Garbage Cans and Spatial Models - Scott Ganz

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.

Required Readings

Cohen, Michael D., James G. March, and Johan P. Olsen. 1972. “A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice.” Administrative Science Quarterly 1–25.

Ganz, Scott. 2020. Conflict, Chaos, and the Art of Institutional Design. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/2fzdt

March, James G. 1962. “The Business Firm as a Political Coalition.” Journal of Politics 24(4):662–78. 

Optional Readings

Bendor, Jonathan, Terry M. Moe, and Kenneth W. Shotts. 2001. “Recycling the Garbage Can: An Assessment of the Research Program.” American Political Science Review 95(1):169–90. doi: 10.2307/3117636.

Enelow, James M., and Melvin J. Hinich. 1984. The Spatial Theory of Voting: An Introduction. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; New York: Cambridge University Press.

Ethiraj, Sendil K., and Daniel Levinthal. 2009. “Hoping for A to Z While Rewarding Only A: Complex Organizations and Multiple Goals.” Organization Science 20(1):4–21. doi: 10.1287/orsc.1080.0358.

Ganz, Scott C. 2018. “Ignorant Decision Making and Educated Inertia: Some Political Pathologies of Organizational Learning.” Organization Science 29(1):39–57. doi: 10.1287/orsc.2017.1164.

Kaplan, Sarah. 2008. “Framing Contests: Strategy Making Under Uncertainty.” Organization Science 19(5):729–52. doi: 10.1287/orsc.1070.0340.

Zbaracki, Mark J., and Mark Bergen. 2010. “When Truces Collapse: A Longitudinal Study of Price-Adjustment Routines.” Organization Science 21(5):955–72.

Video & Slides

Contact Information

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