This study explores the three logics of action used by middle managers when undertaking projects. While this study was an exploratory one, it demonstrated that three logics clearly exist in the decision-making process, and that decision-making is discursively heterogeneous. Each of these logics, authoritarian, emotional, and conciliatory, implies a particular kind of rationality. Such logics depend mainly on the managers' perceptions of their endeavours. Each of these three logics implies a particular kind of rationality that goes much beyond the bounded rationality.
Allison, G.1971, The Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, Little Brown and Company, Boston.
2.
Bacharach, S., Banberger, P. & McKinney, V.2000, ‘Boundary management tactics and logics of action: The case of peer-support providers’, Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 45, pp. 704–36.
3.
Barnard, C.1938, The Functions of the Executive, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
4.
Bower, J.1970, ‘Managing the resource allocation process: A study of corporate planning and investment’, Harvard University, Boston.
5.
Chaffee, E.1985, ‘Three models of strategy’, Academy of Management Review, vol. 10, pp. 89–98.
6.
Chakravarthy, B., & White, R.2002, ‘Strategy process: forming, implementing and changing strategies’ in Handbook of Strategy and Management, eds. A. Pettigrew, H. Thomas & R. Whittington, Sage Publications, London, UK, pp. 183–206.
7.
Cohen, M., March, J. & Olsen, J.1972, ‘A garbage can model of organizational choice’, Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 17, no. 1, 1–25.
8.
Cyert, R., & March, J.1963, A behavioral Theory of the Firm, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
9.
DiMaggio, P., & Powell, W.1983, ‘The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields’, American Sociological Review, vol. 48, pp. 147–61.
10.
Eisenhardt, K.1997, ‘Strategic decisions and all that jazz’, Business Strategy Review, vol. 8, pp. 1–3.
11.
Huy, N.2002, ‘Emotional balancing of organizational continuity and radical change: The contribution of middle managers’, Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 47, pp. 31–67.
12.
James, L., Demaree, R. & Wolf, G.1984, ‘Estimating within-group interrater reliability with and without response bias’, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 69, pp. 85–98.
13.
Janczak, S.2004, ‘How middle managers integrate knowledge within projects’, Knowledge and Process Management, vol. 11, pp. 210–24.
14.
Kanter, R.1983, The Change Masters, Simon & Schuster Inc., New York.
15.
Khatri, N., & Ng, A.2000, ‘The role of intuition in strategic decision-making’Human Relations, vol. 53. no. 1, pp. 57–86.
16.
Langley, A.1999, ‘Strategies for theorizing from process data’, Academy of Management Review, vol. 24, no. 4, 691–710.
17.
Langley, A., Mintzberg, H., Pitcher, P., Posada, E., & Saint-Macary, J.1995, ‘Opening up decision-making: The view from the black stool’, Organization Science, vol. 6, pp. 260–79.
18.
Lovallo, D., & Kahneman, D.2003, ‘Delusions of success: How optimism undermines executives decisions’, Harvard Business Review, vol. 81, no. 7, pp. 56–63.
19.
March, J.1994, ‘A primer on decision-making: How decisions happen’, Free Press, New York.
20.
Miles, M., & Huberman, M.1984, Qualitative Data Analysis: A Sourcebook of New Methods, Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA.
21.
Mintzberg, H.1994, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning: Reconceiving the Roles for Planning, Plans, Planners, Prentice-Hall International, Hemel Hempstead, U.K.
22.
Mintzberg, H., Raisinghani, D. & Theoret, A.1976, ‘The structure of ‘unstructured’ decision processes’, Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 21, pp. 246–75.
23.
Nutt, P.1984, ‘Types of organizational decision processes’, Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 29, pp. 414–50.
24.
Pettigrew, A.1973, The Politics of Organizational Decision-Making, Tavistock, London.
25.
Pfeffer, J.1982, Organizations and Organizational Theory, Pitman, Boston, MA.
26.
Popper, K.1972, Objective Knowledge, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
27.
Sarasvathy, S.2001. ‘Causation and effectuation: Toward a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency’, The Academy of Management Review, vol. 26, pp. 243–63.
28.
Schoemaker, P.1993. ‘Strategic decisions in organizations: Rational and behavioural views’, The Journal of Management Studies, vol. 30, pp. 107–29.
29.
Simon, H.1947. Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organizations, Free Press, New York.
30.
Simon, H.1987. ‘Making management decisions: The role of intuition and emotion’, Academy of Management Executive, vol. 1, pp. 57–64.
31.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J.1990. ‘Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques’, Sage Publications, Newbury Park.
32.
Thomas, J.1993. Doing Critical Ethnography, Sage, Newbury Park, CA.
