What Are the Differences Between the Rational and the Carnegie Approaches to Decision Making?

¶ … quantum and incremental technological change? Why are these types of change important to organizations? Quantum and incremental technological changes are distinguished as two separate forces in terms of their impact upon organizations. Quantum changes are conceptualized as technological changes that result "in the innovation of new kinds of goods and services, such as development of the Internet and the development of genetic engineering" (Promoting innovation, 2014,-Page Out). Quantum changes thus generate the necessity for new business models.

A good example of this is the creation of Netflix as a way of disseminating movies and television shows vs. The old model of Blockbuster which sold items via brick-and-mortar stores. Blockbuster's model quickly became defunct because of quantum changes in technology. In contrast, "incremental technological change is change that refines existing technology and leads to gradual improvements or refinements in products over time, such as Intel's incremental improvements to its original microprocessor" (Promoting innovation, 2014,-Page Out). Such refinements are still important, however.

For example, one reason Apple has come to dominate music technology and the smartphone market is that it is continually refining these products from a technological standpoint and not merely resting on its previous laurels. Particularly in regards to technology people are demanding constant improvements to their user experience.

Technology has become a much more 'disposable' commodity than it was in the past, with people constantly replacing 'the old' in favor of 'the new.' Businesses also must keep an eye upon the horizon to understand when current products, however profitable, may become obsolete. For example, PCs (which used to be regarded as fairly ubiquitous) are now used far less for banking and communication and are being replaced by smaller handheld devices like smartphones and tablets.

Companies which depend upon their use for the 'bread and butter' must seriously contemplate what will happen if current downward trends persist. Q2. What are the differences between the rational and the Carnegie approaches to decision making? What are the differences between the incrementalist and the garbage can models? The rational decision-making model, as its name suggests, presumes a certain degree of rational self-interest on the part of the decision-maker. When problems can be easily analyzed through statistical analysis, this model can still be useful.

However, other organizational variables such as social and personal divisions often impact the possibilities for change. In contrast, "research by the Carnegie group indicated that organization-level decisions involved many managers and that a final choice was based on a coalition among those managers. A coalition is an alliance among several managers who agree about organizational goals and problem priorities" (Organizational decision-making, 2014, Management 481: 413).

The Carnegie model suggests that personal factors may act as constraints upon decision-making, such as the influence of unions upon an industry or resistance to change amongst managers in a particular department. These cannot always be quantified and bargaining and conflict-resolution techniques may be required.

Yet another model, the incremental decision process model, "places less emphasis on the political and social factors described in the Carnegie model, but tells more about the structured sequence of activities undertaken from the discovery of a problem to its solution" including identification of the problem; the development phase; the selection phase, and certain dynamic factors (Organizational decision-making, 2014, Management 481: 417-418).

The last phase is critical given that while some phases such as authorization may be routine, the progression between phases is not: "organizational decisions do not follow an orderly progression from recognition through authorization. Minor problems arise that force a loop back to an earlier stage" (Organizational decision-making, 2014, Management 481: 418). In contrast to.