Alternatives and Complements to Rationality¹

As a scholar, James G. March looms large over the field of organization theory – and his influence extends to sociology, political science, psychology, economics, public administration, and education. This profound impact belies his quiet and humble persona as a “country boy from Wisconsin.”² Born in Ohio, and raised in Wisconsin, his first job after receiving his PhD in Political Science from Yale University was at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University) in Pittsburgh. Jim March served on the faculty there from 1953 to 1964, with colleagues and eventual co-authors Herbert Simon, Richard Cyert, and Harold Guetzkow. Together they worked to develop a behaviorally oriented science of “administration.” This interdisciplinary effort established the field of organizations³ and is what we now call the “Carnegie School.”