City Research Online

Abstract

This study uses an agent-based model to contribute towards the theory of justification in organizations. It contends that we need a precise definition of what justification produces on the collective level, which then feeds into organizational decision making. Without it, we may be hard-pressed to articulate the meaning of justification for organizational practice. The study suggests that justification produces information about how actors collectively evaluate a crisis of coordinated action and that such information defines the ex post or outcome-based intelligence of organizational decisions. The production mechanism is one of emergence from the intersubjective to the collective level, with the process being moderated by the characteristics of the communication network, the variety of views represented in the process, and the presence of artifacts and feedback loops. Mechanism and moderators are implemented in an agent-based model and explored through multiple simulations, which yield empirically testable propositions. This multi-level approach captures justification as a natural process of uncertainty reduction and, simultaneously, a manageable object of stakeholders’ strategies in conditions of evaluative pluralism.

Publication Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
Departments:	Bayes Business School > Management
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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