ABSTRACT
Organizational knowledge, or organizational intelligence, is not only the process of collecting yet one more datum to complete a puzzle, but, of greater importance, it is also a process of interpreting data to solve mysteries. One of the more intriguing ways in which organizations distort knowledge is called uncertainty absorption, whereby information that initially is regarded as uncertain and 'soft' by the people who collect it becomes increasingly certain and 'hard' as it is sent up through the decision-making hierarchy. Organizational structure, in short, is no panacea for curing pathologies of organizational information. Emotion colors decision making. A decision is first made as an emotional response to one's environment, and this is especially the case when there have been recent and dramatic events in it; consequently, decision makers often misstate the problem to be solved. Organized anarchies use an erratic, irrational decision-making process that is a figurative 'garbage can'.
