Multiscale decision-making: Bridging organizational scales in systems with distributed decision-makers

Decision-making in organizations is complex due to interdependencies among decision-makers (agents) within and across organizational hierarchies. We propose a multiscale decision-making model that captures and analyzes multiscale agent interactions in large, distributed decision-making systems. In general, multiscale systems exhibit phenomena that are coupled through various temporal, spatial and organizational scales. Our model focuses on the organizational scale and provides analytic, closed-form solutions which enable agents across all organizational scales to select a best course of action. By setting an optimal intensity level for agent interactions, an organizational designer can align the choices of self-interested agents with the overall goals of the organization. Moreover, our results demonstrate when local and aggregate information exchange is sufficient for system-wide optimal decision-making. We motivate the model and illustrate its capabilities using a manufacturing enterprise example.