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Book part
Publication date: 26 October 2012

Alessandro Lomi and J. Richard Harrison

The papers collected in this volume celebrate the 40th anniversary of “A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice” – one of the most influential and sustained attempts to…

Abstract

The papers collected in this volume celebrate the 40th anniversary of “A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice” – one of the most influential and sustained attempts to represent organizational decision-making processes in a way that accounts for generally recognized but hard to accept features of organizational life. In our overview of the volume we emphasize ways in which the garbage can model (GCM) differs from more generally accepted models of organizational decision making. We suggest that future progress in linking the GCM to specific empirical settings might be facilitated by attempts to model explicitly the interdependencies connecting participants, problems, solutions, and decision opportunities in organizations. We discuss examples of current work in which this strategy is followed in a way that is consistent with the original spirit of the model. We present the overall organization of the volume and discuss how the various chapters contribute to the further development of organizational research inspired by ideas contained in the original GCM and in some of its more recent variants and critiques.

Details

The Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice: Looking Forward at Forty
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-713-0

Book part
Publication date: 29 August 2007

George S. Yip, G. Tomas M. Hult and Audrey J. M. Bink

Emerging thoughts and models in strategic management increasingly involve complex hypotheses at different levels of analysis and multiple sides of relationships. Such complexities…

Abstract

Emerging thoughts and models in strategic management increasingly involve complex hypotheses at different levels of analysis and multiple sides of relationships. Such complexities often result in less than ideal empirical testing, with the ensuing implications being limited or sometimes even wrong. One such case is global relationship management (GRM). The effective implementation of GRM has been argued to be a principal source of a firm's value creation but the testing of GRM scenarios have been very limited. Using GRM as a case example, we introduce a new methodology to the strategic management literature that alleviates many of the limitations of existing techniques – static triangulation simulation (STS). A series of GRM hypotheses are briefly introduced and then tested via the STS technique. Starting values for the simulation, based on input from companies, are included from two sides of each GRM relationship (customer and supplier) and two levels (company and account) from each side. Such elaborate testing is typically not feasible via “normal” methodology – the STS technique, however, allows for a robust assessment of the different drivers that affect GRM outcomes.

Details

Research Methodology in Strategy and Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-7623-1404-1

Book part
Publication date: 12 July 2021

Ummi Hani Mahamad Anuar and Nor Eliza Alias

Climate change is expected to alter the major components of hydrological regime such as streamflow and water availability. The magnitude and their impacts are still uncertain…

Abstract

Climate change is expected to alter the major components of hydrological regime such as streamflow and water availability. The magnitude and their impacts are still uncertain. Therefore, it is highly required to study streamflow and flood vulnerability in tropical river basins particularly urbanised basin such as Langat River Basin. This study aims to model the future streamflow of Langat River Basin due to climate change using Rainfall-Runoff Inundation (RRI) model. Daily rainfall data obtained from Department of Irrigation and Drainage Malaysia and topographic data from HydroSHEDS at 15-second resolution were used. The projected future rainfall (2075–2099) is extracted from MRI-AGCM3.2s under the worst carbon emission scenario, RCP8.5. The annual maximum series of 1-day rainfall is selected for statistical bias correction using Quantile Mapping. The General Circulation Model data were found to be greatly corrected with reasonable Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency, Percent bias and Root Mean Square Error values. The mean of maximum 1-day future rainfall in Langat River Basin is found to be inconsistent where parts of the upstream will experience an increment at about 7% while other parts decrease at 8%. Meanwhile, the rainfall at downstream area are expected to decrease at 40%. Based on RRI simulation, the future streamflow can achieve up to 92% increment.

Book part
Publication date: 26 October 2012

Guido Fioretti

This chapter reconstructs the garbage can model (GCM) of organizational choice as an agent-based model. Subsequently, it modifies the original model by establishing behavioral…

Abstract

This chapter reconstructs the garbage can model (GCM) of organizational choice as an agent-based model. Subsequently, it modifies the original model by establishing behavioral rules that regulate processes of organizational founding, growth, and disbanding in an artificial garbage can ecology. This population-level GCM reproduces some of the core features of the original GCM. Furthermore, it produces aggregate regularities that are broadly consistent with the historical trajectories followed by actual organizational populations.

Details

The Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice: Looking Forward at Forty
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-713-0

Book part
Publication date: 26 October 2012

Thorbjørn Knudsen, Nils Stieglitz and Sangyoon Yi

We extend the classical garbage can model to examine how individual differences in ability and motivation will influence organizational performance. We find that spontaneous…

Abstract

We extend the classical garbage can model to examine how individual differences in ability and motivation will influence organizational performance. We find that spontaneous coordination provided by an organized anarchy is superior when agents are equally competent. The Weberian bureaucracy of planned coordination is effective when problems require specialist knowledge. However, errors in matching problems to specialized agents are a central challenge for bureaucracies. Actual organizations, therefore, combine elements of organized anarchies and bureaucracies. Heterogeneous motivation compounds coordination problems, but is usually less important than competence. Our findings point to matching and interactive learning as fruitful areas for further study.

Details

The Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice: Looking Forward at Forty
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-713-0

Book part
Publication date: 19 December 2012

Tae-Hwy Lee and Weiping Yang

The causal relationship between money and income (output) has been an important topic and has been extensively studied. However, those empirical studies are almost entirely on…

Abstract

The causal relationship between money and income (output) has been an important topic and has been extensively studied. However, those empirical studies are almost entirely on Granger-causality in the conditional mean. Compared to conditional mean, conditional quantiles give a broader picture of an economy in various scenarios. In this paper, we explore whether forecasting conditional quantiles of output growth can be improved using money growth information. We compare the check loss values of quantile forecasts of output growth with and without using past information on money growth, and assess the statistical significance of the loss-differentials. Using U.S. monthly series of real personal income or industrial production for income and output, and M1 or M2 for money, we find that out-of-sample quantile forecasting for output growth is significantly improved by accounting for past money growth information, particularly in tails of the output growth conditional distribution. On the other hand, money–income Granger-causality in the conditional mean is quite weak and unstable. These empirical findings in this paper have not been observed in the money–income literature. The new results of this paper have an important implication on monetary policy, because they imply that the effectiveness of monetary policy has been under-estimated by merely testing Granger-causality in conditional mean. Money does Granger-cause income more strongly than it has been known and therefore information on money growth can (and should) be more utilized in implementing monetary policy.

Book part
Publication date: 10 December 2018

Sangyoon Yi, Nils Stieglitz and Thorbjørn Knudsen

In this study, the authors unpack the micro-level processes of knowledge accumulation (experiential learning) and knowledge application (problem solving) to examine how task…

Abstract

In this study, the authors unpack the micro-level processes of knowledge accumulation (experiential learning) and knowledge application (problem solving) to examine how task allocation structures influence organizational learning. The authors draw on untapped potential of the classical garbage can model (GCM), and extend it to analyze how restrictions on project participation influence differentiation and integration of organizational members’ knowledge and consequently organizational efficiency in solving the diverse, changing problems from an uncertain task environment. To isolate the effects of problem or knowledge diversity and experiential learning, the authors designed three simulation experiments to identify the most efficient task allocation structure in conditions of (1) knowledge homogeneity, (2) knowledge heterogeneity, and (3) experiential learning. The authors find that free project participation is superior when the members’ knowledge and the problems they solve are homogenous. When problems and knowledge are heterogeneous, the design requirement is on matching specialists to problem types. Finally, the authors found that experiential learning creates a dynamic problem where the double duty of adapting the members’ specialization and matching the specialists to problem types is best solved by a hierarchic structure (if problems are challenging). Underlying the efficiency of the hierarchical structure is an adaptive role of specialized members in organizational learning and problem solving: their narrow but deep knowledge helps the organization to adapt the knowledge of its members while efficiently dealing with the problems at hand. This happens because highly specialized members reduce the necessary scope of knowledge and learning for other members during a certain period of time. And this makes it easier for the generalists and for the organization as a whole, to adapt to unforeseen shifts in knowledge demand because they need to learn less. From this nuanced perspective, differentiation and integration may have a complementary, rather than contradictory, relation under environmental uncertainty and problem diversity.

Book part
Publication date: 26 October 2012

Alessandro Lomi, Guido Conaldi and Marco Tonellato

When considered as organized solutions to problems of provision of public goods, Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) productions share a number of their defining features with the…

Abstract

When considered as organized solutions to problems of provision of public goods, Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) productions share a number of their defining features with the organized anarchies described by Cohen, March and Olsen in their “Garbage Can Model” (GCM). The open and voluntary contribution of software developers creates constant fluctuations in levels of attention and an extremely fluid participation. The lack of predefined hierarchical access to organizational problems determines a fundamental uncertainty about how collective goals may be linked to individual activities, and in how responsibilities and tasks may be allocated efficiently within the project. Finally, the complexity involved in the collective production of tens of thousands of lines of computer code without explicit coordination creates a situation of technological ambiguity supported by a radically decentralized activity of organizational problem finding and problem solving. In this paper we take these broad similarities as point of departure to specify an empirical model that captures some of the garbage can properties of organizational problem-solving activities in the context of a specific F/OSS project followed throughout a complete release cycle. We examine the interconnected system of individual decisions emerging from problem-solving activities performed by the 135 contributors involved in the F/OSS project on the 719 software bugs reported during the period of observation. We treat the evolving two-mode network produced by encounters between carriers of organizational solutions (contributors) and organizational problems (software bugs) as a dynamic opportunity structure that constrains and enables organizational decision making. We document how stable local configurations linking problems and solutions are induced by – and at the same time sustain – decentralized problem-solving activities with meaningful self-organizing properties.

Details

The Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice: Looking Forward at Forty
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-713-0

Book part
Publication date: 6 July 2012

Ashutosh Mohanty, Manoranjan Mishra, Devesh Sharma and Mohammad Waheed Ibrahimzada

It is now established by the global scientific community that climate change is a hard reality but the changes are complex in nature and to a great extent uncertain. Global…

Abstract

It is now established by the global scientific community that climate change is a hard reality but the changes are complex in nature and to a great extent uncertain. Global circulation models (GCMs) have made significant contributions to the theoretical understanding of potential climate impacts, but their shortcomings in terms of assessing climate impacts soon became apparent. GCMs demonstrate significant skill at the continental and hemispheric scales and incorporate a large proportion of the complexity of the global system. However, they are inherently unable to represent local subgrid-scale features and dynamics. The first generation approaches of climate change impact and vulnerability assessments are derived from GCMs downscaled to produce scenarios at regional and local scales, but since the downscaled models inherit the biases of their parent GCM, they produce a simplified version of local climate. Furthermore, their output is limited to changes in mean temperature, rainfall, and sea level. For this reason, hydrological modeling with GCM output is useful for assessing impacts. The hydrological response due to change in climate variables in the Amu Darya River Basin was investigated using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The modeling results show that there is an increase in precipitation, maximum and minimum temperature, potential evapotranspiration, surface runoff, percolation, and water yields. The above methodology can be practiced in this region for conducting adaptation and mitigation assessments. This initial assessment will facilitate future simulation modeling applications using SWAT for the Amu Darya River Basin by including variables of local changes (e.g., population growth, deforestation) that directly affect the hydrology of the region.

Details

Climate Change Modeling For Local Adaptation In The Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-487-0

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Book part
Publication date: 12 July 2021

Abstract

Details

Water Management and Sustainability in Asia
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-114-3

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