This thesis develops a heuristic approach to organizational decision-making by synthesizing the classical, neo-classical and contingency approaches to organization theory. The conceptual framework developed also integrates the rational and cybernetic approaches with cognitive processes underlying the decision-making process. The components of the approach address the role of environment in organizational decision-making, develop a typology of decision situations, display the communication of decision dimensions and examine the role of critical variables in the decision-making process. The development of the approach is supported by its application to a short case-study. Given the existing difficulty in evaluating both commercial and public- policy formulation and decision outcomes, the conceptual framework developed is intended to be a useful tool descriptively, predictively and prescriptively for analyzing the organizational decision-making process.

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http://archive.org/details/organizationalde1094518513

Captain, United States Marine Corps