Garbage Can Model illustration
Management / Decision-Making / Organization Theory
Management / Decision-Making / Organization Theory

Garbage Can Model

Some organizations do not make decisions in a fully rational sequence.

Popularity
Usefulness
Aliases
garbage can theory / organized-anarchy model / trash can theory
Domains
Organizational behavior, public administration, management theory, decision-making

Definition

  • The Garbage Can Model is an organizational decision-making theory that says decisions in ambiguous institutions often emerge from the messy interaction of problems, solutions, participants, and choice opportunities rather than from a neat, linear process.

Core Idea

  • Some organizations do not make decisions in a fully rational sequence.
  • Problems, preferred solutions, and decision-makers often drift around separately until they happen to connect.
  • In ambiguous settings, a "decision" may be the temporary result of timing and participation as much as analysis.

How It Works

  • Problems arise, people join and leave, and solutions may exist before a clear problem is defined.
  • These streams meet in a choice opportunity such as a meeting, vote, or budget cycle.
  • What gets decided depends heavily on who is present, what is already available, and when the streams collide.

Usage Example

  • A committee approves a long-discussed proposal not because it logically solved the day's agenda item, but because the right champions were present when a funding window suddenly opened.

Famous Example

  • Example: Michael D. Cohen, James G. March, and Johan P. Olsen's 1972 paper "A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice."
  • Why it fits this rule: The model explains how decisions in "organized anarchies" arise from the mixing of separate streams rather than orderly analysis.
  • Verification status: This is an established organizational theory. The litter-bin or "make trash cans fun to use" story is a different behavioral-design idea and should not be treated as the same concept.

Use Cases / Situations Where It Applies

  • Universities, public agencies, and other ambiguous organizations.
  • Committee-heavy decision environments.
  • Diagnosing messy or timing-driven organizational choices.

When Not to Use or Common Misuse

  • Do not assume all organizations or all decisions are this chaotic.
  • Do not use the model as an excuse for avoidable disorder.
  • Do not confuse it with nudge theory or litter-reduction anecdotes.

Rule Invention / Origin

  • Invented by: Michael D. Cohen, James G. March, and Johan P. Olsen.
  • Year of invention: 1972.
  • Country / context of origin: Organization theory in the United States and Norway/Europe.

Evidence / Research Basis

  • A foundational theory in organization studies, especially for decision-making under ambiguity and "organized anarchy."