Writing assingnment - Research Paper Example

2. Who is Herbert Simon? What was his contribution to the study of organizations?Hebert Alexander Simon was a multi faceted personality from America. He was a political scientist, sociologist, psychologist and an economist. The contribution of Herbert Simon was the theory of decision making which became a fundamental component of all organization. 3. What is utility maximization and what theory is it associated with? What is a utility?Utility maximization is a process or goal of obtaining the maximum utility from the consumption of goods and services on the basis of rational behaviour of human beings.

The utility maximization is associated with the theory of decision making. Utility is an economic term which is defined as satisfaction received by individuals from the consumption of goods and services. 4. Give three examples of a utility?The examples of utility function are Cobb-Douglas production function, linear utility function and the Leontief theory.5. What is bounded rationality and what conclusions does it reach regarding human decision making capacity?“In 1957, Simon proposed the notion of Bounded Rationality as that property of an agent that behaves in a manner that is nearly optimal with respect to its goals as its resources will allow” (Bounded Rationality: A Response to Rational Analysis, n.d).According to bounded rationality human beings are only intendedly rational and not actually rational.

Human beings display a variety of sub-optimal decision making behaviours.6. What does the term ‘search’ refer to? Can there be different kinds of searches? Does one’s idea of search significantly affect the decision outcomes one derives?A search refers to a psychological process related to instinct of a person which helps him to find solution for a problem. The searches can be of different types like search for job, search for home, and search for other aspects of professional and personal life of human.

The decision outcome of an individual is affected by his search as the decision made depends on the search process. 7. Is decision making considered a major or minor activity in organizations? Please explain your answer.Decision making is considered as a major activity in any organization. Decision making is important in any activity of an organization as it helps to choose the best course of action in carrying out any task, helps to find solution to any problem or to solve conflict within an organization. 8. Give one example of the notion of “satisfice.

” Do you ever satisfice and if so, when?If a needle to sew a jean is of 4 inch and is along with other 1000 needles of different size in a haystack, then it will take more time in seeking the needle. So a satisficer would stop looking as soon as a needle is found which can sew the jeans. Every individual satisfice in their life during those situations when time is limited. 9. What does incrementalism mean? What authors/scholars are associated with this idea?Incrementalism is a process of working on a problem by proceeding in through small changes than solving it at once.

Aaron Wildavsky is the person closely associated with incrementalism. 10. Provide a major example of incrementalism in public organizations.“Congressional budget decision-making in the U.S., where the usual questions considered about a given (existing) agency might typically range from whether to cut 4 or 5 percent from its budget to whether to tack on a 5 or 10% increase. Congress very seldom stops to think seriously about whether the agency ought to be abolished entirely as unnecessary or harmful to the public interest or whether its responsibilities would be better performed in some entirely different manner by another agency” (Burgess et al. 2004).