Where formal organizations are the setting in which decisions are made, the particular decisions or policies chosen by decision-makers can often be explained through reference to the organization's particular structure and procedural rules. Such explanations typically involve looking at the distribution of responsibilities among organizational sub-units, the activities of committees and ad hoc coordinating groups, meeting schedules, rules of order etc. The notion of fixed-in-advance standard operating procedures (SOPs) typically plays an important role in such explanations of individual decisions made.

[See also: rational-comprehensive decision-making, incrementalism (incrementalist decision-making), systems theory models of decision-making, bureaucratic politics, bureaucracy]