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This paper presents our ongoing efforts to model, simulate, and eventually optimize work and knowledge flows in Edge organizations. We use the extended POW-ER 3.2 framework to model and compare two organizational forms (Edge vs. Hierarchy) to structure participants in a counter-intelligence student exercise, ELICIT - first without, and then with, learning micro-behaviors enabled in POW-ER 3.2. Empirical, experimental data on learning and forgetting from observations of student teams conducting repeated trials of the AROUSAL (Lansley, 1982) business simulation exercise at Stanford are used as the basis for calibrating agent learning and forgetting micro-behaviors derived from the cognitive psychology literature. We then compare empirical observations of student teams conducting the ELICIT exercise for both Edge and Hierarchy structural configurations with outputs from POW-ER 3.2 computational simulation models representing teams executing the ELICIT exercise in these two structural configurations. This initial comparison has the potential to further calibrate and validate POW-ER for potential use in analyzing and designing C2 organizations. Future output from ELICIT experiments and other empirical data on learning and forgetting will augment our initial comparison. Calibrated POW-ER 3.2 learning and forgetting micro-behaviors will improve the ability of POW-ER to model and simulate organization-level C2 knowledge flows in Edge vs. Hierarchical organizations., Presented at the International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium (12th) held in Newport, RI on 19-21 Jun 2007. Prepared in collaboration with Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA. Document contains briefing charts in addition to text. The original document contains color images.

This paper outlines efforts to model, simulate and ultimately optimize knowledge flows in Edge organizations. We begin by reviewing Phase I research which explored how knowledge inventory flows through organizations, analogously to perishable, physical goods inventory in a supply chain, and uncovered useful insights to clarify current understanding and permit initial quantification of knowledge management impacts on organizational performance. Current Phase II efforts are then described that classify, quantitatively model, and simulate knowledge flows within and among individuals in Edge organizations. Empirical, experimental data on rates of learning and forgetting drawn from the social and cognitive psychology literature provide the basis for defining and modeling agent learning and forgetting micro-behaviors in our POW-ER computational simulation model of organizations. Phase II (micro-level skill acquisition) builds on Phase I (macro-level inventory control) by modeling the trajectories of individual knowledge flows associated with dynamic knowledge inventory increases and decreases. Using this model, we conduct intellective experiments (using models of idealized work processes and organizations) and emulation experiments (to replicate outcomes of real work processes and organizations) for model refinement and validation. The goal of these experiments is to determine organizationally, contingently optimal knowledge intervention strategies. Cumulative Phase III efforts are introduced that integrate findings from prior phases to engineer knowledge management solutions in organizations via a Knowledge Chain Management approach., Presented at the Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium (CCRTS), held in San Diego, CA, on 20-22 Jun 2006. Published in the Proceedings of CCRTS, Paper C-152, 2006. Prepared in collaboration with Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA. Document contains briefing charts in addition to text. The original document contains color images.

Edge organizations emphasize moving knowledge and decision-making power to individuals and teams who directly interface with the environment. Traditional project modeling tools cannot adequately represent the critical impact of information and knowledge flows, nor the importance of developing trust between workers in Edge organizations. The Virtual Design Team (VDT) computational modeling platform evolved from ongoing research at Stanford University starting in the late 1980s. VDT has been used successfully to model activities, communications, and exception handling within traditional project organizations performing relatively routine, albeit highly concurrent, tasks. This paper discusses POWER, a new computational modeling platform based on the same information processing view of organizations as VDT. POW-ER is an extensible organization simulation platform, within which we have prototyped direct support for modeling several critical dynamic behaviors of workers in modern knowledge-based organizations: knowledge flows, trust effects, and cultural/ institutional differences between team members from different backgrounds. POW-ER can also support demand-driven, dynamic allocation of resources to tasks as needed, to model work processes that cannot be represented by predefined tasks. Using POW-ER, researchers can now conduct emulation experiments on Edge organizations to validate and calibrate the computational model, ultimately aiding in the systematic design and optimization of these organizational forms., The original document contains color images. Presented at the International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium (10th) held in McLean, VA on 13-16 June 2005.

This paper investigates the dynamics of intercultural knowledge flows in Edge Organizations. We seek to understand how cultural differences and dynamic environments affect Edge and other organizational forms where knowledge flows are critical. Drawing on the organizational studies, social psychological, and sociological literatures, we examine how the Edge form accommodates and exacerbates cultural differences (e.g., across military services and coalition partners) and knowledge flows. A major factor that emerges as an enabler of knowledge flows, especially in dynamic environments such as those in which Edge organizations operate, is trust. While trust holds great promise in enabling knowledge flows in Edge organizations, it is very challenging to achieve. The two conditions necessary for trust a long history of acquaintance and similarity among constituents are often missing in Edge organizations. Given that trust is crucial to efficient functioning, we view this as a serious problem and set out to better understand how trust can be generated in Edge organizations. In this paper, we lay out the theoretical grounding for our efforts and begin to sketch an agenda for research in the coming months., The original document contains color images. Presented at the International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium (10th) held in McLean, VA on 13-16 Jun 2005.

This paper reports on Phase I of a two-phase research project to model, simulate and ultimately optimize knowledge flows in Edge organizations. We begin by describing knowledge as a set of discrete yet perishable skills, and consider how these perishable skills flow through organizations in response to demand triggered by environmental changes. We hypothesize that analyzing the stocks and flows of perishable knowledge inventory" in organizations, analogous to analyzing those of perishable physical goods inventory in a supply chain, uncovers useful insights to clarify current understanding and permits initial quantification of knowledge management impacts on organizational performance. We examine differences between knowledge and physical goods, and explore how we can adapt methods for costs of knowledge inventory additions, subtractions, reordering as well as EOQ, holding times, inventory doctrines of Just-In-Case, Just-In-Time, and make vs. buy decisions. The discussion leads to the concept of Knowledge Chain Management (KCM). KCM can provide military and business practitioners with a useful framework for maintaining knowledge (and therefore power) levels; and KCM provides a new theoretical lens to frame future research (including our Phase II research) in terms of knowledge and power flows., Presented at the International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium (10th) (CCRTS): The Future of C2, held in McLean, VA on 13-16 June, 2005. Pub. in the Proceedings of the International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium (10th) (CCRTS): The Future of C2, 2005. CCRTS Paper Number 083. The original document contains color images.