Bounded Rationality: Cognitive Limitations or Adaptation to the Environment? The Implications of Ecological Rationality for Management Learning

We examine why bounded rationality continues to be considered an inferior form of rationallity in the field of management and what this implies for business education and practice. We develop a critique of the dominant and widespread conceptualization of heuristics as flawed and error-prone and argue that this poses unnecessary constraints for the field of management. We discuss consequences of that interpretation of bounded rationality and propose ecological rationality as an alternative, positive interpretation. Ecological rationality considers a decision maker’s environment and aims to identify how and when heuristics generate good outcomes. Evidence suggests that heuristics perform best when problems are ill-defined, many information cues are available, but they are not equally valuable, and there are many possible courses of action, that is, in the uncertain environments that are characteristic of managerial decision making. We contribute by (1) highlighting the distinctiveness of the ecological rationality framework for management learning, (2) acknowledging how it can help rehabilitate bounded rationality in the field of management against its widespread characterization as an inferior form of rationality; and (3) by identifying how it can provide practicable recommendations for managerial learning and decision making.