Neural networks and organizational systems: Modeling non-linear relationships

For decades, organizational researchers have employed standard statistical methods to uncover relationships among variables and constructs. However, in complex organization systems, the prevalence of non-linearity and outliers is to be expected. Under such circumstances, the use of standard statistical methods becomes unreliable and, correspondingly, results in degraded predictions of the relationships within the organizational systems. We describe the use of neural network analyses to model team effectiveness so as to provide more accurate predictions for managers. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.