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"Although Herbert Simon's work is often cited by political scientists, it has not generated a large research program in the discipline. This is a waste of a major intellectual resource. The main challenge to the rational choice research program—now the most important research program in political science—can be developed by building on Simon's ideas on bounded rationality. The essay defends this assertion by examining how the work of both the early Simon (primarily satisficing-and-search models) and the later Simon (on problem solving) can shed light on important topics in our discipline such as budgeting, turnout, and party competition."
"Starting off in political science and then moving through several disciplinary domains such as management theory, psychology, sociology, economics, organization and institutional theory, March’s academic career has been focused on understanding and analyzing human decision making and behavior. The basic thesis that he has pursued is that human action is neither optimal (or unboundedly rational) nor random, but nevertheless reasonably comprehensible (March, 1978, 1994, 1999). The ideas that were developed to understand human behavior in organizations in March’s early work in the analysis of how people deal with an uncertain and ambiguous world included, among other things, the concepts of bounded rationality and satisficing "
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As March mentions in the following interview, a key theme in his later work (and a theme underlying his recent movie on leadership) is examining the problems of achieving a balance between exploration and exploitation (see, in particular, March, 1991, 1996a). Exploiting existing capabilities is full of rewards in the short run, but doesn’t prepare people for changes in technologies, capabilities, desires, tastes, and identities. For such preparation, exploration is necessary. Exploration involves searching for things that might come to be known, experimenting with doing things that are not warranted by experience or expectations. In all areas (in research as well as in life) we need both sides; illustrating, perhaps, a variation of Milan Kundera’s discussion of the ambiguous issue of the lightness-weight opposition, the combination of which is the source of numerous contradictions and difficulties; yet also the essence of being (Kundera, 1984).
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So what does this have to do with leadership? In March’s most recent academic venture–a movie produced with filmmaker Steven Schecter on this theme, titled Passion and Discipline: Don Quixote’s Lessons for Leadership–March provides an intellectually stimulating interpretation of the contemporary meaning of Don Quixote, using interviews with modern leaders, wine drinking in Spain, and numerous episodes drawn from the novel to demonstrate the significance of joy, commitment, and imagination.(n2)
In keeping with this message, March, sees teaching "as a calling of faith, not a consequential act." As elaborated in the interview below, Don Quixote’s basic message remains important to teachers, leaders, and the rest of us. As March says, "Quixote reminds us that if we trust only when trust is warranted, love only when love is returned, learn only when learning is valuable, we abandon an essential feature of our humanness."
"In other words, the issue is not one of “markets vs. state” - “free” markets vs. “sand in the wheel” transactions taxes. It is: how can banks be better organized? And not just banks. The issue of NHS or schools reform poses the same questions.
In this sense, the traditional statist left and free market right are both wrong."
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The right is wrong because it overlooked issues of the organization of private companies because it believed that the market would select against bad forms of organization and in favour of good ones. This belief ran into two problems - that bad organizations were (are) widespread*, and that selection against them can be a hugely disruptive and costly process.
The statist/Keynesian left is wrong because its faith that the state can manage the economy by macroeconomic policy and regulation ignored the organizational failings of the state - that there’s a danger of regulatory capture, or that inadequate knowledge would yield bad regulation and policy.
"I can see several reasons for why organization theorists don’t engage with these types of, “futurist” questions. First, theories of organization tend to lag practice. That is, organizational scholars describe and explain the world (in its current or past state), though they don’t often engage in speculative forecasting (about possible future states). Second, many of the organizational sub-fields suited for wide-eyed speculation are in a bit of a lull, or they represent small niches. For example, organization design isn’t a super “hot” area these days (certainly with exceptions) — despite its obvious importance. Institutional and environmental theories of organization have taken hold in many parts, and agentic theories are often seen as overly naive. Environmental and institutional theories of course are valuable, but they delimit and are incremental, and are perhaps just self-fulfilling and thus may not always be practically helpful for thinking about the future.
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"In The Institutional Revolution, Douglas W. Allen offers a thought-provoking account of another, quieter revolution that took place at the end of the eighteenth century and allowed for the full exploitation of the many new technological innovations. Fundamental to this shift were dramatic changes in institutions, or the rules that govern society, which reflected significant improvements in the ability to measure performance—whether of government officials, laborers, or naval officers—thereby reducing the role of nature and the hazards of variance in daily affairs. Along the way, Allen provides readers with a fascinating explanation of the critical roles played by seemingly bizarre institutions, from dueling to the purchase of one’s rank in the British Army."
"Albert O. Hirschmann’s Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States is a “generative” book: the ideas it contains are deceptively simple but enormously fruitful."
" a book review I’ve written about Politics and Partnerships: The Role of Voluntary Associations in America’s Political Past and Present by Elisabeth Clemens and Doug Guthrie."
"Naomi Ellemers studied at the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, where she obtained her first degree in Social Psychology in 1987. She obtained her PhD from the same university in 1991, on a thesis entitled "Identity management strategies". From 1991 to 1998 she was employed as Assistant Professor and Associate Professor of Psychology at the Free University of Amsterdam. As of 1999 she has been Full Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. Her research on group processes and intergroup relations addresses a range of topics including the effects of status differences between groups, diversity in teams and organizations, career development of women and minorities, and motivation and commitment in work teams."
"Dr. Michael Kramer's research centers on three main areas: employee transitions in organizational settings, emotion management in organizations, and group communication processes, particularly in non-profit organizations such as community theater, although he has recently begun investigating the relationship of researchers to institutional review boards. His work on employee transitions examines newcomers, transferees, recently promoted employees, employees being dismissed, and employees experiencing a merger or acquisition. He has typically focused on uncertainty reduction theory as part of this research. His book, Managing Uncertainty in Organizational Communication, presents his conceptualization of uncertainty in human interaction (2004, Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers). Michael is extremely diverse in the research methods he uses, ranging from quantitative research, to content analysis, to ethnographic work."
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