In 1978, Herbert A. Simon was awarded the Nobel Economics Prize mainly on account of his book Administrative Behaviour, which the Nobel Committee said had marked its era. This article seeks to understand the reasons for this success. Thus, Simon's work is set in the context of the historical development of the study of organizations and the decisions they take. When Simon wrote his book, the study of organizations was sharply divided between prescriptive models on one side and descriptive models on the other: organizations were created by drawing on traditional descriptive models (scientific Management and organization theory), although in fact these models' recommendations were not really applied. The original contribution of Administrative behavior perhaps lay in the fact that Simon perceived the organization not as a machine for achieving concrete outputs (goods and services) but primarily as a machine for producing decisions. This provided the conceptual foundations for important later developments such as the introduction of information management systems. Even if Decisions are of Aristotelian kind, they are sheer bounded rationality due to lack of information and limited elaboration capacities of the human mind. Organisation help to reduce the complex decision making process.

L'influence de Adminstrative Behavior de H. Simon sur l'étude des organisations et suur la théorie de Public Choice / M. Balducci. - In: REVUE FRANCAISE D'ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE. - ISSN 0152-7401. - STAMPA. - 131:(2009), pp. 541-554.

L'influence de Adminstrative Behavior de H. Simon sur l'étude des organisations et suur la théorie de Public Choice

BALDUCCI, MASSIMO
2009

Abstract

In 1978, Herbert A. Simon was awarded the Nobel Economics Prize mainly on account of his book Administrative Behaviour, which the Nobel Committee said had marked its era. This article seeks to understand the reasons for this success. Thus, Simon's work is set in the context of the historical development of the study of organizations and the decisions they take. When Simon wrote his book, the study of organizations was sharply divided between prescriptive models on one side and descriptive models on the other: organizations were created by drawing on traditional descriptive models (scientific Management and organization theory), although in fact these models' recommendations were not really applied. The original contribution of Administrative behavior perhaps lay in the fact that Simon perceived the organization not as a machine for achieving concrete outputs (goods and services) but primarily as a machine for producing decisions. This provided the conceptual foundations for important later developments such as the introduction of information management systems. Even if Decisions are of Aristotelian kind, they are sheer bounded rationality due to lack of information and limited elaboration capacities of the human mind. Organisation help to reduce the complex decision making process.
2009
131
541
554
M. Balducci
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Utilizza questo identificatore per citare o creare un link a questa risorsa: https://hdl.handle.net/2158/454666
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