Auteurs
Laure Cabantous
Jean-Pascal Gond
Michael Johnson-Cramer
Abstract
This paper explores the underlying processes whereby substantive rationality is achieved within organizational decision-making processes. The qualitative coding of 58 case study reports produced by experts of rational decision-making – the so-called Decision-Analysts – in a wide range of organizations highlights how organizations can take decisions in accordance with the axioms of rational choice theory. This study shows the engineering work and the symbolic processes that sustain the making of the “economic man”. Our findings reveal the complex and fragile socio-technical infrastructure underlying the craft of rational decision-making, the central role of calculability, and the various forms of bricolage that decision-analysts deploy to make rationality happen. Overall, this research explores the social construction of economic rationality and identifies the conditions of rational choice theory performativity within organizations.
