Transcription
[Music] Let's take a look at incrementalism and mixed scanning. A number of scholars have expanded on the criticisms of the rational model and have argued that individual decisions and change in general are produced by an incremental process. Incrementalism is a model of decision-making that stresses making decisions through limited successive comparison.
Incrementalism emphasizes decision-making through a series of limited successive comparisons with a relatively narrow range of alternatives, rather than a comprehensive range. Differences between rationalists and incrementalists are very sharp. First, the rationalist attempts to maximize benefits in all phases of decision-making, where the incrementalist tries to sacrifice to reach a decision that is satisfactory. Second, although incrementalism does not dismiss the importance of long-term consequences, it emphasizes short-term needs and problems. Some suggest that the emphasis in the rational model on comprehensive evaluation of how a given decision would affect all other decisions is unrealistic.
Incrementalism may also have a practical advantage for public administrators as they try to deal with executive orders or legislative requirements, which are often ambiguous under time pressures and conditions of uncertainty of all kinds. It's difficult, at best, to pursue a classic or economic rationale course. Most important, those who would advocate for the incremental approach reject the notion that only efficiency models of decision-making are legitimate. Furthermore, they claim that incremental models allow for measures of costs, benefits, and side-effects of decisions that are not economic or even necessarily quantitative.
Mixed scanning is a model of decision-making that combines the rational comprehensive and incrementalist model. This prescription for decision-making has, in turn, been criticized in several ways. First, it's difficult to identify a big or little decision because the consequences often are unknown and unpredictable at the time the decision is being made. Contrary to the interpretation given by many observers, incrementalism is not, by definition, concerned with change only in small steps, nor is it biased against large-scale alterations in the status quo. Conversely, contrary to assumptions underlying the rational model, no one can hope to analyze a complex problem completely. Incrementalists believe that relying on rationality produces worse analysis and decisions than does strategic analysis. [Music] You