James G. March

James G. March and Johan P. Olsen showed how the logic of appropriateness inverts the causal logic of rational decision making. Individuals form opinions and make decisions to be appropriate in their surroundings, to fit in with those around them. This means that context precedes…

…new institutionalism, American political scientist James G. March and Norwegian political scientist Johan P. Olsen published a very influential piece, “The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life” (1984), followed by a book, Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis of Politics (1989). They continued to argue for further institutional analysis in…

…was coined by organization theorists James G. March and Johan P. Olsen, but the concept has long been an important theme in social theory.

Simon and James G. March, taught at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). Their research, published in Organizations (1958), applied general principles of behavioral science to action within organizations, acknowledging that, while humans intend to be rational in their decision making, actual conditions impose…