Author Question: Describe the garbage-can model of decision-making. What will be an ideal ... (Read 81 times)

madam-professor · **on:** Jul 7, 2018

Describe the garbage-can model of decision-making.

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

The OD practitioner considers _____ when the benchmarks used to evaluate change have been achieved and the client system appears capable of continuing innovation.

a. recycling
b. reconfiguration
c. reengineering
d. innovation
e. disengagement

Ashley I · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 7, 2018

Answer to Question 1

The garbage-can model of decision-making turns the decision-making process around and argues that managers are as likely to start decision-making from the solution side as from the problem side. In other words, decision makers may propose solutions to problems that do not exist; they create a problem they can solve with solutions that are already available. While an organization's managers must tackle new problems of their own making, at the same time they must also generate alternatives and find solutions to problems that have arisen because of shifts in the environment or strains and stresses that stem from the way it operates. To further complicate decision-making, different coalitions of managers may champion different alternatives and compete for resources to implement their own chosen solutions. Thus decision-making becomes like a garbage can in which problems, solutions, and the preferences of different managers and coalitions all mix and contend with one another for organizational attention and action. In this situation, an organization becomes an organized anarchy in which the decision about which alternative to select depends on which manager or coalition has the most influence or power to sway other decision makers at that moment. Chance, luck, and timing also come into play in determining which alternative is selected. Often, the problem that is currently generating the most uncertainty for the organization is the one that has the best chance of being acted on, and this may change from week to week. decision-making becomes fluid, unpredictable, and even contradictory as the preferences and priorities of decision makers change.

Answer to Question 2

e