ABSTRACT
Economist, psychologist and computer scientist, Herbert Simon demolished the concept of the business organisation as a rational entity and introduced a behavioural theory of the firm which put the human element squarely at the centre of issues such as strategic thinking, decision making and organisational relationships. He introduced the concepts of ‘bounded rationality’, arguing that managers are rarely if ever in possession of complete sets of information, and accordingly engage in ‘satisficing’, seeking to make not the best decision per se, but the best decision possible given limited information. His work lies at the basis of most modern ideas about organisation and managerial behaviour. He has won many awards, including the Turing Award for his work with computer models in 1975 and the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1978.
