Showing papers by "James G. March published in 1978"

Bounded rationality, ambiguity, and the engineering of choice

Abstract: conceptions of bounded rationality Recently, behavioral studies of choice have examined the second guess, the way preferences are processed in choice behavior These studies suggest possible modifications in standard assumptions about tastes and their role in choice This paper examines some of those modifications, some possible approaches to working on them, and some complications 1 The engineering of choice and ordinary choice behavior * Recently I gave a lecture on elementary decision theory, an introduction to rational theories of choice After the lecture, a student asked whether it was conceivable that the practical procedures for decisionmaking implicit in theories of choice might make actual human decisions worse rather than better What is the empirical evidence, he asked, that human choice is improved by knowledge of decision theory or by application of the various engineering forms of rational choice? I answered, I think correctly, that the case for the usefulness of decision engineering rested primarily not on the kind of direct empirical confirmation that he sought, but on two other things: on a set of theorems proving the superiority of particular procedures in particular situations if the situations are correctly specified and the procedures correctly applied, and on the willingness of clients to purchase the services of experts with skills in decision sciences The answer may not have been reasonable, but the question clearly was It articulated a classical challenge to the practice of rational choice, the possibility that processes of rationality might combine with properties of human beings to

Financial Adversity, Internal Competition, and Curriculum Change in a University.

Abstract: December 1978, volume 23 Records at Stanford University were used to explore the relation between changes in the curriculum and financial adversity. Two hypotheses were derived from a model of universities as adaptive organizations with departments competing for resources. To test the hypotheses, changes in eight attributes of the curriculum were studied. The data show that university curriculum responded to changes in financial conditions and that departments of stronger research reputation were less responsive than departments of weaker reputation.

Performance Sampling in Social Matches

Abstract: A more conservative listing might have pairings between resident and neighbors, employer and employee, and seller and buyer; and we will occasionally use such language. We believe, however, that it is a mistake to limit the metaphor of choice to individuals, and wish to question our conventional theological and linguistic preferences for such a limitation. Similarly, in using terms like "voluntary" and "consent" to describe behavior, we do not intend to suggest that the behavior is unconstrained, that the relation is without coercion, or that consent is necessarily informed consent. The terms are used as a plain language interpretation of social pairings that are terminated by withdrawal of either party.