What are the critical differences between the rational and the Carnegie approach

Question

What are the critical differences between the rational and the Carnegie approaches to decision making? What are the critical differences between the incrementalist and the garbage-can models? Which models best describe how decision making takes place in (a) a fast-food restaurant and (b) the research and development laboratory of a major drug company? 2. What is organizational learning? In what ways can managers promote the devel- opment of organizational learning by acting at various levels in the organization? By using knowledge management? 3. How can knowledge management promote organizational learning? What deter- mines which kind of knowledge management system a company should adopt? 4. How do cognitive biases affect organizational learning and the quality of decision making? What can be done to reduce their negative impact?

Explanation / Answer

The critical differences between the Rational and the Carnegie approaches to decision making are as follows :

1. The rational model to decision making assumes that those making the decisions have ability to make those decisions and they have the time and all relevant factual information to make those decisions .The Carnegie model assumes that limited information is available to decision makers , the rationality of decision makers is bounded and organizational coalitions do lead to different preferences .

2.The rational model does not take into account costs of decision makers and costs of information and the Carniege model do consider these .

The critical differences between the incrementalist and the garbage-can models are :

1. In incremental model the working environment is stable where as in garbage model it is not.

2. In incremental models the forecasted trends are accurate and focus is on improved decision making where as in garbage-can models the decisons are non programmed in a dynamic and complex environment and focus is on creating a problem from a solution and then finding a better solution .

3. In incremental models decisions are highly certain where as in garbage-can models these are highly uncertain.

Now if we talk about a fast food restaurent then incremental model best describes how a decision takes place here as environment is stable , trends are clear and almost accurate and managers make small changes to menu only to make improvements . And if we talk about the research and development laboratory of a major drug company then the garbage-can model best describes it as environment is unstable and complex , the employees creates problems from solutions & then recreates solutions which are highly unprogrammed and judgemental.

2. Organizational learning is the process of generating , documenting and distributing & imparting knowledge to the relevant employees to make sure that the employees learn in a consistent basis and their knowledge level & organizational knowledge level gets upgraded in a consistent basis. In every organization learning takes place at four levels a. Individual Level , b. Group Level , c. Organizational Level and d, Inter-Organizational Level.

At individual level managers should make sure that employees are empowered to experiment in their individual areas , they are given opportunities to improve and learn newer things from the peers in other organizations . At group level managers must make share that they create self managed teams which are cross functional who can share knowledge and can have synergy . At the organizational level managers have to make sure that relevant structures and culture are in place which promote organizational learning . A culture based upon shared goal and vision always motivates learning among employees. The best structures are organic structures which promote explorative learning . At inter-organizational level managers have to make sure that they make use of BKPT (Best Known Practices in Industry ) . They should make sure that strategic alliances with suppliers and distributors are in place for collaborative learning .

3. Knowledge management can promote organizational learning by making sure that quality information and more information is distributed among employees . It has to make sure that the information is most recent , accurate and relevant which in turn makes sure that problems are solved most creatively and quickly . Now the kind of knowledge management system a company should adopt depends upon the type of problem . If the problems are unstructured and do not exist in a system then individualistic approach is the best one and if the organizations are structured and so do the problems then a codification system should be used .

4. Cognitive biases are systems of beliefs , expectations and values develop over time and predetermine an individual's interpretation of events and so opinions formed on the basis of these may be distorted and biased . They can therefore make managers misinterpret information , prevent them to have a clear view of the problem and can hurt quality of decision making which can impede organizational learning and growth . To reduce the negative effect managers need to make strategies to improve decision making which they can do by making decision makers listen to opponents , making experiments mandatory , encouraging diversity and dialectical inquiry.

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