Organization science: Oxymoron or opportunity?

Abstract

A recent issue of the Santa Fe Institute Journal (Summer 1997) featured work that showed that all circulatory systems—trees, frogs, humans—share the same structure, since they are driven by the same considerations of scale, hydraulics, and the requirement to distribute nutrients. Such investigation captures the thrill of CAS research, in which findings from different disciplines contribute to a unifying point of view. This article relates to a similar goal: to use the ideas of self-organizing agents and emergent behaviors to understand how social groups form. It focuses on a single question: What is the largest optimal group size? There is, of course, much evidence and dogma from those who study organizational behavior; it turns out there is much from anthropologists and biologists as well, some on humans, some on other primates. Might a common set of factors be at work? Could simulation prove useful in sorting out what interventions in organization might be helpful? The ideas expressed here suggest that such a path of investigation will be fruitful.