“The term rationalize refers to any situations in which a person's action is described with reference to some supporting reason or cause. The term “legitimate” refers to one criterion by which rationalizations are selected from the many possible explanations for action. Justifications or rationalizations are selected primarily when they are acceptable explanations in a given social context. This means they fit with the facts as known according to the rules of behavior generally followed.”
Source: A social information processing approach to job attitudes and task design. 1978, p. 231
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Gerald R. Salancik 10
American organizational theorist 1943–1996Related quotes
James G. March (1994), A Primer on Decision Making: How Decisions Happen, p. 57
Source: The psychology of interpersonal relations, 1958, p. 100

Source: Monetary Equilibrium (1939), p. 34
Context: An important distinction exists between prospective and retrospective methods of calculating economic quantities such as incomes, savings, and investments; and... a corresponding distinction of great theoretical importance must be drawn between two alternative methods of defining these quantities. Quantities defined in terms of measurements made at the end of the period in question are referred to as ex post; quantities defined in terms of action planned at the beginning of the period in question are referred to as.
Source: "Attribution theory and research." 1980, p. 458; Lead paragraph

the necessary and sufficient conditions for rational knowledge
Source: Great Islamic Encyclopedia website, 2016 https://www.cgie.org.ir/fa/news/154958

Discussion in The first Conference on The Central Nervous System and Behavior (1958), p. 420 - 421, as quoted in the obituary at the National Academies Press http://www.nap.edu/html/biomems/rsperry.html
Context: I have never been entirely satisfied with the materialistic or behavioristic thesis that a complete explanation of brain function is possible in purely objective terms with no reference whatever to subjective experience; i. e., that in scientific analysis we can confidently and advantageously disregard the subjective properties of the brain process. I do not mean we should abandon the objective approach or repeat the errors of the earlier introspective era. It is just that I find it difficult to believe that the sensations and other subjective experiences per se serve no function, have no operational value and no place in our working models of the brain.

Max Weber, The Nature of Social Action, 1922