On a Japanese-style organizations simulated by personalistic agents

Proposes that a Japanese-style organization may be well understood when we focus on the personality of its members. This observation is derived from our simulation based on a personalistic agent model. Our computer simulations are designed to explore the organizational behavior related to organizational rigidity and an organization's reorganizing processes based on a personality model of organizational members. We define the individual personality of members in our model based on Karson and O'Dell's (1976) psychological theory. The personality of members has three parameters in our model: task stickiness, interpersonal emotion, and conservativeness. The rigidity of the organization perceived by agents is formulated in our model as the organization's performance, its adaptability to the environment, and incredibility for information. We formulate the reorganization based on attitude change theory and Minsky's difference engine model. Our simulation has led us to derive two implications concerning Japanese-style organizations. First, the cliques brought by the interpersonal emotion of agents may be considered to generate the peculiar communication style similar to that of Japanese-style organizations such as Keiretsu. Second, the task stickiness and the attitude change of agents develop the specialization-structuralization chain. The chain can be considered to give Japanese-style organizations an advantage over US or European organizations in adapting to different environments.