Description

The text will be a valuable guide for students either intending to, or pursuing a career in Management. It is suitable for advanced level undergraduate Business and Management degrees as well as postgraduate courses. Practising managers would also find the book a useful reference to current management decision making theory.

This book takes a holistic approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative aspects of management decision making with a strong interdisciplinary perspective. Quantitative tools are shown in context so that students can see their relevance to day-to-day decision making. The role of IT in decision making is also addressed. The text explores the relationship between hard and soft aspects of decision making by addressing their philosophical underpinnings, and uses examples from the authors' own experiences to illustrate important issues.

Features

• Suitable for both quantitative and qualitative style courses.
• An integrative treatment of both quantitative and qualitative approaches to business decision making.
• A thematic approach encompassing the role of uncertainty, research, choice, implementation and evaluation in decision making.
• Each chapter is written by two authors providing a point-counterpoint style of argument.
• Draws on author's international expericence.
• Provides a critical view of management decision making.
• Practical activities, up-to-date examples from different cultural contexts and case studies bridge the gap between management theory and management action.
• Encourages students to recognise the complex and interdisciplinary nature of management decision making.
• Encourages development of critical analysis skills.
• A structured decision making diary develops throughout the text allowing the reader to summarise issues and relate them to their own experience.

Table of Contents

1. Decision Making Perspectives.
PART I: DEALING WITH UNCERTAINTY
2. Risk and Rationality.
3. Conflict/Intrapersonal Dynamics.
4. Chaos.
PART II: RESEARCH
5. Research Methods.
6. Diagnosis and Systems Thinking.
7. Model Building.
PART III CHOICE.
8. Money Management.
9. Resource Allocation.
10. Time Management,
Part IV IMPLEMENTATION.
11. Interpersonal Dynamics.
12. Power and Politics.
13. The Cultural Context.
14. Ethics in Decision-Making.
Integrated Case Study.

Back Cover

Management Decision-Making provides a launching pad for readers to explore the multi-faceted world of decision-making. The major emphasis is within the business world where the complex interactions of business systems mix with the often individualistic and interpersonal factors governing decision-making processes. Successful decision-making is achieved through a combination of intuition and quantifiable processes. This text integrates these two areas. A wide variety of topics are introduced with the intention of stimulating readers into further in-depth study of issues of particular interest to them. It has been written in a style that invites reader participation and offers many opportunities for self-reflection, individual research and experimentation. Key features:

• provides students with an overview of the complete decision-making process
• combines traditionally distinct subject disciplines under one cogent area
• an integrated approach to decision-making, therefore suitable for both qualitative and quantitative programmes
• an Instructor's Manual to support the text is available at www.booksites.net/teale

Mark Teale, Vincenzo Dispenza andJohn Flynn are all Senior Lecturers and David Currie is Head of the Department of Human Resource Management at the University of Lincoln.  All have extensive teaching and industry experience both in the UK and internationally.