James G. March
American political scientist, sociologist and economist (1928 to 2018); professor at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and Graduate School of Education; co-author with Richard Cyert of A Behavioral Theory of the Firm and of the garbage can model of organizational choice.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
James G. March did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsBeyond that, I think students of organizations need to explore the implications of contemporary efforts to take the humans out of human organizations.
↗On the evolution of a behavioral theory: an interview with James G. March (Journal of Organization Design, 2017)link.springer.com 8th of 8 in this piece
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Their wordsI think the big secret in this is to recognize that normal learning, under samples failure, normal learning makes you abandon things in which you fail before you know much about them. Therefore, you are likely to abandon good things too soon.
↗On the evolution of a behavioral theory: an interview with James G. March (Journal of Organization Design, 2017)link.springer.com 1st of 8 in this piece
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Their wordsThe deepest problem with novelty is that most novel ideas are bad ones. If you specialize in novel ideas, you specialize in bad ideas, and that’s not a good way to survive.
↗On the evolution of a behavioral theory: an interview with James G. March (Journal of Organization Design, 2017)link.springer.com 2nd of 8 in this piece
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Their wordsWith respect to justice, I would say that the behavioral theory clearly has an advantage. Economic theory generates people who are greedy and unconcerned about social welfare.
↗On the evolution of a behavioral theory: an interview with James G. March (Journal of Organization Design, 2017)link.springer.com 3rd of 8 in this piece
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Their wordsWe need heroes. We need to imagine that human actions made a difference. Leaders are part of the classic story by which we come to imagine that.
↗On the evolution of a behavioral theory: an interview with James G. March (Journal of Organization Design, 2017)link.springer.com 4th of 8 in this piece
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Our reading
A leader should be decisive but skeptical, acting firmly without being very sure of acting correctly
Their wordsThe thread that runs through Chinese philosophy that fascinates me is the thread that says the leader should be decisive, but skeptical. They should act firmly, but not be very sure that he’s acting correctly.
↗On the evolution of a behavioral theory: an interview with James G. March (Journal of Organization Design, 2017)link.springer.com 5th of 8 in this piece
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Their wordsIn our field, the pursuit of relevance leads you to abandon, too fast, the pursuit of knowledge and to become a kind of second rate consultant.
↗On the evolution of a behavioral theory: an interview with James G. March (Journal of Organization Design, 2017)link.springer.com 6th of 8 in this piece
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Their wordsIn order to do interdisciplinary work, you have to be a fully qualified person in both or all three or all four disciplines, and that’s not very easy for most people. As a result, the people who go into interdisciplinary work are underqualified for the work.
↗On the evolution of a behavioral theory: an interview with James G. March (Journal of Organization Design, 2017)link.springer.com 7th of 8 in this piece
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