Reactive or Stable: A Plant-inspired Approach for Organisation Morphogenesis

Communication networks are prevalent in both natural and artificial systems, enabling information and resource exchanges amongst system parts. In most systems, the network topology influences system performance, which, in turn, reshapes the network topology; hence creating one or several feedback cycles. Understanding how such system growth and restructuring processes function becomes critical in today’s increasingly connected world. This paper describes a generic model of feedback-based growth and adaptation for systems with tree-like control topologies. Inspired by plant vascular morphogensis, the model is transferred here for studying the development and adaptation behaviour of business organisations, operating in fluctuating economic environments. Experimental results show the impact that various degrees of internal competition have on overall business growth, productivity and reactivity to changing business landscapes. The preliminary findings presented seem to fit existing economic studies on related topics. The proposed model offers a solid basis for studying morphogenetic processes and associated performance indicators, applied to tree-shaped business organisations, and transferable to further domains.