The Challenges of March and Simon’sOrganizations: Introduction to the Special Issue

Philip Bromiley, Rouslan Koumakhov, Denise M. Rousseau, William H. Starbuck

Journal of Management Studies · 2019 · Volume 56 · Issue 8

Abstract

March and Simon pushed the study of organizations into the mainstream of academic writing about business. We outline central ideas discussed by the book and its pioneering role in studying cognitive processes underlying boundedly rational human beings. Through their representational approach, March and Simon defined and explicated key mechanisms of individual and organizational decision-making.Organizationsprovided an empirically-based understanding of human behavior and coordination, and set up core scientific criteria for creating the cumulative body of management and organization research. We summarize the papers presented in this special issue and point out contributions byOrganizationsthat have been understated, forgotten or ignored in management studies.

Keywords

Carnegie School, decision-making, empirically-based theory, management cognition

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