This article examines the stability of rational decision making in complex, tightly coupled administrative organizations. In particular, it analyzes a process of decisional "tunneling" in which members of a set of decisions progressively undermine the rationality of one another, degrading organizational means-ends calculations. Under these circumstances, the pursuit of even boundedly rational decision making is displaced by "pathology"—behavior that is logically self-defeating, both organizationally and in relation to the self-interest of individual participants. The implications of this phenomenon are analyzed, both for organization theory and for exercises in organizational design.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ADAMS, S. (1980) "Vietnam cover-up: playing war with the numbers," pp. 237-252 in R. J. Stillman (ed.) Public Administration. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
2.
ALLISON, G. (1971) Essence of Decision. Boston: Little, Brown.
3.
ARENDT, H. (1966) The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt, Brace.
4.
ASHBY, W. R. (1968) "Principles of the self-organizing system," pp. 108-118 in W. Buckley (ed.) Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist. Chicago: Aldine.
5.
BAYLES, R. (1969) "The equilibrium process in small groups," in J. A. Litterer (ed.) Organizations (Vol. 2). New York: John Wiley.
6.
BROAD, W. (1983) Fraud in Science. New York: Basic Books.
7.
CROZIER, M. (1964) The Bureaucratic Phenomenon. New York: John Wiley.
8.
CYERT, R. and J. G. MARCH (1966) A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. New York: John Wiley.
9.
DEAN, J. (1976) Blind Ambition. New York: Simon & Schuster.
10.
DEISING, P. (1967) "Noneconomic decision-making," pp. 180-195 in M. Alexis and C. Wilson (eds.) Organizational Decision-Making. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
11.
DICKERSON, M. G. (1984) Compulsive Gamblers. New York: Longman.
12.
DOUGLAS, J. D. and J. M. JOHNSON [eds.] (1977) Official Deviance. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
13.
DOWNS, A. (1967) Inside Bureaucracy. Boston: Little, Brown.
14.
DROR, Y. (1968) Public Policy Reexamined. San Francisco: Chandler.
15.
ERMANN, M. D. and R. L. LUNDMAN (1982) Corporate and Governmental Deviance. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
16.
ETZIONI, A. (1964) Modern Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
17.
ETZIONI, A. (1968) The Active Society. New York: Free Press.
18.
GARDNER, J. A. (1970) The Politics of Corruption. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
19.
GETTY, J. A. (1985) Origins of the Great Purges. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
20.
GOULDNER, A. (1954) Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy. New York: Free Press.
21.
HEIDENHEIMER, A. [ed.] (1970) Political Corruption. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
22.
HERMAN, R. (1976) Gamblers and Gambling. Toronto: Lexington Books.
23.
HIXSON, J. (1976) The Patchwork Mouse. New York: Basic Books.
24.
HOFSTADTER, D. R. (1977) Gödel, Escher, Bach. New York: Basic Books.
25.
HREBINIAK, L. (1979) Complex Organizations. Boulder, CO: West Publishing.
26.
JANIS, I. (1972) Victims of Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
27.
JERVIS, R. (1968) "Hypotheses on misperception."World Politics20 (March): 454-479.
28.
KAHNEMAN, D. and A. TVERSKY (1979) "Prospect theory: an analysis of decision under risk."Econometrica47 (March): 263-291.
29.
KAHNEMAN, D. and A. TVERSKY (1984) "Choices, values and frames."Amer. Psychologist39 (April): 341-350.
30.
KATZ, D. and R. L. KAHN (1966) The Social Psychology of Organizations. New York: John Wiley.
31.
LANDAU, M. (1969) "Redundancy, rationality and the problem of duplication and overlap."Public Administration Rev.29 (July/August): 346-358.
32.
LANDAU, M. and R. STOUT (1979) "To manage is not to control: or the folly of Type II Error."Public Administration Rev.39 (March/April): 148-156.
33.
LaPORTE, T. R. (1982) "On the design and management of nearly error-free organizational control systems," pp. 185-200 in D. J. Sills (ed.) Accident at Three-Mile Island. Boulder, CO: Westview.
34.
LINDBLOM, C. E. (1959) "The `science' of muddling through."Public Administration Rev.19 (Spring): 79-88.
35.
LINDBLOM, C. E. and D. BRAYBROOKE (1963) A Strategy of Decision. New York: Free Press.
36.
MAJONE, G. (1978) "Technology assessment in a dialectic key."Public Administration Rev.38 (January/February): 50-55.
37.
MANDELSTAM, N. (1976) Hope Against Hope. New York: Atheneum.
38.
MARCUS, P. M. (1976) "Organizational change: a review and synthesis of the literature," pp. 804-834 in G. K. Zollscham and W. Hirsch (eds.) Social Change. New York: John Wiley.
39.
MARUCH, M. (1985) "Vicious circles in organizations."Admin. Sci. Q.30 (March): 14-33.
40.
MAYO, E. (1945) Social Problems of Industrial Civilization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
41.
MERTON, R. K. (1952) "Bureaucratic structure and personality." pp. 361-371 in R. K. Merton (ed.) Reader in Bureaucracy. New York: Free Press.
42.
MICHAEL, D. (1973) The Unprepared Society. New York: Basic Books.
43.
MICHELS, R. (1948) Political Parties. New York: Knopf.
44.
NAS, T. , A. PRICE, and C. WEBER (1986) "A policy-oriented theory of corruption."Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.80 (March): 107-119.
45.
PERROW, C. (1984) Normal Accidents. New York: Basic Books.
46.
SILLS, D. L. (1957) The Volunteers. New York: Free Press.
47.
SIMON, H. A. (1955) "A behavioral model of rational choice."Q. J. of Economics69 (February): 99-118.
48.
SIMON, H. A. (1962) "The architecture of complexity."Proceedings of the Amer. Philosophical Society106 (December): 467-482.
49.
SIMON, H. A. and J. G. MARCH (1958) Organizations. New York: John Wiley.
50.
STAW, B. and J. ROSS (1978) "Commitment to a policy decision: a multi-theoretical perspective."Admin. Sci. Q.23 (March): 40-64.
51.
STINCHCOMBE, A. (1965) "Organizational deviance," pp. 142-193 in J. G. March (ed.) Handbook of Organizations. Chicago: Rand McNally.
52.
THOMPSON, J. D. (1967) Organizations in Action. New York: McGraw-Hill.
53.
THOMSON, J. C. (1972) "How could Vietnam happen? An autopsy," pp. 320-333 in F. E. Rourke (ed.) Bureaucratic Power in National Politics. Boston: Little, Brown.
54.
TSOU. T. (1971) "The Chinese cultural revolution and the Chinese political system." pp. 191-204 in R. Baum (ed.) China in Ferment: Perspectives on the Cultural Revolution. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
55.
VANDIVIER, K. (1979) "Why should my conscience bother me?" pp. 160-175 in R. Kanter and B. Stein (eds.) Life in Organizations. New York: Basic Books.
56.
VAUGHAN, D. (1983) Controlling Unlawful Organizational Behavior. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
57.
WILDAVSKY, A. (1964) The Politics of the Budgetary Process. Boston: Little, Brown.
58.
WILENSKY, H. (1967) Organizational Intelligence. New York: Basic Books.
59.
WILSON, J. Q. (1967) "The bureaucracy problem."Public Interest6 (Winter): 3-9.
