The Handbook of Knowledge-Based Coaching: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

GROUP TASK PERSPECTIVE: WHAT THE GROUP DOES

The group task perspective assumes that groups exist to accomplish goals. What a group does is defined by its task. Nobel laureate Herbert Simon (1944), an American economist, psychologist, and professor, pioneered studies to explain how people in organizations make decisions. He coined the term bounded rationality to suggest that organizations can never be totally rational because their members have limited abilities to process information. He concluded that when making decisions, individuals and organizations engage in satisficing—reaching “good enough” (rather than optimal) decisions. It is important for groups to accept this limitation, because circumstances and information constantly change. Otherwise, ...