Structure and Flexibility of Project Teams under Turbulent Environments: An Application of Agent-Based Simulation

Abstract

The extent of authority and autonomy granted to the project manager and to individual team members has a significant impact on the ability of the project team to meet stakeholders’ goals and expectations. This is particularly true in dynamic environments, where resources, requirements, and other conditions change rapidly, and a great deal of innovation is required. In this paper, we provide some recommendations regarding the structure and flexibility of project teams operating in turbulent environments. The recommendations are based on a set of experiments carried out with agent-based simulation, a novel tool for organizational design. The observed results show that under high uncertainty, loose designs for project teams outperform tight organizational structures.