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Abstract

Computerized simulation can now play a new, crucial role in the ambiguous real world as a facilitator of communication. One of the most serious problems with which organizations are now confronted is incommensurability, defined roughly as communication breakdown. This is a problem because, to cope with ambiguity, it is essential to share knowledge in the organization. Even when the same natural language is used, communications within and among the organizations are often extremely difficult. Computerized simulation can provide effective metaphors, shared fields, and appropriate processes for the legitimization of knowledge so that individual knowledge may become organizational knowledge, and thus overcome the problems of incommensurability.

Keywords

ambiguity communication incommensurability metaphors computerized simulation

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A New Role for Computerized Simulation in Social Science: Summary Thoughts on a Case Study

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