Organizational decision making and error in a dynamic task environment*

This work was supported by the office of Naval Research under grant N00014–93–1–0793.

Organizational theorists have attributed organizational performance to a variety of factors including time pressure, training, organizational complexity, environment complexity, and the match between the organization and its environment. Using a computational model of organizational performance based on an information processing and resource dependency view of organizations the effects of these factors are simultaneously compared and their potential relative impact deduced. Following such an analysis we find that time pressure, training, organizational complexity, and organizational environment are stronger determinants of organizational performance than the match between the organization and its environment.

Key words:

• Contingent match
• Organizational design
• Organizational learning
• Performance
• Simulation
• Task environment
• Training

Notes

This work was supported by the office of Naval Research under grant N00014–93–1–0793.

Corresponding author: Tel: [phone]. Fax: [phone]. E‐mail: [email protected].