Introduction:

Herbert Alexander Simon was an American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist, and professor. Simon was among the founding fathers of several of today's important scientific domains, including artificial intelligence, information processing, decision-making, problem-solving, attention economics, organization theory, complex systems, and computer simulation of scientific discovery. He coined the terms bounded rationality and satisficing. He is famous for his contribution in decision making. Administrative Behavior from 1947 was Herbert Simons doctoral dissertation and his first book. The centerpiece of this book is the behavioral and cognitive processes of making rational human choices, that is, decisions. Simon was in fact a follower of one of the three known philosophical views namely, rationalism, empiricism and pragmatism. While discussing about decision making he generated a new term named as administrative man which was the result of influence of one of the three philosophical views. For the convenience of the discussion the three philosophical views are discussed below:

Rationalism:
Rationalism is a term meaning, doing anything by using reasoning or justification. According to rationalism, we just dont acquire knowledge through our senses rather it is an intellectual process. It indicates that we dont take our decisions based on our emotions or on religious belief. Rationalism implies that we take our decisions based on our reasoning, that is, we think why well take a decisions and why something is happening.

According to Lacey, rationalism is any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification. According to Bourke, it is a method or a theory in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive.

Empiricism:
The English term "empiric" derives from the Greek word , which is cognate with and translates to the Latin experientia, from which we derive the word "experience" and the related "experiment". Empiricism is a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge comes only or primarily via sensory experience. Empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and evidence, especially sensory perception, in the formation of ideas, over the notion of innate ideas or traditions. Empiricism in the philosophy of science emphasizes evidence, especially as discovered in experiments. It is a fundamental part of the scientific method that all hypotheses and theories must be tested against observations of the natural world rather than resting solely on a priori reasoning, intuition, or revelation. So empiricism emphasizes that, we take decisions based on our past experiences and available evidences about a situation that is, we are on the process of taking decisions we think what happened with us in this situation in the past. We also consider all available evidences and our innate ideas about the situation.

Pragmatism:

Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice. Pragmatism is based on the premise that the human capability to theorize is necessary for intelligent practice. Theory and practice are not separate spheres; rather, theories and distinctions are tools or maps for finding our way in the world. So, pragmatism implies that, theories are built on the basis of application and practice. It not only implies that, but also implies using those theories in a situation of application. Using theories based on practices in a situation intelligently is the base of pragmatism. So, it is a mixture of the previous two philosophical views namely, rationalism and empiricism.

Decision making and administrative man:

According to Simon, Decision making is the core of all administrative activity. Simon equated administration with decision making and lays emphasis on how decisions are made and how they can be made more effectively. Simon called the traditional decision making as proverbs or myths. According to him, the reason for such ambiguity is the inadequate diagnosis of situations and definitions of terms and lack of detailed research into real situations. Simon divides the decision-making process into three phases, viz., I. II. III. Intelligence activity: It involves finding occasions for decisions. Design activity: It involves identifying, developing and analyzing all possible alternatives courses of action. Choice activity: It involves selecting a particular course of action from available choices.

Simon explains that decision-making basically involves choice between alternative plans of action, and choice, in turn, involves facts and values. According to him, every decision consists of logical combination of fact and value propositions. Facts mean existence or occurrence of something tangible and concrete which can be verified by anyone. On the other hand, value is a matter of preference. Simon expounds the necessity of being rational in making choice. He defines rationality as one concerned with the selection of preferred behavior alternatives in terms of some system of values whereby the consequences of behavior can be evaluated. He explains rationality in terms of means-ends construct. The term means refers to any state or situation which is earlier in time than some other state or situation and ends refers to any state or situation which is later in a purpose chain or set of chains. If appropriate means are chosen to reach desired ends, the decision is rational. Simon observed that human behavior is neither rational nor totally irrational. It involves, what he calls bounded rationality. Three main aspects of bounded rationality are:I. II. III. Alternatives were to be discovered through search and usually only a limited number of alternatives are considered. The consequences of the alternative choices had to be found through some kind of search. In place of optimizing decisions based on total rationality he advances the idea of satisficing which involves the choice of course of action which is satisfactory or at least good enough.

Administrative man:

While discussing about decision making Simon framed a model of decision making behavior, which he called as administrative man. He summarized administrative man behavior as follows: I. II. In choosing between alternatives, he attempts to satisfy or look the one which is satisfactory or good enough. He recognizes that the world he perceives is a drastically simplified model of real world. He is content with this simplification because he believes the world is mostly empty. III. Because he satisfies, rather than maximizes, he can make his choices without first determining all possible alternatives and without ascertaining that these are in fact all the alternatives. IV. Because he treats the world as rather empty, he is able to make decisions with relatively simple rules of thumb of tricks of the trade, or from force of habit. These techniques do not make impossible demands upon his capacity for thought.

In search of a philosophical point of view of decision making model:

Simons decision making process has three activities namely, intelligence activity, design activity and choice activity. Pragmatism tells us using theories into real time practices that is using something established based on practices in a situation intelligently. Simons decision making process describes identifying an occasion, then identifying all possible alternatives and then choosing the suitable alternative intelligently which is somewhat a pragmatist way. In his bounded rationality model Simon described about searching possible alternatives, their consequences and then choosing the satisfactory one. Here, first an individual has to find alternatives from existing theories or knowledge

which is an empiricist way. Then he has to think about the consequences of the choices and he has to choose one satisfactory which is a rationalist way of thinking. But if we combine the total process, we can see that, an individual has to find alternatives through searching available things that is the theories. Then he has to choose one intelligently which is satisfactory which the way of pragmatism is. Then Simon gave the idea of administrative man who is to make satisfactory decision on the basis of his basic ideas rather than thinking. So he can take decision on the basis of his habits or innate ideas or practices intelligently. So he can take a decision intelligently which fits with the organizational goal or objectives based on his practices or from theories rather than thinking. What he has to think is whether the decision fits with the organization. Pragmatism also describes the same way of putting something into practice from theories intelligently according to the needs. So the administrative man is also a pragmatist by the way of his activities.

Conclusion:
Simon described the need for rational decision making and the way of making decisions rational. He also opined that men are not totally rational in his way of thinking. So he came out with a new idea of bounded rationality which is somewhat similar with the way of pragmatism. The administrative man and bounded rationalist take decisions in a way which similar to the way of pragmatism. Both take satisfactory decisions on the basis of available knowledge and theories or habit intelligently which falls in the criteria of pragmatism. So, we can say that the decision making model of Herbert A Simon is based on the philosophical view of pragmatism.

Contents

Content Introduction Rationalism Empiricism Pragmatism Decision making & Administrative man Administrative man In search of a philosophical point of view of decision making model Conclusion

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