Accounting Analysis Restores Decision Making Rationality: The Case of the Connecticut Department on Aging

Abstract

ABSTRACT Purpose—The purpose of this paper is to analyze the classical decision making model as applied to restructuring a Department on Aging services for the State of Connecticut. Mandated by the Connecticut legislature in 2007 to reestablish the department, the Department of Social Services (DSS) commissioned Southern Connecticut State University to recommend a structure for the newly legislated department, which had been disbanded by then-Governor Lowell Weicker in 1993. Design/Methodology/Approach—Qualitative interviews of relevant stakeholders at all levels revealed that while few were satisfied by the current structure of the Department on Aging, there was no consensus concerning the design of a more effective replacement, only deeply held differences. Through the collection and analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data, the decision process on how to best structure aging services becomes hostage to a contingency where this decision model breaks down. The search stage develops a set of alt...