Hierarchical team coordination in dynamic decision-making

The authors present a model-based experimental study on hierarchical team coordination in a distributed dynamic network. Based on a generic task sequencing problem, an experiment was conducted with several human teams to collect empirical data. A mathematical model was developed to provide near-optimal solutions for comparison with experimental results. The focal point is the effect of time pressure on the team coordination process. The experiment results consistently show the following team adaptation aspects as time pressure increases: speedup of actions and filtration of tasks, reduction of coordination, shrinking of the planning horizon, a shift of coordination from lateral to vertical, and a reduction of the effect of the communication software