| Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory: A Critique Contributor(s): Zey, Mary (Author) |
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ISBN: 0803951361 ISBN-13: 9780803951365 Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc OUR PRICE: $90.25 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: December 1997 Annotation: An ambitious new work by a well-respected economic sociologist, Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory: A Critique, offers a new perspective on the strategy and actions of organizations. In merging economic, psychological, and sociological literature as they focus on organizations, author Mary Zey contends that a historical political economy contingency theory provides the key to understanding how organizations function and the relationships between individuals and organizations in which they work. She brings to our attention that economic and other types of organizations differ in their behavior from rational individuals and rational markets. Zey integrates macro- and micro-levels of analysis while drawing together internal and external contingencies to explain how decisions are taken. Zey interprets, synthesizes, and critiques the important work of renowned scholars of rational choice, finance, and organizations including James March, Michael Jensen, and Oliver Williamson to analyze corporate decision making, differentiating it from individual decision making. The analysis is distinguished by inclusive thinking and new approaches to issues that have long confronted those who think about, theorize about, work with, and manage organizations. Mary Zey?'s work expands the understanding of decision making by presenting evidence that points to the wide range and complexity of human decision making. The rational choice theorists, led most notably by Oliver Williamson and James Coleman, adhere to the tenets of transaction cost analysis and agency theory when looking at micro- and macro-level decisions made by people and organizations. Other models of decision making (habit, emotion, moral and ethical values, among others) have been labeled as deviations from formal rationality. Mary Zey calls these "deviations" alternative motives behind decision making, and her books are an attempt to present the leading work from this point of view. Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory: A Critique is the first single-authored volume to analyze and present an alternative model to decision making theory and serves as a companion to Decision Making (Sage, 1992). Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory will be useful to professors and students of decision making theory, organizational theory, sociology of organizations, and social theory. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Business & Economics | Organizational Behavior |
| Dewey: 153.83 |
| LCCN: 97-33748 |
| Physical Information: 0.43" H x 5.62" W x 8.46" (0.45 lbs) 149 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book addresses a question central to organizational analysis: Given the well-established differences between rational choice and organizational theories, what are the limits of fruitful dialogue and collaboration between the two fields? Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory is written in response to the neoclassical economic rational choice theories and organizational economic theories which have emerged in the past decade. Rational choice theory exemplifies a highly abstract, deductive approach characterized by the development of models based on deliberately, rigidly simplified assumptions. In contrast, Mary Zey argues that the empirical validity of the structure of organizations |