Cohort: ESOL 39

Topic of the thesis: Agent-based modeling applied to the context of organizations in order to observe the conditions and dynamics of the emergence of cooperative behaviors within hierarchical structures

Abstract: The evolutionary advantage of cooperation between peers was demonstrated by Robert Axelrod, who drew four "moral rules" from his Prisoner's Dilemma tournaments, embodied in the so-called Tit for Tat strategy. However, the Prisoner's Dilemma is a very simple model, and such results are not generalizable to a vast set of more complex contexts, such as that of organizations. Our purpose is to design a similar tournament, based on a more complex and hierarchical model, in order to observe the efficacy of cooperative behavior within organizations. We use Agent-Based Modeling to simulate a round-robin tournament for the model of Triadic Supervision, which aims to represent the dynamics of hierarchical groups of collaborators placed under the responsibility of a common supervisor. We find evidence that Axelrod's four altruistic rules apply also in this context and lead to its most successful strategies. We conclude that Axelrod's four rules may indeed constitute the evolutionary basis for successful human cooperation in a wider range of situations than previously believed, including intra-organizational dynamics, and we draw a few possible implications for the field of HR management, such as the role of the frequency of feedbacks in defining organizational climate; a further validation of the Management by Objectives model; and the importance to accompany the implementation of telecommuting with solutions capable of maintaining healthy relationships between colleagues.

Research interests: Computational Sociology; Economic Sociology; Agent-Based Modeling; Policy Analysis and Evaluation; Work and Organizational Psychology; Social Psychology; Political Psychology

Graduated from: Università degli Studi di Torino

Degrees obtained: Bachelor's Degree in Psychological Sciences and Techniques; Master's Degree in Work and Organizational Psychology

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