Davide Secchi

Extendable Rationality: Understanding Decision Making in Organizations - Organizational Change and Innovation Davide Secchi

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Table of Contents: 1. Introduction -- What to Expect -- Book Structure -- Notes -- Part I. The Limited Cognition -- 2. Rationalization and Rationality -- Kinds of Decisions -- The Legacy of Herbert Simon -- Summary -- Notes -- 3. Bounded Rationality -- What Is Bounded Rationality -- Summary -- Notes -- 4. Maps of Bounded Rationality (I) -- Prospect Theory -- This Is a Biased World! -- Summary -- Notes -- 5. Maps of Bounded Rationality (II) -- Heuristics -- Accessibility, Representation, and Framing -- Two Logics -- Implications of Using One or More Maps -- Summary -- Notes -- Part II. The Extended Brain -- 6. Simon's Error -- Distributing Cognition -- How Bounded is Rationality? -- Summary -- Notes -- 7. Stretching the Bounds (I) -- Through Doing Decision Making -- The Rationality of Change -- Summary -- Notes -- 8. Stretching the Bounds (II) -- The Others -- Advice Taking -- Passive Advice Taking -- Summary -- Notes -- 9. The Docile Organization -- The Docile Individual -- Levels of Docility -- Understanding Docility -- What Is a Docile Organization? -- Summary -- Notes -- 10. Conclusions -- The Point on Rationality -- What Are We Mapping? -- The Individual and the Group -- A Methodological Note -- Extendable Rationality -- Notes -- Afterword -- References -- Index. Jacket Description/Back: How do people make decisions in organizations? is the question at the core of this book. Do people act rationally? Under what conditions can information and knowledge be shared to improve decision making? Davide Secchi applies concepts and theories from cognitive science, organizational behavior, and social psychology to explore the dynamics of decision making. In particular, he integrates bounded rationality (people are only partly rational; they have (a) limited computational capabilities and (b) limited access to information) and distributed cognition (knowledge is not confined to an individual, but is distributed across the members of a group) to build upon the pioneering work of Herbert Simon (1916-2001) on rational decision making and contribute fresh insights. This book is divided into two parts. The first part (Chapters 2 to 5) explores how recent studies on biases, prospect theory, heuristics, and emotions provide the so-called map of bounded rationality. The second part (Chapter 6 to 8) presents the idea of extendable rationality. In this section, Secchi identifies the limitations of bounded rationality and focuses more heavily on socially-based decision processes and the role of docility in teaching, managing, and executing decisions in organizations. The practical implications extend broadly to issues relating to change and innovation, as organizations adapt to evolving market conditions, implementing new systems, and effectively managing limited resources. The final chapter outlines an agenda for future research to help understand the decision making characteristics and capabilities of an organization."Biographical Note: Davide Secchi, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. His research interests include distributed cognition and its implications for management; human cognition and decision making; and social responsibility. He received his masters degrees (in venture finance and international finance) and his doctorate from the University of Pavia in Italy, and holds a BS from the University of Cagliari. He presents frequently at conferences and has published widely in scholarly journals and edited volumes, including the Journal of Business Ethics (Springer)."Publisher Marketing: Central to this book is the question of how people in organizations make decisions. Do they act rationally? After discussing recent studies mapping bounded rationality, the work moves on to present the socially-informed notion of 'extendable rationality'.