Administrative Behavior

Administrative Behavior: a Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization

Title page of first edition
Author	Herbert A. Simon
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	Macmillan
Publication date	1947
Media type	Print (hardcover)
Pages	xvi + 259
OCLC	356505
LC Class	HD31 .S55

Administrative Behavior: a Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization is a book written by Herbert A. Simon (1916–2001). It asserts that "decision-making is the heart of administration, and that the vocabulary of administrative theory must be derived from the logic and psychology of human choice", and it attempts to describe administrative organizations "in a way that will provide the basis for scientific analysis". The first edition was published in 1947; the second, in 1957; the third, in 1976; and the fourth, in 1997. As summarized in a 2001 obituary of Simon, the book "reject[ed] the notion of an omniscient 'economic man' capable of making decisions that bring the greatest benefit possible and substitut[ed] instead the idea of 'administrative man' who 'satisfices—looks for a course of action that is satisfactory'".Administrative Behavior laid the foundation for the economic movement known as the Carnegie School.

The book crosses social science disciplines such as political science and economics. Simon returned to some of the ideas in the book in his later works, such as The Sciences of the Artificial (1969). The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited the book as "epoch-making" in awarding the 1978 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences to Simon. A 1990 article in Public Administration Review named it the "public administration book of the half century" (1940-1990). It was voted the fifth most influential management book of the 20th century in a poll of the Fellows of the Academy of Management.

The book is based on Simon's doctoral thesis in political science at the University of Chicago, which he began planning in 1937. At the time, the chair of the political science department was Charles Edward Merriam.