Agent-based modelling and simulation: The potential contribution to organizational psychology

Agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS) has been used by researchers from a variety of disciplines to study a range of phenomena. At present, ABMS is vastly underutilized in organizational psychology, yet we believe it offers a range of potential benefits that are currently not well catered for by existing tools. In this paper, we introduce ABMS and explain how it differs from current approaches. We illustrate the potential advantages of the approach through a range of examples and through the identification of opportunities in the field of organizational psychology. We also highlight potential limitations of the ABMS approach, and discuss the circumstances under which it may make a worthwhile contribution