Administrative Behavior (Simon, 1945, 1997)

p.43 A valid approach to the study of administration requires that all the relevant diagnostic criteria be identified; that each administrative situation be analyzed in terms of the entire set of criteria

p.43 Before a science can develop principles, it must possess concepts... The first task of administrative theory is to develop a set of concepts that will permit the description, in terms relevant to the theory, of administrative situations. These concepts, to be scientifically useful, must be operational; that is, their meanings must correspond to empirically observable facts or situations.

p.78 The function of knowledge in the decision-making process is to determine which consequences follow upon which of the alternative strategies. It is the task of knowledge to select from the whole class of possible consequences a more limited subclass, or even (ideally) a single set of consequences correlated with each strategy. The behaving subject... form[s] expectations of future consequences, these expectations being based upon known empirical relationships, and upon information about the existing situation... Data are gathered about each of the candidates... These data are used as a basis for comparative prediction to determine which of the candidates will perform most satisfactorily... If the predictions are accurate, then a correct decision can be made.

p.86 The relationship of the values of interacting individuals with the consequences of their joint behavior determines whether the behavior pattern will be competitive or cooperative. It was seen that instability in the behavior pattern may result when the pattern is competitive or when each of the participants errs in predicting the behavior of the others.

p.90 over the course of the day, and especially over longer intervals of time, we must address many needs, and seek to attain many goals. We must share our time among these many agenda items, some requiring prompt attention, some allowing more flexibility; and we must therefore have mechanisms that allow us to allocate attention to particular tasks and to shift attention rapidly when a task presents itself with real-time urgency... Motivation and emotion are the mechanisms responsible for this allocation of attention.

p.91 when emotion is strong, the focus of attention may be narrowed to a very specific, and perhaps transient, goal, and we may ignore important matters that we would otherwise take into account before acting... In producing this narrowness of focus, emotion does sometimes stand in opposition to reason. But we must be very careful in our evaluations, for it is this same intensity of thought that, under other circumstances, allows us to concentrate on solving highly complex problems and dealing with extremely difficult situations.

Perhaps the most useful way to think about emotion in relation to administration and to decision-making in organizations is to think of it as a force that helps direct actions towards particular goals by holding attention on them and the means of their realization.

p.97 Docility is characterized, then, by a stage of exploration and inquiry followed by a stage of adaptation. It can be observed in the behavior of individuals and in the behavior of organizations.

p.101 If rationality is to be achieved, a period of hesitation must precede choice, during which the behavior alternatives, knowledge bearing on environmental conditions and consequences, and the anticipated values must be brought into the focus of attention... A stimulus, external or internal, directs attention to selected aspects of the situation to the exclusion of competing aspects that might turn choice in another direction.

p.102 It appears, then, that in actual behavior, as distinguished from objectively rational behavior, decision is initiated by stimuli which channel attention in definite directions, and that the response to the stimuli is partly reasoned, but in a large part habitual. The habitual portion is not, of course, necessarily or even usually irrational, since it may represent a previously conditioned adjustment or adaptation of behavior to its ends.

p.107-108 When a problem of a particular kind has several times arisen for decision, it may lead to a generalized query of the following kind: "What criteria can I discover which can be used as a basis for choice whenever a problem of this kind arises?" ... When the problem has been posed and a solution reached, then a decision has been made that will guide all further decisions on this subject. This it may do by selecting (1) particular values as criteria for the later decisions, (2) particular items of empirical knowledge as relevant to the later decisions, (3) particular behavior alternatives as the only ones needing consideration for later choice.

p.122 If two or more needs express themselves at the same time, organisms and organizations must decide which to put first on the agenda. These priorities are usually settled by simple rules: attend first to the need whose inventory of satisfiers is more nearly exhausted... This system for fixing the agenda requires nothing like a comprehensive utility function. The urgency of needs is compared only to set search priorities. All that is required is a simple mechanism that will signal urgency and gradually increase the intensity of its signal.

p.127 Design calls for a generator that produces prospective solutions. If it cannot simply produce items, one by one, for test and acceptance and rejection, it must synthesize prospective solutions in a series of steps, applying tests of progress along the way to direct the search. The more we know about the problem space in which we are searching (the problem representation), the more information we can extract from that space to direct the search, and the more efficient the exploration will be.

p.137 With our growing understanding of the organization of judgmental and intuitive processes, of the specific knowledge that is required to perform particular judgmental tasks, and of the cues that evoke such knowledge in situations in which it is relevant, we have a powerful new tool for improving expert judgment. We can specify the knowledge and the recognition capabilities that experts in a domain need to acquire, and use these specifications for designing appropriate learning procedures.

p.139 Every manager needs also to be able to respond to situations rapidly... Behaving like a manager means having command of the whole range of management skills and applying them whenever they become appropriate.

p.157 As motivation means whatever it is that causes someone to follow a particular course of action, every action is motivated. But the relation between motives and action is not usually simple, it is mediated by a whole chain of events and surrounding conditions.

p.241 Processing capacity must be allocated to specific decision tasks, and if the total capacity is not adequate to the totality of tasks, then priorities must be set so that the most important or critical tasks are attended to.

p.241 the inherent capacity limits of information-processing systems impose... requirements on organizational design: ... the entire system be so structured as to conserve the scarce resource, attention.

p.322 The need for an administrative theory resides in the fact that there are practical limits to human rationality, and that these limits are not static, but depend upon the organizational environment in which the individual's decision takes place. The task of administration is so to design this environment that the individual will approach as close as practicable to rationality (judged in terms of the organization's goals) in his decisions.

p.324 Where a particular item of knowledge is needed repeatedly in decision, the organization can anticipate this need and, by providing the individual with this knowledge prior to decision, can extend his area of rationality. This is particularly important when there are time limits on decision.