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Dealing With Randomness

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  • Osterloh, Margit
  • Frey, Bruno S.

Abstract

Decisions based on randomness are often taken to be “irrational” or “arbitrary”. The conventional strategy is to fight randomness; a more recent one is to accept and even celebrate randomness. We focus on a third approach that employs randomness as a managerial and social decision-making mechanism in a purposeful way. We argue that Controlled Random Decisions provide considerable advantages. They allow outsiders as well as novel ideas to have an influence, and they work against corruption. When persons and projects are selected, there must be a careful pre-selection. Controlled Random Decisions should be discussed and employed more extensively.

Suggested Citation

  • Osterloh, Margit & Frey, Bruno S., 2019. "Dealing With Randomness," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 30(4), pages 331-345.
    • Handle: RePEc:nms:mamere:10.5771/0935-9915-2019-4-331
    DOI: 10.5771/0935-9915-2019-4-331
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Amanda Goodall & Margit Osterloh & Mandy Fong, 2020. "Women Shy Away From Competition – How To Overcome It," CREMA Working Paper Series 2020-21, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    2. Bruno S. Frey & Reiner Eichenberger, 2021. "Sollen CEOs rotieren?," CREMA Working Paper Series 2021-34, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    3. Dahlander, Linus & Beretta, Michela & Thomas, Arne & Kazemi, Shahab & Fenger, Morten H.J. & Frederiksen, Lars, 2023. "Weeding out or picking winners in open innovation? Factors driving multi-stage crowd selection on LEGO ideas," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(10).
    4. Axel Philipps, 2022. "Research funding randomly allocated? A survey of scientists’ views on peer review and lottery," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 49(3), pages 365-377.

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