Pourquoi Pas? Rational Choice As a Basic Theory of Hrm
Management Revue › Band 15 Nr. 2, Januar 2004
Angeknüpft als:
Zusammenfassung
A broad spectrum of theories from different disciplines is portrayed in contemporary HRM. Theories from psychology, sociology and economics correspond to the variety of problems addressed in HRM which are again situated at different levels of analysis, namely on the individual, group and organizational level. A narrow focus solely on economic approaches, as sometimes suggested in personnel economics, is therefore not sufficient. Instead, the contemporary "rational choice" approach may serve as a "new" basis for the discipline. The approach stems from economics and sociology and, as an offspring of these, combines elements of action and structure in its basic explanatory models. This article introduces basic elements of the modern "rational choice" approach: the macro-micro-macro model of explanation, homo socio-oeconomicus as a model of man and exchange theory as a baseline model of aggregation. A final summary discusses research questions and applications of "rational choice" in HRM.
Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes
Auszug
Pourquoi Pas? Rational Choice As a Basic Theory of Hrm
1. Approach
Ever since Pareto's (1935) distinction, it has generally been agreed, that the field of economics should concentrate on rational action; other areas of social science, i.e. sociology should concentrate on irrational behavior. However, economics is a broad field. Therefore it is hardly surprising that economists who are confronted with irrational human behavior or deviations from the perfect model of purposeful and rational behavior wrangle with Pareto and, in particular, with his line of distinction. Critical calls were confronted with only modest appreciation, if they were heard at all, when they suggested that unrealistic assumptions about behavior were required in order to deliver economic or normatively speaking "good" explanations (Friedman 1953). Academics in Business Administration, dealing with innovation, marketing, organization or human resources and phenomena like decision behavior, informal organizations or HRM abandoned the economic paradigm and searched for more feasible theories in other disciplines. The historical development of HRM is not the topic of this article. However, we need to stress that we are talking about a process of convergence towards neighboring disciplines, notably (social) psychology and (organizational and industrial) sociology, which represent a "long wave" of historical ideas: Simon's (1955) revolutionary work "A behavioral model of rational choice" was published half a century ago. Since then, considerable progress has been made in both theory and empirical knowledge. And this holds true for all levels of HRM research - for the individual, group and organizational level. Worth mentioning amongst others are motivation, learning and stress theories, theories about group dynamics, power and management as well as theories a...Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes
Geförderte Links
