Many crucial variables and patterns which remain submerged under normal conditions become more apparent when organizations are under stress. This research project drew from selected aspects of previous research on complex organizations, community disasters, small groups, stress, and simulation. The research had three specific objectives - to develop a general conceptual framework whereby organizational stress might be analyzed, to explore the utility of realistic simulation as a methodological technique for the analysis of complex organizations through the construction of a simulate of the communications system of a large metropolitan police organization, and to test selected aspects of the theoretical framework by subjecting the constructed simulate to stress. Work groups were brought to the laboratory where they performed their usual roles in an ecological setting and with equipment paralleling that of their regular radio room. Their normal work load in the laboratory was a duplicate in both quantity and content of what they experienced when actually on the job at the police department. The demands placed on each team during the stress session followed closely those actually experienced by other police communications teams in a real disaster in another city.