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Perspective—Administrative Behavior: Laying the Foundations for Cyert and March

School of Information, University of Michigan, 312 West Hall, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1092
mdc{at}umich.edu

A Behavioral Theory of the Firm by Cyert and March (1963) can be interpreted as a culmination of new intellectual directions in the study of organization that began with Herbert Simon’s Administrative Behavior (1947). This essay shows how Simon broke with major pre–World War II intellectual traditions and thereby laid the groundwork on which A Behavioral Theory depends. It also suggests the contemporary potential of returning to themes that were set aside by Simon, but were key for prewar pragmatists, such as emphasizing the roles of habit and emotion in organizational action.

Key Words: routine; decision making; habit; standard operating procedures; bounded rationality pragmatism; positivism

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