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When Coordination Is Avoidable: A Monotonicity Analysis of Organizational Tasks

Harang Ju

TL;DR

It is shown that a classic taxonomy of organizational interdependence maps onto the monotonicity criterion, yielding a decision rule and a measure of avoidable overhead (the Coordination Tax) and multi-agent simulations confirm both predictions.

Abstract

Organizations devote substantial resources to coordination, yet which tasks actually require it for correctness remains unclear. The problem is acute in multi-agent AI systems, where coordination overhead is directly measurable and routinely exceeds the cost of the work itself. However, distributed systems theory provides a precise answer: coordination is necessary if and only if a task is non-monotonic, meaning new information can invalidate prior conclusions. Here we show that a classic taxonomy of organizational interdependence maps onto the monotonicity criterion, yielding a decision rule and a measure of avoidable overhead (the Coordination Tax). Multi-agent simulations confirm both predictions. We classify 65 enterprise workflows and find that 48 (74%) are monotonic, then replicate on 13,417 occupational tasks from the O*NET database (42% monotonic). These classification rates imply that 24-57% of coordination spending is unnecessary for correctness.

When Coordination Is Avoidable: A Monotonicity Analysis of Organizational Tasks

TL;DR

It is shown that a classic taxonomy of organizational interdependence maps onto the monotonicity criterion, yielding a decision rule and a measure of avoidable overhead (the Coordination Tax) and multi-agent simulations confirm both predictions.

Abstract

Organizations devote substantial resources to coordination, yet which tasks actually require it for correctness remains unclear. The problem is acute in multi-agent AI systems, where coordination overhead is directly measurable and routinely exceeds the cost of the work itself. However, distributed systems theory provides a precise answer: coordination is necessary if and only if a task is non-monotonic, meaning new information can invalidate prior conclusions. Here we show that a classic taxonomy of organizational interdependence maps onto the monotonicity criterion, yielding a decision rule and a measure of avoidable overhead (the Coordination Tax). Multi-agent simulations confirm both predictions. We classify 65 enterprise workflows and find that 48 (74%) are monotonic, then replicate on 13,417 occupational tasks from the O*NET database (42% monotonic). These classification rates imply that 24-57% of coordination spending is unnecessary for correctness.
Paper Structure (6 sections, 2 theorems, 1 equation, 1 figure, 2 tables)

This paper contains 6 sections, 2 theorems, 1 equation, 1 figure, 2 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. APQC corpus construction.
  2. O*NET classification procedure.
  3. Simulation design.
  4. Data availability.
  5. Author contributions.
  6. Competing interests.

Key Result

Theorem 1

Under deterministic task evaluation, reliable message delivery, and eventual consistency in state propagation, let $T$ be a multi-agent task. Then:

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: Monotonic tasks appear in every occupational category. Bars show monotonicity prevalence across 22 SOC major groups (13,417 O*NET tasks); every group exceeds 30%. Dashed line marks the O*NET average (41%); dotted line marks the APQC enterprise average (74%).

Theorems & Definitions (2)

  • Theorem 1: Thompson-CALM Bridge
  • Proposition 2: Feedback Boundary