It has long been widely recognised that many of the decisions that affect the policies of organisations are made in groups. Even in hierarchical organisations with powerful control from the centre, there has to be a flow of information to the centre from formal and informal ‘assemblies’ of individuals working within formal and informal groupings. As far back as 1969, Adrian Cadbury, in his Nuffield Lecture at Leicester University, put forward the idea that within the business corporation of the future, there would be a pattern of transient, task-orientated groups, set up to deal with given business problems.

Economic thought and the study of management have become increasingly influenced by the recognition that decisions are made in organisations and, hence, through organisational processes. This has led to recognition of the complexity of decision making in an organisational context and interest in How Institutions Think, as Mary Douglas put it in her book with that title. It has also led to an interest in the idea of decision making as the resolution of conflict and to the use of various methods, including group decision support systems, designed to facilitate interactive communication within groups.

From the point of view of philosophy of management, this leads to an emphasis on its transdisciplinary character and to a critique of the neo-classical emphasis on the economic agent – individual consumer or business firm – as a rational, maximising entity. Such an approach has, of course, an ancestry in the work of people like Herbert Simon, Cyert and March, Edith Penrose, and Shackle, among others.

Professor Tony Gear

University of Glamorgan

Llantwit Road

Treforest

Pontypridd RCT

CF37 1DL

UK

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Tony Gear

Educated at Balliol College, Oxford, Leonard Minkes is Emeritus Professor of Business Organisation at the University of Birmingham and Visiting Professor in the Business School at the University of Glamorgan. His many publications include The Entrepreneurial Manager. Decisions, Goals and Business Ideas (1987) and Business Behaviour and Management Structure (1985 with C.S. Nuttall)