Organizational Decision Making 38 Organizational Decision Making

Garbage-Can Model It is one of the most recent and interesting description of organizational decision making This model helps us think of the whole organization and the frequent decisions being made by the managers throughout it

Garbage-Can Model Organized Anarchy: means highly uncertain conditions, extremely organic organization, they are caused by three characteristics Ambiguity is around every where Unclear and poorly understood cause and effect relations Organizational positions experience turnover of participants

Stream of Events Decision making is not seen as a sequence of steps, problem identification and solution may not be connected, an idea may be proposed as a solution when no problem is identified, a problem may exist but never generates a solution, decisions are the outcomes of independent streams of events within the organization

Stream of Events Four such streams are as follows: Problems: problems may not be solved when solutions are given Potential solutions: solutions are ideas, an employee may be tempted to attach an idea to a problem and he will therefore look for such problems which can be attached with that idea or solution Participants: problems and solutions considered by one manager can differ from the ones identified by another manager, and people come and go Choice opportunities: occasions when organizations actually make decisions, e.g. signing a contract, hiring new people, a manager who happens to learn of a good idea may suddenly become aware of a problem to which it applies and hence can provide the organization with a choice opportunity.

Stream of Events Example: Film Making

Special Decision Circumstances High Velocity environments: like learning organizations, problem id and solution implementation run parallel, multiple alternative are built during a major decision phase Escalating commitment: persistence with a failing course of action, learning approach the remedy