Communications Theory

Paper Summary:

This paper begins by explaining Karl Weick's social-cultural evolution and then presents some common alternative approaches to understanding information. Next it compares Weick's approach with other options and demonstrates how the work of Janet Ouston shows that different models have their place depending on the type of organization and situation. It also reviews the article, "The Knowing Organization: How Organizations Use Information to Construct Meaning, Create Knowledge, and Make Decisions" and looks at how it creates a supermodel of models to resolve pros and cons of different ways of assimilating information. It evaluates how all these research articles show that different models, including, Weick's are not necessarily inferior or superior to another, but need to be either matched to the appropriate organization and situation or combined in some form or fashion to resolve deficiencies that may prevent the effective use of information.

From the Paper:

"There are many competing models to Weick's social-cultural evolution. Author Ryan Lahti describes four of these, the rational model, the political model, the process model and the garbage can model. The rational model is based upon an economic view of decision making. Decision makes evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of alternatives with the ability to achieve their goals and objectives. This model assumes that decision makes have complete access to information they need to make their decision and a single, accurate conception of the problem to be solved. The solution to the problem is the alternative that provides the maximum utility. Lahti believes that the rational model is a logical, sequential approach, but incorrectly assumes that there are no intrinsic biases to the decision making process."

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