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Decision Under Uncertainty

The Narrative Sense

University of Rhode Island

Despite the success of the scientific study of management in expanding the domain of rational decision making, administrators, especially upper-level administrators, must range beyond the rational. The arts in general and literature in particular can illuminate the administrator's vision, because the esthetic dimension of decision making includes the rational but encompasses other aspects of the decision process as well. This article, based on a literary critic's analysis of Ernest Hemingway's story, "Hills Like White Elephants," offers the concept of "the narrative sense" for the purpose of exploring such decision elements as the relationships between empirical and value questions. It considers the role in the decision process of unspoken thoughts. The article uses the idea of "the narrative sense," finally, to examine the very nature of a decision, and suggests that the ability to recognize when a decision has in fact been made is a key administrative skill.

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