WORKING OF BUREAUCRACY, Herbert Simon

OBJECTIVES

As Public Administration has gained importance in the modern times, so has been the case of behavior of administrators. Main contribution of Herbert Simon is that his views over administrative behaviour have gained worldwide recognition. His contribution is noteworthy in developing rationalistic theory of decision making. He focused on the decision making capacity in Administration by pointing out three steps in decision making process. Simon insisted upon ‘rationality’ in the decision making process. Herbert Simon was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1978.

Max Weber & Herbert Simon had valuable contribution in the field of Administration / Bureaucracy. Max Weber had described the anatomy of organization & Herbert Simon had described its physiology.

INTRODUCTION

Herbert Simon was an American, a Noble prize winner, who had contributed to the decision making theory. His writings on – the decision making process & rationality in the decision making – are still considered as the pillars for private & public Administration. Herbert Simon’s writings are mainly concerned with private organizations rather than public / Government sectors.

Besides his contribution to decision making, Simon knew the wide use of computers, helpful to the head / executive, in modern times. Today, uses of computers largely help the private as well as public sectors. In this chapter, an attempt is made to understand Simon’s views on decision making theory.

A Brief Life sketch of Herbert Simon

Herbert Simon was born in 1916, in USA. He became an eminent American political & social Scientist. He did his Ph. D. in political science. He started his career in municipal government & then worked in various companies & organizations as an academician & as a consultant.

Simon was very much influenced by Follett’s ideas on group dynamics in organization, the human relations approach performed by Elton Mayo & others & by Barnard.

Though Simon was awarded Nobel Prize in Economics, he was not an economist. His work is mainly drawn from Administrative Behavior, the study of decision making, bounded rationality & organization as a human enterprise seeking internal & external equilibrium.