The Consequences of Decision-Making

Decision-making is one of the defining characteristics of modern organizations. This book collects together the most important writing on decision-making by Brunsson, one of the leading European organizational theorists. The author provides an introduction to this work, brought together for the first time in this volume.

Nils Brunsson is one of the leading European organization theorists who has written and researched decision-making in organizations. He has often questioned the rationality of decision-making, and argued that it is as important to understand other consequences of decision-making apart from choice - such things as mobilizing action, allocating responsibility, and legitimizing organizations. These consequences of decisions can influence decision-making and the assumptions about feasible norms that provide their context. Decisions often run counter to actions and are part of what Brunsson calls organizational hypocrisy. Decisions can substitute for action, or decrease the probability of the action they call for. The norm of rationality is far from obvious: sometimes decision-makers can recommend systematic irrationality.This book collects together a wide-range of Nils Brunsson''s most important writing on decision-making, brought together in one volume for the first time, with an introduction from the author.