Unintended consequences in central-remote office arrangement: a study coupling laboratory experiments with multi-agent modeling

In studies about the central-remote office arrangement, researchers usually hypothesize advantages for collocated workers and disadvantages for the remote. However, empirical findings have not shown consistent support for the hypothesis. We suspect that there are unintended consequences in the central-remote office arrangement, which can offset advantages of being collocated. In order to explain these unintended consequences, we developed a multi-agent model to complement our laboratory-based organizational simulations. In the lab, collocated participants did not perform better than the remote even though collocators had lower communication cost and in-group favor towards each other. The performance outcomes varied in interesting patterns depending on the asymmetric resource arrangement. We employed multi-agent modeling to isolate and evaluate conjectured mechanisms behind the lab observation. The multi-agent model was designed and validated on the basis of the lab data. By implementing a series of simulations in the multi-agent model, we tested the individual and combined effects of in-group favoritism and communication delay. Results from the multi-agent model simulations suggested that in-group favoritism among collocators hindered their opportunity to obtain scarce resources while communication delay of remote subjects helped them avoid some pitfalls in resource exchange. The two unintended consequences might offset the advantage of being collocated and diminish performance difference between collocators and the remote. Moreover, the asymmetric resource arrangement across collocated and remote office sites could induce collocators' false perception of value of resources. Consequently, the false perception might amplify the unintended consequences on collocated owners of locally surplus resources and diminish the unintended consequence on collocated owners of locally scarce resources. Results of this dissertation help researchers recognize the relevance of social network and economic theories to studies about central-remote office work. They also demonstrate the value of coupling lab experiments with multi-agent modeling. According to the results of this dissertation, practitioners can enhance the effectiveness of central-remote office work by avoiding formation of collocation in-group, facilitating the flow of information and deploying resources strategically across central and remote office sites.