Publisher's Synopsis
This work describes a recent method for predicting outcomes that result from the complex and dynamic ways that organizations work. By creating "virtual organizations", computational modelling demonstrates the final effects of complex interactions, enabling researchers to confront the logic of their theories before time-consuming and costly data collection occurs. Through modelling, vital questions in both theoretical and applied research can be addressed.;Contributing authors describe how they have used this research method to study a wide range of typical organizational problems, such as employee withdrawal; faking on personality tests; the pressures of organizational change; and the formation, continuation and dissolution of groups. By demonstrating processes that are not easily observable by traditional empirical methods, computational modelling promises to become a useful research method for revealing the dynamic effects of complex behaviours in organizations. This volume should show researchers both the advantages of using computational modelling and the strategies, contexts and methods for its use.
