact of Artifacts-Based Exploration and Exploitation on Routines’ Formation Dynamics: An Agent-Based Model”。
该论文系统了回顾人们对人工品(Artifacts)在组织惯例中具体作用的认知演进过程，通过关注基于人工品的探索/利用式活动，将微观个体的情境化行动同作为群体结果的惯例模式相联系，揭示了个体参与者基于人工品的探索/利用式活动和组织惯例“Framing-Overflowing-(Re)framing”互动循环圈(D’Adderio, 2008; 2011)之间的潜在逻辑关系。在此基础上，构建Agent模型进行仿真实验研究。本论文的研究意义和价值在于：一方面，相关分析结果和结论丰富了人们对组织惯例形成动态的理解，具有理论上的贡献；另一方面，也为管理者借助于人工品进行组织设计提供了重要的线索和启示。
Citation:
Gao, D., & Yang, Y. (2023). Identifying the Impact of Artifacts-Based Exploration and Exploitation on Routines’ Formation Dynamics: An Agent-Based Model. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 26(3), 5. https:// http://www.jasss.org/26/ 3/5.html