Developments in organizations and their theory

A major function of the commentaries appended to the chapters of this edition is to discuss the changes in organizations and the changes in different matter from changes in organizations, and the former might occur even if there were none of the latter (or vice versa). In any event, we need to distinguish the

Accepted administrative principles

Among the more common “principles” that occur in the literature of administration are these: Administrative efficiency is increased by a specialization of the task among the group. Administrative efficiency is increased by arranging the members of the group in a determinate hierarchy of authority. Administrative efficiency is increased by limiting the span of control

An approach to administrative theory

This program needs to be considered step by step. First, what is included in the description of administrative situations for purposes of such an analysis? Second, how can weights be assigned to the various criteria to give them their proper place in the total picture? 1. The Description of Administrative Situations Before a science

Some problems of administrative theory

ORGANIZATION THEORY CAN BE APPROACHED in two ways. On the one hand, we can try, as in any science, to build up a factually correct description of the entities called organizations together with an explanation of their behavior, including the circumstances under which they behave effectively or ineffectively and how the effectiveness or ineffectiveness

Distinction between factual and ethical meaning

Factual propositions are statements about the observable world and the way in which it operates.1 In principle, factual propositions may be tested to determine whether they are true or false—whether what they say about the world actually occurs, or whether it does not. Decisions are something more than factual propositions. To be sure, they

Distinction between Policy and administration

In practice, the separation between the ethical and the factual elements in judgment can usually be carried only a short distance. The values involved in administrative decisions are seldom final values in any psychological or philosophical sense. Most objectives and activities derive their value from the means-ends relationships which connect them with objectives or

Fact and value in decision-making

THE FIRST HALF OF CHAPTER III is concerned with the fundamental logical distinction between “is” and “ought,” the second half, largely with the implications of this distinction for the organization and operation of democratic governments. For this reason, the chapter is probably of greatest interest to readers concerned with public administration, where the debate

Rationality in Administrative Behavior: Means and ends

Fact and value, as already noted in Chapter III, are related to means and ends. In the process of decision those alternatives are chosen which are considered to be appropriate means for reaching desired ends. Ends themselves, however, are often merely instrumental to more final objectives. We are thus led to the conception of

Rationality in Administrative Behavior: Alternatives and consequences

The objections that have been raised to the means-end schema are (a) that it obscures the comparative element in decision-making, (b) that it does not achieve a successful separation of the factual elements in decision from the value elements, and (c) that it gives insufficient recognition to the time variable in purposive behavior. A

Rationality in Administrative Behavior: Value and possibility

There remains for discussion the third element in decision-making; namely, the process of determining preferences among consequences. This process may be termed valuation. To each strategy corresponds a unique set of consequences. Rational behavior involves a listing of the consequences in their order of preference, and the choice of that strategy which corresponds to

Definitions of rationality

A principal aim of this chapter has been to build the foundations upon which a clear understanding of the concept of “rationality” could be erected. Clarity does not necessarily imply simplicity, however. Roughly speaking, rationality is concerned with the selection of preferred behavior alternatives in terms of some system of values whereby the consequences

Rational behavior and administration

The social sciences suffer from acute schizophrenia in their treatment of rationality. At one extreme, economists attribute to economic man a preposterously omniscient rationality. Economic man has a complete and consistent system of preferences that allows him always to choose among the alternatives open to him; he is always completely aware of what these

Deliberate and habitual rationality

In the final pages of Chapter IV a number of distinct types of rationality were discussed briefly. In particular, it was asked whether a choice should be regarded as rational if it served a purpose (e.g., withdrawing a finger from a hot stove), or only if it were made with deliberate purpose (a skilled

Motivation and emotion in decision-making

In everyday thinking about human behavior, we often treat reason and emotion as polar opposites, the expression of our emotions preventing our behavior from being rational (perhaps even from being boundedly rational), and our rationality preventing us from expressing our genuine emotions. To find the measure of truth that resides in this popular view,

The Psychology of Administrative Decisions: The limits of rationality

Objective rationality, as that term was defined in the previous chapter, would imply that the behaving subject molds all his behavior into an integrated pattern by (a) viewing the behavior alternatives prior to decision in panoramic fashion, (b) considering the whole complex of consequences that would follow on each choice, and (c) with the

The Psychology of Administrative Decisions: Purposive behavior in the individual

These remarks concerning the departure of actual behavior from the norm of rationality serve already to indicate some of the characteristics of the psychological process of choice. It is time now to examine these characteristics more systematically. 1. Docility As was pointed out in Chapter IV, the simplest movement taking a step, focusing the

The Psychology of Administrative Decisions: The integration of behavior

It is time now to turn from the mechanisms that make integration possible to the pattern of behavior that results from the operation of these mechanisms. The process involves three principal steps: The individual (or organization) makes broad decision regarding the values to which he is going to direct his activities, the general mothods

Empirical evidence for bounded rationality

In psychology during the past fifty years, there has been a great renaissance of interest in human thinking. As a result, it is more feasible now than when Administrative Behavior was first written to construct a model of rational choice that incorporates the actual properties of human behavior and at the same time matches

Relation to current developments in formal decision theory

It is interesting and even a bit ironical that at the very time when we have learned to build rather precise and empirically verified theories of rational human decision-making there should be a vigorous renaissance of formal theorizing about economic man. The renaissance can be dated from the remarkable progress in game theory, owing

Components missing from the classical theory

Empirical study of decision-making quickly revealed that three basic components of the process were absent from the classical theory. One omission is the process of setting the agenda that determines what deci-sions will be made at what particular times. The second is the process of obtaining or constructing a representation for the problem selected