Organization Man: Rational and Self-Actualizing

internal organizational environment and the influence of the manager upon the individual. The point being made was that the manager the agent of the organization and has much to say about creating its internal environment. Given the rational-man theory of administration, one can travel from the internal organizational environment to the manager to the people in power to managerial control, etc., and still find that all these factors usually have, from the subordinate's viewpoint, a similar psychological impact upon him or her. Nor do I confuse an is with an ought. If a manager reads Simon's book, and if it tells him (descriptively) that organizations train and indoctrinate their members and that they manage the internalization of influence because it injects into the very nervous systems of the organization members the criteria of decision that the organization wishes to employ, and if he makes this descriptive statement a part of his theory of management, then indoctrination, etc., become his responsibility. I realize that Simon does not view himself responsible for the translation by the manager of Simon's is statement to an ought activity. I suggest that we have a responsibility in this translation process because we provide the models of organization from which practitioners may choose courses of action. Similarly, I agree with Simon about the bankruptcy of most of the youth rebellion. However, I maintain that we are partially responsible for the rebellion because we provided no model of organization that went much beyond the traditional ones (in terms of the usage of power, specialization of work, and the creation of conformity, closedness, and mistrust, etc.). I am aware of the requirements of scientific empirical evidence, but surely there room for more than one kind of article. Simon's brilliant Administrative Behavior would have never become a classic if people judged its contribution on the basis of empirical scientific evidence. The Levin work was presented only as anecdotal evidence because that was the only evidence available. Moreover, Professor Simon's rebuttal contains several undocumented generalizations. For example, he asserts, with no evidence (and I believe it appropriate to do so in this context), that the following statement accepted by most observers: Most of the (information) systems devised so far (are resisted because they) simply did not provide the information managers perceive as most relevant to their decisions.