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disjointed incrementalism

disjointed incrementalism

a pattern of decision-making in organizations, identified by American political scientist Charles Lindblom, in which decisions are taken step by step as a problem unfolds. The various incremental stages of decision-making are not closely integrated with the preceding stages. Although this differs sharply from the rational-deductive ideal of decision-making (where a problem is fully identified at the outset, all relevant information is collected and finally a set of rational procedures is used to choose the appropriate course of action), Lindblom believed it was a sensible strategy for decision-makers. This is because the human capacity to absorb information is limited, perfect information is unavailable anyway, and it is difficult to determine at the outset what information is relevant. See ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS, ‘GARBAGE-CAN’ MODEL OF DECISIONMAKING.
Collins Dictionary of Business, 3rd ed. © 2002, 2005 C Pass, B Lowes, A Pendleton, L Chadwick, D O’Reilly and M Afferson
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To those who say that the approach's situational analysis is not exhaustive, I'd like to point out that this is much better than the planning approach often practiced by most mayors today, which is characterized by the application of the nonrational version of Charles Lindblom's disjointed incrementalism, or the 'muddling through' planning approach.
If those theories are vacuous, they can be subsumed collectively under the principle of disjointed incrementalism. The myopic strategy of disjointed incrementalism is to make relatively small reversible moves away from the status quo under the condition of low information about the consequences and costs of a decision.
What becomes clear from the case studies, however, is that 'active ageing' policies have been implemented in a rather piecemeal and sometimes haphazard manner without a clear framework, or What Sol Encel, in his study of the Australian context, refers to as "disjointed incrementalism" rather than a strategic approach.
Sample topics include disjointed incrementalism, punctuated equilibrium models, cost benefit analysis, queuing theory, and Confucian decision making.
The adaptive approach to decision making was later synthesized by Braybrooke and Lindblom[3] into the model of "disjointed incrementalism".
Disjointed incrementalism bears a striking resemblance to the processual approach to organizational change.
In so doing we have drawn strong parallels with the model of disjointed incrementalism with its emphasis on incremental, reconstructive, serial and remedial decision making.
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