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The Social Cognitive Actor A multi-actor simulation of organisations Commits_to Influences Commits_to Influences Social construct ACTOR X Cognitive Architecture ACTOR Y Part_of Part_of Knowledge Cognitive Architecture Knowledge Expressed as Commits_to Personal Construct Signs Language action Signs Personal Construct Content information Goals Exists_in Goals Context / Organization Exists_in Umwelt M A RT I N H E L M H O U T Commits_to Shared Shared Publisher: Labyrint Publications Postbus 334 2984 AX Ridderkerk The Netherlands Tel: 0180-463962 Printed by: Offsetdrukkerij Ridderprint B.V., Ridderkerk ISBN-10: 90-5335-100-0 ISBN-13: 978-90-5335-100-0 © 2006, Martin Helmhout All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system of any nature, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying or recording, without prior written permission of the publisher. AT X document preparation system. This document was prepared using the L E RijksUniversiteit Groningen The Social Cognitive Actor A multi-actor simulation of organisations Proefschrift ter verkrijging van het doctoraat in de Bedrijfskunde aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op gezag van de Rector Magni cus, dr. F. Zwarts, in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 30 november 2006 om 13.15 uur door Jan Martin Helmhout geboren op 31 januari 1974 te Assen Promotores: Prof. dr. H. W. M. Gazendam Prof. dr. R. J. Jorna Beoordelingscommissie: Prof. dr. K. Liu Prof. dr. A. M. Sorge Prof. dr. R. Sun Preface The dissertation that is in your hands is the fruit of the last four years of research done in the eld of Multi-Agent Systems, Arti cial Intelligence, Informatics, Cognitive Science, Social Science and Organisation Studies. Bringing together different disciplines has been a challenging and a complex task. The outcome, put together in a simulation model, will hopefully help others discover new ways of practising the art of cognitive and social modelling. My background as a mechanical engineer may not seem to be in line with the research that I am currently involved in. Indeed, constructs of the philosophy of the mind, social construction, multi-actor software programs, and social behaviour seem to differ, in essence, from mechanical engineering. However, this dissertation focuses on the process of construction as in mechanics. Only this time, the focus is on social construction. It is probably the topic of social construction that (re-)constructed my thoughts about the (social) world we live in. ´ Jorna I want to thank my promoters Prof. Henk Gazendam and Prof. Rene for this change in looking at the world around me. Although the many discussions I had about the functional structure of the mind and how social constructs, shared by people, in uence behaviour even at the lower level of thinking that complicated my vision of the world, they also challenged me to the extent of developing a workable model. The role of a PhD candidate is a social construction in its own right, created by a mutual agreement between the University of Groningen, the SOM research school, my promoters and I. I want to thank the University of Groningen, SOM and my promoters for giving me the opportunity to engage in this social construction. Many people played an important role in contributing to the work delivered in this dissertation. In the early phase of my PhD, I worked to