Team Formation in the Garbage Can

This chapter replaces the fixed access and decision structures of the original garbage can model with the possibility of forming teams based on considerations of the characteristics of problems and the skills of organizational members. In real organizations, members often solve problems in collaboration, either in parallel or sequentially. In an extension of earlier simulation models, I assume that a task can be accepted by an individual member of an organization who can form a team by attempting to match the skill sets of members with the combination of skills necessary for solving the problem. Analysis of the model examines task performance and the efficient use of skills for individual and team efforts under conditions of varying workloads.