Making Choices Rational: The Elective Affinity of Artificial Intelligence and Organizational Decision-Making

Abstract

This article investigates the elective affinity between decision-making models in the fields of organizational theory and artificial intelligence (AI), exploring the decision-making influence of societal ideas in these two research contexts. Using Herbert Simon’s work on organizations and AI as an example, we examine the properties of these societal ideas and identify six key characteristics, emphasizing rational calculations based on a logic of consequences. These specific notions of decision-making converge again in the phenomenon of AI-based algorithmic decision-making in organizations, as we demonstrate using examples from descriptions and advertisements of such systems, the current literature on their use, and empirical research concerning organizational practices.