Emergence of social constructs and organizational behaviour A….ppt

Emergence of social constructs and organizational behaviourHow cognitive modelling enriches social simulation Martin Helmhout, Henk W.M. Gazendam René J.Jorna {j.m.helmhout, h.w.m.gazendam, r.j.j.m.jorna}@rug.nl Outline View of the organization Social constructs Cognitive architecture and simulation Types of learning Simulating the evolution of a social construct Discussion View of the organization Organization-reductionism, organizations are actors that interact (higher level / social simulation) Organization - constructivist point of viewactors have representation in their mind and in documents they use (lower level / cognitive approach)?Actors are intelligent: reactive, pro-active, social, representation and autonomy. Environment ? affordances ? actions ? habits of action ? social constructs Social constructs A relatively persistent socially shared unit of knowledge, based on intertwined habits and mutual commitments often expressed in sign structures Aimed at cooperation and coordination Functions as mediator between cognitive and social level Types of social constructs Institutional or behavioral system (community) Plan, model for a group Bilateral between two actors Social constructs (2) Some Properties of social constructs Attached norms or rules Coded / tacit Life span Authority, responsibility and control Inheritance or prerequisite of other social constructs Scenario Context Roles and identification Grey area----evolution--------- written (black on white) Social constructs (3) Cognitive architecture and simulation Cognitive architectureboundedly rational mental representation of environment and itself Pro: creates actors that are not empty state machines, but have a presentation and reasoning mechanism of their own. Con: the architecture forces the researcher to invest into the inner workings and cognitive plausibility of the actor, thereby taking into account not alone what is happening at the social level but cognitive level as well CONS