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Industrial and Corporate Change, Volume 9, Number 4, pp. 757-788
© 2000 Oxford University Press

The structure of problem-solving knowledge and the structure of organizations

L Marengoa, G Dosib, P Legrenzic and C Pasqualia

a Department of Economics, University of Trento, Via Inama 5, I-38100 Trento, Italy
b St Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy
c Department of Psychology, State University of Milan, Milan, Italy
E-mail: lmarengo@gelso.unitn.it

Abstract

This work presents a rather general model of organizational problem-solving able to account for the relationships between problem complexity, decentralization of tasks and problem-solving efficiency. Whenever problem-solving requires the coordination of a multiplicity of interdependent elements, the varying degrees of decentralization of cognitive and operational tasks shape the solutions which can be generated, tested and selected. Suboptimality and path-dependence are shown to be ubiquitous features of organizational problem-solving. At the same time, the model allows a precise exploration of the possible trade-offs between decomposition patterns and search efficiency involved in different organizational architectures.


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