Garbage Can Decision Processes on a Lattice
Erik Larsen**, Alessandro Lomi
e.r.larsen@city.ac.uk, Alx@economia.unibo.it
Two conflicting views coexist uneasily in the study of
organizational decision process. According to the first, decisions within
organizations are as the outcome of random encounters among problems, solution
and decision makers. The second view emphasizes the stabilizing effect of
routines and other procedural ñ and institutional - constraints on
ordered sequences of organizational decisions.
In an attempt to reconcile these two views, in this paper
we propose a dynamic lattice model that shares many of the features of the
original garbage can model of Cohen, March and Olsen. According to the model
the sites of a square two-dimensional lattice are occupied by three types
of objects: problems, solutions and agents. Collisions among objects are
regulated by local rules of interaction and generate three kinds of organizational
decisions: Decisions by resolution, by oversight and by flight. Objects are
assigned to sites. The state of each site is updated synchronously by iterative
application of deterministic local rules.
In keeping with the original model, collisions generate
a new class of objects called ìdecisions.î However unlike the
original model, collisions also change the primitive component objects in
fundamental ways. For example, decisions by resolution destroy problems and
increase agents computing capacity. Decisions by oversight change solutions
which then become parts of compound objects called routines. Decisions by
flight generate new types of problems that ultimately destroy agents.
We design and conduct a series of virtual experiments
to explore the complex relationship between stability and change in organizational
decision processes.