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Rationality

About: Rationality is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 20459 publications have been published within this topic receiving 617787 citations.


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Journal Article
TL;DR: The notion of real-time rationality is addressed, focusing on the application of knowledge about the expected timewise-refinement abilities of reasoning strategies to balance the benefits of additional computation with the costs of acting with a partial result.

328 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that organizations should be thought of as material, spatial ensembles, not just cognitive abstractions writ large, and link space and organization in this way, both in negative and positive terms.
Abstract: In this article, we re.ect on architecture and management and organization theory, in terms of their mutual implications. We focus especially on a tacit implication in mainstream organization theory, which has an architectural genesis. In the past, management has been largely undergirded by a Cartesian rationality, one seen most clearly in the argument that structure follows strategy. Architecturally, this Cartesianism is present in the injunction that form follows function. Criticizing this point of view, we argue that organizations should be thought of as material, spatial ensembles — not just cognitive abstractions writ large. Linking space and organization in this way, we re.ect on the power that every spatial organization necessarily implies, both in negative and positive terms. After examining existing approaches to this issue, we discuss some positive power implications for management. We introduce the concept of the generative building that, instead of being a merely passive container for actions ...

327 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a model can be developed that combines the advantages of rational choice theory (mainly providing self-sufficient explanations), without falling victim to its shortcomings, which is implicitly used in classical and modern sociological works that are considered to be illuminating and valid.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Skepticism toward sociology has grown over recent years. The attention granted to rational choice theory (RCT) is, to a large extent, a reaction against this situation. Without doubt, RCT is a productive instrument, but it fails signally in explaining positive nontrivial beliefs as well as normative nonconsequential beliefs. RCT's failures are due to its move to use too narrow a definition of rationality. A model can be developed that combines the advantages of the RCT (mainly providing self-sufficient explanations), without falling victim to its shortcomings. This model is implicitly used in classical and modern sociological works that are considered to be illuminating and valid.

326 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Kettl as discussed by the authors compared new public administration with reinventing government along six dimensions of public administration: concepts of change, concepts of relevance and empowerment, theories of rationality; organizational structure and design; theories of management and leadership; and epistemology, methodology, and the issue of values.
Abstract: No movement associated with the administrative aspects of modern American government has had the visibility of reinventing government. The phrase reinventing government has entered the lexicon of government, and the constellation of ideas associated with it appears to have been extensively influential in the practices of government management at all levels (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992; Report of the National Performance Review, 1993). Only time will tell if the reinventing movement will be the revolution its advocates seek and will have the staying power of the progressive reform movement of the turn of the century, out of which much of modern public administration emerged, or the positive government era of the 1940s and 1950s, which shaped the character of the modern field. American public administration is alive with debates, arguments, and discussions of the strengths and weaknesses of the reinventing government paradigm (Kettl, 1994; DiIulio, Garvey, and Kettl, 1993; Goodsell, 1993; Moe, 1993; Rosenbloom, 1994; Carroll, 1995; Nathan, 1995). Because this is not the first attempted revolution in the field, it is useful to compare it with earlier movements. Here I compare the new public administration that started in the late 1960s and has a continuing literature (Marini, 1971; Frederickson, 1980; Waldo, 1971; Frederickson and Chandler, 1989) to the reinventing government movement of the early 1990s.(1) I compare new public administration with reinventing government along six dimensions of public administration: concepts of change; concepts of relevance and empowerment; theories of rationality; organizational structure and design; theories of management and leadership; and epistemology, methodology, and the issue of values. Concepts of Change The need for change is the dominant theme in both the new public administration and in the reinventing government movement. Because both movements were in some sense revolutionary, it is axiomatic that the adherents to the movements were disappointed with the status quo and called for change. In some respects, members of the two movements were disappointed with the same things and were (are) seeking the same changes (Table 1). The new public administration developed a comparatively sophisticated concept of change, in part because change was the gear driving the other gears of the argument. The concept of change and other concepts were set out in three-column tables with the headings "From," "Transition," and "To." The new public administration attempted to describe the then-current (say 1968) state of affairs under "From"; the desired objective under "To," and the transition between the two. These three-column tables were applied to many concepts of public administration, such as rationality, organization structure, management, and so forth. One new public administration conception of change is presented in Table 2. Obviously, the new public administration conception of change was rather process oriented, involving changeable or malleable organizational forms, developing criteria by which to judge effectiveness, institutionalizing change processes, emphasizing decrements as much as increments, and identifying change facilitation as the primary responsibility of leadership. The new public administration also was skeptical about technology as a solution to organizational or policy problems; indeed, it was argued that technology was more often the cause of government problems than the solution. A key point in the new public administrations conception of change was based on systems logic. Public organizations are embedded in a dynamic social/political ecology. Organizations tend to stability, as most bureaucratic models would verify, whereas the context of the organization is very dynamic. By definition, [TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 2 OMITTED] then, there are problems, through time, in reconciling organizational statics and social/political dynamics. …

325 citations

Book
18 Apr 2002
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the rationality of Madness, Gods and Demons, Fools and Folly, Locking up the Mad, and the Century of Psychoanalysis.
Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. Madness, Gods, and Demons 3. The Rationality of Madness 4. Fools and Folly 5. Locking up the Mad 6. The Rise of Psychiatry 7. The Mad 8. The Century of Psychoanalysis 9. Conclusion: Modern Times, Ancient Problems?

325 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023921
20221,963
2021645
2020689
2019682
2018753