Bounded Rationality and the Limits of Human Nature

This article was published in the PA Times Online January, 2020 and can be viewed here. “The central concern of administrative theory is with the boundary between the rational and the non rational aspects of human social behavior” - Herbert Simon in Administrative Behavior (1947) In his existential masterpiece The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus...

Organizations as Machines: As Flawed as the People Operating them

Organizations, especially in a bureaucratic sense, seem to be faceless and machine-like. When one images how the IRS processes tax returns, one might imagine a huge robotic, emotionless, Ford Factory-like production line of paper pushers in suits. It is like a machine in its operation, but just as Bolman and Deal explains in Reframing Organizations,...

The Beauty and Flaws in Metaphors, Similes, and Symbolism

An interesting part of human behavior is the way we learn and share stories or lessons. Taking this observation and applying it to the history of any people, one will find that metaphors, symbols, and similes are everywhere - ingrained into our language and culture. To define these terms in my own words, metaphors and...

The Enlightenment and Public Administration

"One should never miss an opportunity to celebrate the enlightenment or to mock priestcraft and the worship of mediocre princes and tycoons" - Christopher Hitchens