Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 28, Number 3
Summer 1997
Adaptive, Agile Approaches to Organizational Architecture
Utilizing Agent Technology
Thomas A. Ottaway
Department of Management, School of Business Administration, The
University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, email: ottaway@selway.umt.edu
James R. Burns
Department of ISQS, College of Business Administration, Texas
Tech
University, Lubbock, TX 79409, email: burns@ttu.edu
ABSTRACT
Intelligent agent-based approaches to software support systems
are
believed to provide an unparalleled technology for integrating
people, materials, and capital equipment. Software agents can be
used to automate mechanization strategies for reducing the
information content of work. As such, software agents diminish
the
need for utilizing humans to do repetitive, programmable tasks.
The purpose of studies of communities of intelligent agents is to
ascertain their ability to accommodate flexible, agile
organizational structures that can respond rapidly to changes in
the marketplace, increase throughput, reduce costs, and improve
quality. This paper presents a conceptual prototype for
agent-based
structural self-design and describes experiments conducted
regarding such studies together with the results obtained.
Subject Areas: Distributed Artificial Intelligence,
Information Reduction, Intelligent Agents, Management Systems,
Simulation, Slack, and Structural Self-Design.
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