Works
- A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice, Administrative Science Quarterly, 1972
In Tactics of Organizational Politics
Ideas
The garbage can model. Many organizations, which the authors call organized anarchies, have problematic preferences, unclear technology, and fluid participation. In them, problems, solutions, participants, and choice opportunities flow as largely separate streams, and a decision happens when they meet at a choice opportunity, so timing matters a great deal; solutions circulate looking for issues to which they might be the answer.
What it explains
Cohen, March, and Olsen explain why, in loosely structured organizations, what gets decided depends heavily on timing and on which solutions are ready when a choice comes up. Having a worked-out proposal on hand when an opportunity appears is often what decides the outcome.