Organization theory and design: Lecture 36

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Organizational Decision Making

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Carnegie Model
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Championed bounded rationality model for individual
decision making
Research by Carnegie indicated that organizational
level decision making involved many managers and
not just top management
Management coalitions are needed for organizational
level decision making for two reasons
1.
2.

organizational goals are ambiguous and operative goals of
departments are often inconsistent, so a coalition is required
individual humans have cognitive limitations, they can’t identify
all that’s needed for decision making

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Carnegie Model

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Opposite to management science approach, this
model does not assume that analysis can uncover all
possible alternatives
This model points out that through managerial
coalitions and consensus a major portion of the
organizational decision making is and can be covered

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Satisficing rather than optimization

Programmed problems can be solved relying on past
patterns, non programmed problems demand
bargaining and conflict resolution and hence the need
for coalitions
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example: political coalitions
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Critique
• The model is ideal for problem
identification stage
• Problems of coordination and horizontal

structures
• Possibilities of conflicts, confrontations
• Can be time consuming and laborious

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