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Rational Integration: Restoring Rationality to Organizational Analysis

Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey.

A "rational integration" model is proposed to explain why organizations, according to Allison (1971), tend to be mutually perceived as "rational actors" exhibiting goal consensus. It is suggested that the perception of rational action is attributable not merely to cognitive error but also to rational behaviors, performed both by elements of the perceived rational actor and by members of other organizations with which it transacts. The discussion addresses practical implications of rational integration, including problems and opportunities, and strategies for overcoming or exploiting them. The discussion also demonstrates how (1) the proposed model may enhance knowledge of organizations, and (2) research may contribute to this knowledge. Finally, by assigning causality to both "objective" social structure and the "subjective" perception of it, the proposed model can benefit social analysis in general by demonstrating an approach that integrates the structural and interpretive schools through a newly-proposed paradigm called "meta-structuralism. "

Human Relations, Vol. 43, No. 6, 527-550 (1990)
DOI: 10.1177/001872679004300603


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