The case for reactive management systems: Elements of a real-time decision technology

摘要

The dominant referent in mainstream management theory is the reflective paradigm. Under its tutelage, an organization's success and survival are thought to depend mainly on its ability to preadapt to specific contingencies that might emerge in the downstream environment. This in turn has led to the investment of the vast majority of management information and decision system resources in planning-based functions. It is argued here, however, that the increasing level of complexity in many organizational environments makes the reflective paradigm increasingly inappropriate as a managerial referent, and planning-based decision instrumentation increasingly tenuous as a source of technical support. Hence there is the argument for selective consideration of an alternative premise for modern management systems. That which is defined and defended in this paper is the reactive protocol, which provides a basis for complementing traditional preadaptive decision mechanisms with techniques emphasizing real-time responsiveness and resilience.