Q. Central characteristics of Simon satisfying behaviour model?
The pattern of policy commitments which result from the bargaining process can be seen to be a specification of the goals of organisation. Though it is likely that due to the way in which agreement is reached, organisational objectives that emerge are imperfectly expressed and rationalised either in the form of 'aspiration levels' or in non-operational form. These organisational objectives change in two ways as the bargaining process that is continuous, proceeds: aspiration levels with respect to existing goals i.e. levels of achievement regarded as acceptable by coalition members, would be modified in the light ofthe levels actually achieved and new goals would be introduced as the attention focus of coalition members alters. The organisation copes with irrationalised conflicting goals partly since some of the objectives are expressed in non-operational form, because at any one time some of the objectives will presume a non-active form however mainly since objectives are considered sequentially and not simultaneously. Sequential, instead of simultaneous consideration is one of the central characteristics of the theory. Closely allied to the hypothesised ability of the organisation to survive in the face of conflicting goals is the notion of 'organisational slack' i.e. the notion that because of ignorance and market imperfections, payment made to coalition members will generally be in excess of that needed to keep them within the coalition. Existence of organisational slack allows the organisation to survive adverse changes in the external environment without disintegrating.
Decisions taken within the organisation are explicitly made dependent on the information available to and expectations formed by the decision takers within the organisation. Prominence is placed upon the fact that expectations, formed on the basis of any given information and certainly the type of information gathered, won't be independent of the subjective situation and interests of the groups or individuals involved. Theory argues that change is typically only considered when a problem arises, although it's recognised that if a solution comes to hand, a search for an appropriate problem may be induced. Once a problem has arisen, generally in relation to the non-achievement of one of the organisational goals or sub-goals, 'search activity' is triggered off to discover possible solutions; i.e. information is sought. Here, at this point, concept of sequential as opposed to simultaneous consideration becomes pertinent. Alternatives thrown up by search activity are considered in turn as they arise and first alternative that allows theaspiration level with respect to the goal in question to be achieved is accepted. Henceforth the procedure of decision making has been elucidated as 'satisfying' rather than maximising; it's designed to satisfy multiple, changing, acceptable-level goals, not to maximise a consistently specified objective function. This isn't to say that firm's behaviour is 'irrational'. Given the problems of information processing and gathering and the desire to decrease uncertainty, some sort of satisfying procedure may be the best possible in practice. For this reason, approach outlined here has been nominated as 'bounded ' or 'qualified' rationality.