Information aggregation and communication in organizations

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Jehiel, P
• 署名单位: Institut Polytechnique de Paris; Ecole des Ponts ParisTech
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.45.5.659
• 发表日期: 1999
• 页码: 659-669
• 关键词: information; COMMUNICATION; ORGANIZATION

摘要

Operating units must communicate their private information regarding decisions to be taken in organizations. This paper characterizes the optimal communication structures assuming that (i) a decision maker is fired whenever he makes a decision that proves wrong ex post relative to the status quo; and ii) direct communication in a group of k units may result in the loss of messages with a probability that solely depends on the group size. Several levels of partitioning with direct communication taking place in each group are required. It is shown that there exists a group size that allows communication technology to be exploited optimally: The optimal communication structure is such that it is essentially composed of groups of this size only at every level of partitioning.