Intraorganizational Decision Processes Influencing the EDP Staff Budget

The results of a field study were reported, and implications were suggested for a behavioral theory of the firm. The field study focused on several managers whose decision strategies influenced the budgeted size and composition of the staff of an electronic data processing department (EDP). Two of the managers were directly responsible for proposing the salary budget of EDP. Their decisions were influenced by the decisions of other managers, and the decision processes of both those directly involved and those indirectly involved were analyzed. The study showed the constraints entering into the strategies of managers in a specific situation, and the analysis of these strategies suggested how organizational goals were woven into the managers' decisions. In the situation described, at least, there was less bargaining than our hypotheses had led us to expect. There were conflict and "politics," but they appeared to be due to differences in judgments about goal expectations of superiors.