Human Docility

This paper proposes an analytical framework for the analysis of organizational cognition that borrows from distributed and ecological cognition. In so doing, we take a case study featuring a decision on the topic of agreeing on a set point in the agenda of a meeting. It is through the analysis of a few minutes of video-recording used in the case that enables us to demonstrate the power of applying distributed and ecological cognition to organizing processes. Cognitive mechanism, resources, and processes are identified within this combined framework. Mechanisms are described as “socio-material” (CM1)—where “people” and “artifacts” are the related cognitive resources—and as “conceptual” (CM2)—with “group” identity, “topic” understanding, meaning of “procedures,” and perception of “time” as resources. Processes are defined as “coupling,” “de-coupling,” and “un-coupled” depending on the type of relation in place. Finally, the paper presents an agent-based computational simulation to dem...

The paper presents findings on self-regulatory behavior in Czech adults, as measured by SRQ-CZ, an instrument originally developed by Brown et al. (1999), and on self-efficacy in learning as measured by SEQ, an instrument developed by Jakešová (2014). The two results correlated low, which indicates that SRQ-CZ measures the generic ability while the SEQ measures domain specific beliefs. As expected, the scores on positive dimensions of SRQ-CZ (Goal Orientation and Decision Making) were above the midpoint of the scale used, while in negative dimensions (Self-direction and Impulsivity Control) the scores were below the midpoint.

PurposeThis viewpoint article is concerned with an attempt to advance organisational plasticity (OP) modelling concepts by using a novel community modelling framework (PhiloLab) from the social simulation community to drive the process of idea generation. In addition, the authors want to feed back their experience with PhiloLab as they believe that this way of idea generation could also be of interest to the wider evidence-based human resource management (EBHRM) community.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used some workshop sessions to brainstorm new conceptual ideas in a structured and efficient way with a multidisciplinary group of 14 (mainly academic) participants using PhiloLab. This is a tool from the social simulation community, which stimulates and formally supports discussions about philosophical questions of future societal models by means of developing conceptual agent-based simulation models. This was followed by an analysis of the qualitative data gathered during th...

This study presents an agent-based simulation model of a peer-review process to study how bibliometric measurements may affect the assessment of a paper. The Impact Factor (IF) is selected, for it is diffused and a well-known source of judgement bias. By using affiliation to community of researchers that are more or less tied to an understanding of quality qua IF, the model simulates how much peer evaluations connect to scientific value of a paper, thus affecting the review process. Simulation findings show that the effect of IF extends to those reviewers affiliated with an IF-agnostic group as well.

Herbert Simon introduced the term “docility” to define the tendency of human beings to get information from social channels. In this paper, we enrich this first definition with distributed cognition based arguments, and suggest that docile individuals modify the information they get, before passing it on to others. We present a simulation model of docile and non-docile individuals in organizations, where different docility attitudes (behaviors) are considered. In standard conditions, findings suggest that the above-average docile individuals remain below 20% of the number of workers in a given organization. This way, we outline potentials and limits of this intriguing concept.

Computational Organizational Cognition presents simulations to clearly assess the advantages of agent-based computational organizational cognition (AOC) for both theory and practice, demonstrating how AOC is an essential instrument to explore, understand and analyze the inner complexities of organizational cognition.

PurposeThis article presents a cognitive framework to study dynamic/adaptive aspects of a collection of popular fit measures used in organisation research, in an attempt to highlight what there is to be gained.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a distributed e-cognition (DEC) framework to examine the current organisational literature of fit measures.FindingsThis paper highlights that most measures have a rather narrow focus and do not address dynamic/adaptive aspects in complex social systems (e.g. organisations). To both provide a way to integrate fit measures and cover the cognition gap in this literature, this article highlights the need for a more sophisticated measure.Originality/valueThis paper provides a novel approach to examining organisational fit literature through a distributed (e)-cognitive framework.

PurposeThe paper aims to use part of the distributed cognition literature to study how employees cope with organizational plasticity, in an attempt to identify the characteristics of cognitive plasticity.Design/methodology/approachEvidence is collected by designing and implementing an agent-based computational simulation model (the IOP 2.0) where employees have the option to use external resources and the social environment to perform tasks. As plasticity is more effective when change and uncertainty are high, the simulation features an increase in the difficulty and number of tasks to which employees need to cope.FindingsCooperation and sharing of competence and ability are key to cognitive plasticity. Being able to master the use of some resources, together with other employees’ competencies, make some achieve the most efficient task performance.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that under conditions of change and plasticity, human resource management (HRM) shall attempt ...

Purpose This study aims at redefining bounded rationality on the basis of a more socialized view of the individual. In doing so, it introduces “inquisitiveness” as a key disposition that some team members use to assemble and integrate knowledge when solving problems. Design/methodology/approach Using an agent-based computational simulation, this research models different simulated employees working together in “ad hoc” teams to solve problems. Findings Results show that inquisitiveness may work as an efficiency “driver” that, when present, economizes on the knowledge needed by team members to solve problems. In addition to that, results also show that environments with many problems are more suitable for inquisitive individuals to be effective. Originality/value Following the late Herbert Simon, the paper takes the stance that rationality should be redefined as a socially oriented process and introduces inquisitiveness as one – although probably not the only one – of the characteris...

is among the 71 individuals who were awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel between 1969 and 2012. This ideological profile is part of the project called "The Ideological Migration of the Economics Laureates," which fills the September 2013 issue of Econ Journal Watch.

Purpose: This article presents a cognitive framework to study dynamic/adaptive aspects of a collection of popular fit measures used in organisation research, in an attempt to highlight what there is to be gained.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses a distributed e-cognition (DEC) framework to examine the current organisational literature of fit measures.

Findings: This paper highlights that most measures have a rather narrow focus and do not address dynamic/adaptive aspects in complex social systems (e.g., organisations). To both provide a way to integrate fit measures and to cover the cognition gap in this literature, this article highlights the need for a more sophisticated measure.

Originality: This paper provides a novel approach to examining organizational fit literature through a distributed (e)-cognitive framework.

Purpose—The paper uses part of the distributed cognition literature to study how employees cope with organizational plasticity, in an attempt to identify the characteristics of cognitive plasticity.
Design/methodology/approach—Evidence is collected by designing and implementing an agent-based computational simulation model (the IOP 2.0) where employees have the option to use external resources and the social environment to perform tasks. Since plasticity is more effective when change and uncertainty are high, the simulation features an increase in the difficulty and number of tasks to which employees need to cope.
Findings—Cooperation and sharing of competence and ability are key to cognitive plasticity. Being able to master the use of some resources, together with other employees competencies make some achieve the most efficient task performance.
Practical implications—Findings suggest that, under conditions of change and plasticity, HRM shall attempt to develop measures to support employees' cognitive skills necessary to cope with it, for example, mostly through diagnosis, training, and facilitating on-the-job dialogue.
Originality/value—This is the first study that attempts a merger between organizational cognition and plasticity, and it is the first to match its results to HRM policy recommendations.

This book belongs to a special series -Foundational Questions in Science-which has been published by the John Templeton Foundation to investigate crucial scientific concepts and their philosophical background. As the first book of this initiative, ""Does Altruism Exist?" puts its finger on the age-old debate extending from ancient to modern times in many branches-economics, social psychology, sociology -. In this respect, the question of whether altruism exists or not is a multi-faceted current discussion and one at the same time that is proving difficult to find a solution for. Professor David Sloan Wilson has been studying evolutionary theory and how it applies to all aspects of life in his non-profit organization-The Evolution Institute-and he is a distinguished professor of biology and antropology at Binghampton University. The aim of professsor Wilson and his team is to search for solutions to real-world problems. Therefore, in this book, the question has been tried to be cleared up with an evolutionary approach in terms of action and the context of everyday life (Wilson, 2015, p. x).

This chapter introduces the book "Agent-Based Simulation of Organizational Behavior" supporting the idea of agent-based modeling as a 'new frontier' for organizational research. After providing some indications of the challenge of bringing together cross-disciplinary and specialization tensions, the chapter suggests that autonomy, sociality, and cross-validation make this technique particularly suited to analyze organizational behavior research. An overview of the book follows with a short summary of the four sections of the book and each and every chapter. This introduction concludes with a map of what this new research frontier is about, covering both methodological and theoretical grounds.

Find this chapter at:  http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319181523

Neumann, M., & Secchi, D. (2016). Exploring the new frontier: Computational studies of organizational behavior. In Secchi, D., & Neumann, M. Agent-Based Simulation of Organizational Behavior. New Frontiers of Social Science Research (pp. 1–16). New York: Springer.

Purpose — This study aims at redefining bounded rationality on the basis of a more socialized view of the individual. In doing so, it introduces inquisitiveness as a key disposition that some team members use to assemble and integrate knowledge when solving problems.
Design/methodology/approach — Using an agent-based computational simulation, this research models different simulated employees working together in ad hoc teams to solve problems.
Findings — Results show that inquisitiveness may work as an efficiency driver that, when present, economizes on knowledge needed by team members to solve problems. In addition to that, results also show that environments with many problems are more suitable for inquisitive individuals to be effective.
Originality/value — Following the late Herbert Simon, the article takes the stance that rationality should be redefined as a socially-oriented process and introduces inquisitiveness as one — although probably not the only one — of the characteristics that help individuals and teams to make rational decisions.

Bardone, E., & Secchi, D. (2017). Inquisitiveness: distributing rational thinking. Team Performance Management, 23(1/2): 66–81. (http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/TPM-10-2015-0044)

Purpose -This paper aims to address the nature of docility in organizations, its practical role in attention scarcity and knowledge diffusion in complex organizations and the management implications for organizational learning and innovation to improve knowledge management. Design/methodology/approach -This paper examines knowledge organizations from the perspective of human resource strategies, their role in information abundance and attention scarcity and techniques to enhance docility mechanisms at different levels of the organization to increase innovation and performance. Findings -This paper, in reviewing the organization literature on attention scarcity, addresses the shortage of studies linking the need for docility -the desire to learn from workers and the desire to teach -in personnel practices of knowledge firms, where intense social interaction, social feedback and social learning are the norms. Practical implications -Knowledge management -scanning, creation, coordination, interpreting, transfer and integration -may well be the basis of competitive advantage, based on human resource strategies to mobilize explicit and tacit knowledge via docility mechanisms, including mentoring, teamwork, coaching and deep collaboration. Originality/value -Decades ago, Herbert A. Simon introduced this new concept, docility, which is now central to knowledge organizations that face information abundance and attention scarcity. Knowledge organizations require tools of docility to align human resource strategies to both strategic management and operational functions to enhance teaching and learning in design structures that are time-constrained.

Abstract: In his path-breaking opus, Administrative Behavior, Herbert A. Simon introduced to management and organization theorists the concept of docility. Curiously, the term is not used subsequently in many of his leading and widely circulated papers, or in his book, co-authored with James March, Organizations. Many years later, returning to his early interest in neo-Darwinism, Simon revives this core concept and links docility to theories of altruism. This paper addresses this lacuna in the organizational literature, and the implications for current theories of organizations and organizational learning.

Current views of managing emphasize the manager's role as a decision-maker and organizer, reflecting 'classical management' assumptions about full information and rationality. Herbert Simon famously criticized this position, arguing individuals are boundedly rational and, because of this, create heuristics for making less-than-completely-rational decisions under uncertainty. Simon also believed human beings to be 'docile' -the notion that human beings 'can be taught and can teach'. Following in this direction we argue towards a view of managing as an inter-individual practice in which rhetoric -the art of persuasion -plays a central role. Rhetoric is not a fancy name for 'communicating'. Rather it belongs in the unfamiliar epistemology of bounded rationality, targeted at changing practice and people. We sketch the features of 'management-as-rhetoric' and discuss its implications for research, practice, and teaching. Management-as-rhetoric, we argue, rehabilitates management as a credible, legitimate and hugely important art-form that underpins our capitalist democracy.

Bandwagon refers to the adoption of popular ideas, thoughts, or practices. Although the inter-organizational (macro) dynamics of the phenomenon have been widely studied, its intra-organizational (micro) aspects have received limited attention. The paper presents a theoretical framework and a model that address intra-organizational aspects of bandwagon drawing on distributed cognition, social relationships, and other elements of the organizational structure such as culture and defensive routines. The analysis of simulated data from the model suggests that the phenomenon is likely to decrease with highly informal culture, promotion of advice taking and giving, low levels of distrust, strong social ties, and minimal defensive routines.

The paper presents agent-based models (ABMs) and reviews some of the features that fit well the scientific enterprise of management and organization scholars. Simulation has increased significantly in the last years and ABMs offer an easy and direct connection to social sciences. They can be used for theory building purposes, to elaborate propositions, to predict behaviors in complex environments, and to pilot-test new theory. This work also presents a model of Simon’s ’docility’ to exemplify how management—or one of its subfields, namely organizational studies—can benefit from the use of ABMs.

A version of this article is now published in the journal "Team Performance Management", Vol. 21 No 1/2, pp. 37-50 (link provided below)

Herbert Simon introduced the term "docility" to define the tendency of human beings to get information from social channels. In this paper, we enrich this first definition with distributed cognition based arguments, and suggest that docile individuals modify the information they get, before passing it on to others. We present a simulation model of docile and non-docile individuals in organizations, where different docility attitudes (behaviors) are considered. In standard conditions, findings suggest that the above-average docile individuals remain below 20% of the number of workers in a given organization. This way, we outline potentials and limits of this intriguing concept. . His research focuses on decision-making, human cognition in organizations and social responsibility. Emanuele Bardone is Ph.D. student at

Bandwagon has been analyzed as an imitation of practices, ideas, techniques, and innovations that are popular among organizations. It has been considered at the organization level but few scholars have conducted research at the individual level: what happens inside organizations? This paper presents a mathematical model of bandwagon in organizations based on organizational culture and social relations. Both of these determinants are studied on the basis of what Herbert Simon calls human “docility.” The model presents the idea that bandwagon depends on how well organizations manage the ability of individuals to learn from each other (active information processing) instead of imitating each other (passive information processing). We believe that the model shades a new light on the bandwagon effect by (a) broadening its explaining factors and (b) providing scholars with a framework for empirical testing of hypotheses.

Herbert Simon introduced the term “docility” to define the tendency of human beings to get information from social channels. In this paper, we enrich this first definition with distributed cognition based arguments, and suggest that docile individuals modify the information they get, before passing it on to others. We present a simulation model of docile and non-docile individuals in organizations, where different docility attitudes (behaviors) are considered. In standard conditions, findings suggest that the above-average docile individuals remain below 20% of the number of workers in a given organization. This way, we outline potentials and limits of this intriguing concept.