ORGANIZATION DECISION-MAKING,

Organizations are viewed as systems for making decisions, with emphasis on the process by which organizations select alternative courses of action. The theoretical and empirical work is discussed of economists, sociologists, psychologists, and political scientists who have studied the decision-making process in individuals and organizations. Some material from the study of decision-making in artificial systems, particularly from the research in artificial intelligence- the effort to program computers to perform intelligent tasks. A comprehensive model is considered which generates all alternative courses of action and examines all of the consequences of these alternatives for all relevant goals. Two methods used by individuals, organizations, and computer systems for reducing the search required by the comprehensive model are discussed. The processes used in the organizations search for alternatives and estimation of consequences are also considered. Author