ABSTRACT

The management of the decision-making process is often equated with the study of management. It is thought to be the generalized process to which other considerations of leadership, motivation, role management, and communications are subservient. Herbert Simon, perhaps the most influential of the postwar organization theorists, interpreted complex organizations in terms of a decision-making framework (Simon, 1945). Since that time much research and case study analysis in both public and business administration has been devoted to the study of various dimensions of the decision making process (Forester, 1984; Harmon, 1989; Kaufman, 1990; Simon, 1992; Senge, 1990; Cyert and March, 1992; Zey, 1992; Bazerman, 1994; LaPorte and Keller, 1996).