Product Description

Perspectives from leaders in decision science at Wharton
Organized in part through Wharton's Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, the book assembles leading researchers from Wharton's business faculty who demonstrate how to apply the latest approaches in decision-making from four perspectives: personal, managerial, negotiator, and consumer. Each chapter describes how decisions are actually made, presents the ideal scenario, and then provides practical suggestions for improvement. The subjects range from when consumers will choose variety, integrating intuition into decisions, and applying game theory and strategic decisions, to decision factors in negotiations and how choices are made about insurance and health care.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66631 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review

one of the best business books of 2001 -- getAbstract, 15 January 2002

one of the best business books of 2001 (getAbstract, 15 January 2002)

From the Inside Flap
Complex business situations require careful decisions, and every decision entails risk. For managers, who walk along the cliff's edge every day, it is crucial to ask the right questions and analyze situations carefully before making decisions that will have a lasting impact on their organizations and their careers. But what are the right questions? What is the impact of rapid change and increasing complexity? How can managers use new technologies to improve decisions?

In Wharton on Making Decisions, distinguished researchers and thinkers from America's premier business school reveal the latest methods in analyzing alternative options and making choices-drawn from several decades of research into the psychological, interactive, and temporal aspects of decision making. They offer important insights on how to improve the decision-making process in different settings to produce outstanding outcomes.

Wharton on Making Decisions explains the role of personal emotion and everyday reasoning in managerial decision making; discusses ways to combine computer models with personal intuition; and investigates new tools for making decisions in increasingly complex environments. The Wharton experts analyze the impact of strategic learning, personal reputation, and deception in negotiated decisions. They also explore the impact of decision making on society as a whole, examining unexpected responses to medical testing, the impact of values on decisions, the phenomenon of information cascades, and how to deal with low-probability, high-consequence events.

Each chapter describes how decisions are actually made, presents an ideal scenario, and provides practical suggestions on how to make smarter decisions. The objective is to enable business managers to strengthen their decision-making skills and apply the latest methods of analysis and reasoning to decisions facing them.

Supplemented with real-world examples such as the fall of Barings Bank and the space shuttle Challenger disaster, Wharton on Making Decisions is must reading for every manager who wants to make the right decision the first time, every time.

From the Back Cover
Praise for WHARTON ON MAKING DECISIONS

"Provides a unique blend of theory and practical experience. The authors’ insights are at many times humorous, always instructive, and definitely thought-provoking. This book should be recommended reading for decision makers in today’s fast-moving world where alternative choices are increasing in number, complexity, and importance."
—Arthur D. Collins Jr., Chairman and CEO, Medtronic, Inc.

"This is a superb book that provides valuable insights for managers at all levels. No matter how many critical decisions we make, it is useful to be reminded of the intricacies of the process. Wharton on Making Decisions does just that."
—Rakesh Gangwal, Chairman, President, and CEO, Worldspan

"Takes a thorough look at the hard and soft sides of decision making–the intuitive as well as the analytical. With the frenetic pace and complexities of decision making today, this is reading that no manager should miss."
—Robert S. Morrison, Chairman, President, and CEO, The Quaker Oats Company

"The depth and breadth of the Wharton collection will help establish the case for the decision sciences to become a new major field of undergraduate and graduate studies at many universities (including my own at Harvard). Thanks, Wharton!"
—Howard Raiffa, Frank P. Ramsey Professor (Emeritus) of Managerial Economics, Harvard Business School

"As managers, we would be pretty disappointed if someone could give us our batting average on the decisions we make. I have no doubt that this book can improve your average."
—Jean-Pierre Rosso, Chairman, CNH Global N.V.

"Offers penetrating insight into the art and science of decision making. Relevant to both business and personal life, it’s a must-read for any decision maker."
—Alfred P. West Jr., Chairman and CEO, SEI Investments

Customer Reviews

A good researched book
It's a very good book, however it's more like a textbook and reading it requires a lot of diligence. But the effort is worth spending.

If you cannot decide whether or not to buy this book, you probably need it.

This is one of the volumes which comprise a series published by John Wiley & Sons. It was edited by Stephen J. Hoch and Howard C. Kunreuther with Robert E. Gunther. In the first chapter which serves as an introduction, Hoch and Kunreuther examine what they characterize as a "complex web of decisions." As they observe, "We need to make the decision making process conscious, to be aware that we are cutting corners and when we need more thorough analysis. Building this awareness of the process - especially given the new complexities of decision making in our modern age - is crucial to successful management....The goal of this book is to build this awareness of the intricacies of the decision-making process." Collectively, the 16 contributors explore decision making on four separate but related levels: as an individual, in our role as a manager, in the context of negotiations and other multiparty interactions, and at the broadest level, in terms of how societal decisions can be managed.

Appropriately, the material is organized within Four Parts:

"Personal Decision Making" (Chapters 2-4): Issues addressed include the challenges of personal decisions, the role the emotions play in managerial decisions - for good or ill, how humans make "surprisingly effective decisions" even when using short cuts, and the same approaches can lead to serious errors...and consequences.

"Managerial Decision Making" (Chapters5-8): Issues addressed include how to combine analytical models with intuition and other approaches during the managerial decision-making process, the significant differences between "the expedient Western approach" and the "reflective Eastern strategy" of decision making, and why managers must be able to "manage their own frames, or they will be blinded by their own successes and the limits of their world views."

"Multiparty Decision Making" (Chapters 9-12): Issues addressed include the nature and extent of interactions between and among managers across multiple periods, what Game Theory suggests about how people learn from experience, how reputations affect the way partners and opponents approach negotiations, how these reputations can best be used and shaped, common deceptions in negotiations and how to recognize them, how decision-support systems and resources can help improve negotiation results.

"Impact of Decision Making on Society" (Chapters 13-17): Subjects covered include various uses of medical tests based on analytical models, the impact of personal (Protected") values on societal decisions, what "protected decisions" are and how they are made, the nature of "information cascades" which involve either "learners" or "lemmings," and how and why inconsistencies in private and public decisions suggest a "split personality."

The 16 contributors are to be commended on their collective examination of how people should make decisions, how they actually do so, and how they can improve their decision making. I especially appreciate the generous provision of real-world examples (e.g. Nick Leeson and Barings Securities), as well as reader-friendly check-lists (e.g. lessons for managers based on the Leeson/Barings scandal), charts and graphs which illustrate core concepts, and use of italics and bold face to expedite periodic review of key points.

My guess (only a guess) is that those in greatest need of what this book offers are least likely to invest the time and effort required to absorb and digest the material, much less act upon it. If you are among them, if you have by now concluded not to read this book, reconsider that decision. Odds are, it's a bad one.

Provides helpful scenarios and suggestions for improvement
This book presents research findings on how people make decisions. Each chapter discusses how decisions are made, presents a sample scenario, and details how that scenario can be improved. Although the research is helpful, the book is more scientific and no so reader-friendly.