Goal-dependent Automaticity in Organizational Decision Models

The base line model in scholarly research on decision-making has usually been a rational model where the inherent ideology is value maximization through efficiency and effectiveness. However, other decision models have been needed to explain those organizational choices that do not satisfy the conditions of rationality. In this paper automatic decision making, or automaticity, is argued to be one way in which organizations deviate from the rational decision models. Specifically, the presence of automaticty in four different decision models, the rational model, the bureaucratic model, the decision process model, and the political model is described from a conceptual point of view. The author argues that the rational and bureaucratic models are the ones likely to be characterized by automaticity, while the benefits of automatic behavior are less likely to manifest itself in decision process models and political models.