Simulating the Emergence of Task Rotation

In work groups, task rotation may decrease the negative consequences of boredom and lead to a better task performance. In this paper we use multi agent simulation to study several organisation types in which task rotation may or may not emerge. By looking at the development of expertise and motivation of the different agents and their performance as a function of self-organisation, boredom, and task rotation frequency, we describe the dynamics of task rotation. The results show that systems in which task rotation emerges perform better than systems in which the agents merely specialise in one skill. Furthermore, we found that under certain circumstances, a task that leads to a high degree of boredom was performed better than a task causing a low level of boredom.Organisation, Task Rotation, Work Groups, Psychological Theory, Multi Agent Simulation

When Does a Newcomer Contribute to a Better Performance? A Multi-Agent Study on Self-Organising Processes of Task Allocation

This paper describes how a work group and a newcomer mutually adapt. We study two types of simulated groups that need an extra worker, one group because a former employee had left the group and one group because of its workload. For both groups, we test three conditions, newcomers being specialists, newcomers being generalists, and a control condition with no newcomer. We hypothesise that the group that needs an extra worker because of its workload will perform the best with a newcomer being a generalist. The group that needs an extra worker because a former employee had left the group, will perform better with a specialist newcomer. We study the development of task allocation and performance, with expertise and motivation as process variables. We use two performance indicators, the performance time of the slowest agent that indicates the speed of the group and the sum of performance of all agents to indicate labour costs. Both are indicative for the potential benefit of the newcomer. Strictly spoken the results support our hypotheses although the differences between the groups with generalists and specialists are negligible. What really mattered was the possibility for a newcomer to fit in.Task Allocation, Group Processes, Psychological Theory, Small Groups, Self-Organisation

When Does a Newcomer Contribute to a Better Performance? a Multi-Agent Study on Self- Organising Processes of Task Allocation

Abstract This paper describes how a work group and a newcomer mutually adapt. We study two types of simulated groups that need an extra worker, one group because a former employee had left the group and one group because of its workload. For both groups, we test three conditions, newcomers being specialists, newcomers being generalists, and a control condition with no newcomer. We hypothesise that the group that needs an extra worker because of its workload will perform the best with a newcomer being a generalist. The group that needs an extra worker because a former employee had left the group, will perform better with a specialist newcomer. We study the development of task allocation and performance, with expertise and motivation as process variables. We use two performance indicators, the performance time of the slowest agent that indicates the speed of the group and the sum of performance of all agents to indicate labour costs. Both are indicative for the potential benefit of the newcomer. Strictly spoken the results support our hypotheses although the differences between the groups with generalists and specialists are negligible. What really mattered was the possibility for a newcomer to fit in

Task dynamics in self-organising task groups: expertise, motivational, and performance differences of specialists and generalists

Multi-agent simulation is applied to explore how different types of task variety cause workgroups to change their task allocation accordingly. We studied two groups, generalists and specialists. We hypothesised that the performance of the specialists would decrease when task variety increases. The generalists, on the other hand, would perform better in a high task variety condition. The results show that these hypotheses were only partly supported because both learning and motivational effects changed the task allocation process in a much more complex way. We conclude that although no task variety leads to specialisation and high task variety leads to generalisation, in general, performance is better when task variety is low. Further, in case of no task variety, specialists outperform generalists. In case of moderate variety the opposite is true. With high task variety, since there is no space for any expertise and motivational development, the behaviour of specialists and generalists becomes more similar, and, consequently also their performance

Newcomers in self-organising task groups:A pilot study

This paper describes the consequences of turnover, especially how a work group and a newcomer mutually adapt. We tested two groups, a group in which the task allocation gives space for a newcomer to fit in and a group in which this space was not available. For both groups, we tested conditions with newcomers being specialists, contributing to a specific part of the task, newcomers being generalists, being able to contribute in a global way, and a control condition with no newcomer. We studied the development of task allocation and performance. The results indicate that both the specialists and the generalists only contributed to a better performance when the task allocation provided the space for a newcomer to fit in.</p

High reflectance multilayers for EUVL HVM-projection optics

Reported is a summary of multilayer deposition results by FOM on three elements of the projection optics of the ASML Extreme UV Lithography HVM tools. The coating process used is e-beam evaporation in combination with low-energy ion-beam smoothening. The reflectance of the coatings, which are covered with a special protective capping layer, is typically around 68%, with a maximum value of 69.6% and a non-correctable figure error added by the full multilayer stack of better than 35 picometer. The results are compared to the earlier coatings of the EUVL Process Development Tool