July 27: Garbage can models and political decision making

Scott Ganz, Visiting Assistant Professor of Strategy, Georgetown McDonough School of Business

Link for synchronous sessions: https://hbs.zoom.us/j/97071216335?pwd=MUZRMFB0L2xXUDRxdU9nSHVMNWtYQT09

Meeting ID: 970 7121 6335

Password: tom

Garbage Cans and Spatial Models

This session will review formal models of organizational decision making in the presence of internal politics / intra-group disagreement about desired goals. It reviews work at the intersection of organizational theory / BTOF and political economics, placing a special emphasis on canonical papers in organizational theory (March 1962; Cohen, March and Olsen 1972). Then, it provides a brief introduction of spatial models of intra-group conflict. It concludes with a discussion of a recent working paper that bridges models of spatial bargaining, garbage cans, and search on rugged landscapes.

Please read the recommended readings and watch the asynchronous video (which was taped for the 2021 TOM Summer School, but still holds up!). The suggested readings are a collection of papers that I also find useful when considering research ideas in this area.

Recommended readings

• March, James G. “The Business Firm as a Political Coalition.” The Journal of Politics, vol. 24, no. 4, 1962, pp. 662–78. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2128040.

• Cohen, Michael D., et al. “A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice.” Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 17, no. 1, 1972, pp. 1–25. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2392088. 

• Scott C. Ganz (2023) Conflict, Chaos, and the Art of Institutional Design. Organization Science 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.1662

Suggested readings

• Jonathan Bendor, et al. “Recycling the Garbage Can: An Assessment of the Research Program.” The American Political Science Review, vol. 95, no. 1, 2001, pp. 169–90. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3117636. 

• Johan P. Olsen. “Garbage Cans, New Institutionalism, and the Study of Politics.” The American Political Science Review, vol. 95, no. 1, 2001, pp. 191–98. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3117637. 

• Henning Piezunka, Oliver Schilke (2023) The Dual Function of Organizational Structure: Aggregating and Shaping Individuals’ Votes. Organization Science 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.1653

• Claus Rerup, Mark J. Zbaracki (2021) The Politics of Learning from Rare Events. Organization Science 32(6):1391-1414. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2020.1424

• Kellogg, K. C. (2009). Operating Room: Relational Spaces and Microinstitutional Change in Surgery. American Journal of Sociology, 115(3), 657–711. https://doi.org/10.1086/603535 

• Csaszar, F. (2018) Limits to the Wisdom of the Crowd in Idea Selection. Advances in Strategic Mangement.  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2457222

Contact Information

Feel free to contact me at scott.ganz@georgetown.edu with any questions, comments, or concerns.