Zur Shapira.

Zur Shapira, ed New York: Cambridge University Pres 1997 397 pp $5995

The inquiry of organizational behavior has witnessed a dramatic shift toward a more cognitive perspective. Inspired by dint of the early work of the Carnegie train (Simon, 1957; March and Simon, 1958; Cyert and March, 1963) a cognitive approach to organizations has been dominant in the 1990 Micro organizational behavior researchers have been closely joined to the psychological area of behavioral decision research that is bottomed in the bounded rationality universal of Herbert Simon. Macro organizational behavior researchers have exhibited the area of organizational decision making, which builds onward the writing of Simon's colleague, James March. Shapira's edited dimensions provides a critical integration of the contemporary area of organizational decision making, with a clear focus in succession whether organizational decision making differs from individual decision making as studied in the behavioral decision research area.

Organizational Decision Making is required reading for any scholar interested in to what degree decisions are made in organizations. The part covers the breadth of the field extremely well. In addition, behavioral decision researchers are well advised to read this volume to place the study of individual decision making in perspective. Focusing in succession a comparison between individual and organizational decisions, the central (implicit) debate regards whether individual "decision processes gripe [i]or[/i] grip the key to the understanding of organizational phenomena" (Simon, 1976: xi), or whether organizational decision making is a topic separate from individual decision making (March and Shapira, 1982; March, 1994) Chapters according to Shapira; March; Dutton; Camerer and Knez; Salancik and Brindle; Zajac and Westphal; Zhou; O'Connor; Connolly and Koput; Starbuck and Pant; and Radner argue for a unique field of inquiry. In contrast, Staw; Fischhoff and Johnson; Garud and Shapira; and Kunreuther and Meszaros productively build forward the individual decision-making research area and exhibit the power of individual decision-making research in explaining organizational decisions. Payne's closing chapter argues that the two approaches are needed for a undiminished understanding of organizational decision making.

The first pair chapters, by Shapira and March, respectively, not solely introduce the major themes of the volume but also provide a clear overview of the now passing state of the subfield of organizational decision making. In chapter 1 Shapira provides a sedate summary of how organizational decisions differ from individual decisions as typically studied according to behavioral decision researchers in a laboratory setting. First, he argues that ambiguity is pervasive in organizations, even now ignored by individual researchers (this idea is further bring outed by Garud and Shapira). secondary he argues that the sequential nature of decisions in organizations is critical, even now rare in the study of individual decision making (expanded immediately after by Staw). Third, incentives and survival are critical issues in organizations that are either ignored or underrepresent in studies of individual decision making (the focus of Zajac and Westphal). Fourth, the controls that develop in the organization become central to the decision proces as decisions in organizations are rarely unique (examined on Zhou). Fifth, conflict and power are the core of organizational life and the decisions that rise into view from it (developed by Salancik and Brindle). Dutton's chapter nicely highlights another critical distinction: in organizations, we ne to understand what decisions make it to the agenda, rather than purely understanding how these decisions are made. Finally, Camerer and Knez add that a unique aspect of organizational decisions is the ne to coordinate behavior. While it is possible to identify specific individual decision-making studies in the laboratory that accord to these concerns, Shapira, Dutton, and Camerer and Knez do an choice job of presenting modal differences between organizational decision making and individual decision making as typically studied in the lab.

March's chapter lays the foundation for providing alternative strategies in the cogitation of organizational decision making. Specifically, he identifies four ways that decisions are made in organizations: rational choice, mastery following, sense making, and evolutionary processe March's contribution nicely summarizes core ideas from his 1994 work and serves to place the contemporary field in its historical connection In addition, given his central part in this subfield, this chapter provides an extremely good base for those that follow

A number of the chapters provide distinctly organizational accounts of decision making, clearly in the spirit of March's perspective. Salancik and Brindle elaborate forward a model of organizational decision making with a specific focus forward power, while Zajac and Westphal examine the part of incentives. Zhou provides a same Marchian analysis of how order following affects organizational decision making. O'Connor explains for what reason the narratives that often accompany a decision influence organizational decisions. a great deal of like Pennington and Hastie's (1988) argument of jury decision making being influenced on the emerging "story," O'Connor papal courts organizational decisions being influenced through the emerging narrative.