The Pursuit of Organizational Intelligence: Decisions and Learning in Organizations

by James G. March

Overview

The Pursuit of Organizational Intelligence brings together the writing of one of the best-known academics in the field of decision making and organizational theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780631211020
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	01/26/1999
Series:	Business Ser.
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.04(w) x 9.23(h) x 1.17(d)

About the Author

James G. March is Professor of Organizational Theory, Emeritus, Graduate School of Business; Professor of International Economics, Emeritus; Professor of Political Science and Professor of Sociology, School of Humanities and Sciences; Professor of Education (by courtesy), School of Education - Stanford University.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 1

Part I Decisions In Organizations 11

2. Understanding How Decisions Happen in Organizations 13

3. Continuity and Change in Theories of Organizational Action 39

4. Institutional Perspectives on Political Institutions (with Johan P. Olsen) 52

Part II Learning In Organizations 73

5. Organizational Learning (with Barbara Levitt) 75

6. The Evolution of Evolution 100

7. Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning 114

8. Learning from Samples of One or Fewer (with Lee S. Sproull, and Michal Tamuz) 137

9. Adaptive Co-ordination of a Learning Team (with Pertti H. Lounamma) 156

10. The Future, Disposable Organizations, and the Rigidities of Imagination 179

11. The Myopia of Learning (with Daniel A. Levinthal) 193
 
Part III Risk Taking In Organizations 223

12. Wild Ideas: The Catechism of Heresy 225

13. Variable Risk Preferences and Adaptive Aspirations 229

14. Variable Risk Preferences and the Focus of Attention (with Zur Shapira) 251

15. Learning to Be Risk Averse 279

Part IV The Giving and Taking of Advice 305

16. Model Bias in Social Action 307

17. Organizational Consultants and Organizational Research 325

18. Organizational Performance as a Dependent Variable (with Robert I. Sutton) 338

19. Science, Politics, and Mrs. Gruenberg 355

20. Education and the Pursuit of Optimism 363

21. A Scholar's Quest 376

Index 380

Editorial Reviews

"The March collection is superb." Hans Pennings, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania

From the Publisher