Formalizing self-organizing processes of task allocation

In this paper, multi-agent simulation is applied to explore how people organize themselves when they have to perform a task. The multi-agent model that we used is based on the formalization of psychological and organizational theories. Three experiments are presented in which multi-agent simulation is being used to study processes of self-organization. This article is structured as follows. First, we describe how expertise differences and coordination time affect the duration of the task allocation process. Second, we demonstrate how task variety and coordination time are related. Finally, we depict the relation between boredom, performance and task allocation. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.