Handbook of Decision Making E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Serie: Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Management
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1479

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

HANDBOOK OF DECISION MAKING

This handbook offers a state-of-the-art overview of research and theories on decision making in organizations at the strategic level of analysis.

Chapters are authored by leading international scholars, with some illustrative case vignettes from practitioners. Each contributor was selected for his/her special knowledge of the field.

The Handbook addresses key questions confronting the decision making research of the past and the present, offers critiques, and suggests future research directions. Topics covered emphasize the classic decision theory perspectives while also incorporating recent insights from the fields of strategic choice, risk & uncertainty, scenario planning and complexity theory, with a broad social science perspective on the disciplinary roots of decision theory in economics, politics, and social theory.

This is a landmark reference volume for the field, offering scholars and practitioners:

• Comprehensive, but accessible, coverage of classic and recent developments
• Chapters by established international experts
• Case analyses illustrating practical consequences of theories
• Guide to new research directions and theory

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Notes on the Contributors

About the Editors

Part I - INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1 - Crucial Trends and Issues in Strategic Decision Making

INTRODUCTION

ISSUES CONFRONTING DECISION-MAKING RESEARCH

OUR APPROACH

CHALLENGES FACING RESEARCHERS

NOTES

REFERENCES

Chapter 2 - Research on Strategic Decisions: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead

INTRODUCTION

METHOD

FRAMEWORK DEVELOPMENT

LITERATURE REVIEW ON SUBSTANTIVE PRIORITIES

RESEARCH METHODS

THE WAY FORWARD

CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES

Part II - KEY THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

Chapter 3 - Decision Making: It’s Not What You Think

THE LIMITS OF “THINKING FIRST”

“SEEING FIRST”

“DOING FIRST”

MAKING DECISIONS THROUGH DISCUSSION, COLLAGE AND IMPROVISATION

ENOUGH THINKING?

Chapter 4 - Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking

THE NATURE OF ORGANIZED SENSEMAKING: VIEWED DESCRIPTIVELY

THE NATURE OF ORGANIZED SENSEMAKING: VIEWED CONCEPTUALLY

THE NATURE OF ORGANIZED SENSEMAKING: VIEWED PROSPECTIVELY

CONCLUSIONS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

NOTES

REFERENCES

Chapter 5 - The Political Aspects of Strategic Decision Making

INTRODUCTION

THE CONCEPT OF POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR IN DECISION MAKING

POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR AND RATIONAL DECISION MAKING

FORMS OF POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR IN STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING

ANTECEDENT CONDITIONS FAVOURING POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR IN STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING

THE CONSEQUENCES OF POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR IN STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING

THE POLITICS OF STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

Chapter 6 - Organizational Identity and Strategic Decision Making

ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY AS PROGENITOR OF ORGANIZATIONAL DECISION MAKING

WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY?

ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY RESEARCH THROUGH A DECISION-MAKING LENS

ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY AND STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING

REFERENCES

Part III - CONCEPTUALIZING STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING

Chapter 7 - Building a Decision-making Action Theory

INTRODUCTION

AEP’S PURCHASE OF CHESHIRE, OHIO

COMPUSERVE’S FAILED ACQUISITION OF AOL

THE FEN-PHEN AND PERRIER RECALLS

HOW DECISION MAKERS BEHAVE IN FAILED DECISIONS

AVOIDING TRAPS WITH BEST PRACTICES

LESSONS FOR DECISION MAKING AND DECISION MAKERS

NOTES

REFERENCES

Chapter 8 - A Decision Process Model to Support Timely Organizational Innovation

INNOVATION AS A CRITICAL ORGANIZATIONAL CONCERN

A DECISION PROCESS MODEL TO GUIDE INNOVATION

CONCLUSION

NOTES

REFERENCES

Chapter 9 - Decision Making in Groups: Theory and Practice

INTRODUCTION

SENSE MAKING

MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES

DEVELOPING A GROUP DEFINITION: SUBSTANTIVE OUTCOMES FROM GROUP MAPPING

THE PROCESS OUTCOMES AND INPUT TO NEGOTIATING THE DEFINITION OF THE SITUATION

MANAGING THE COMPLEXITY OF DECISION SITUATIONS BY UNDERSTANDING STRUCTURE: ...

MANAGING THE COMPLEXITY OF DECISION SITUATIONS BY UNDERSTANDING STRUCTURE: GOAL ...

ENABLING POLITICALLY FEASIBLE AGREEMENTS: WHAT IS A GROUP?

NEGOTIATING AGREEMENTS

APPENDIX: CREATING A HELPFUL MAP?

NOTE

REFERENCES

Part IV - FACTORS AND CONSIDERATIONS THAT IMPINGE ON DECISION MAKING

Chapter 10 - Decision Making in Professional Service Firms

INTRODUCTION

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE FIRMS: THEIR SIGNIFICANCE

ORGANIZATIONAL FORM AND DECISION PROCESSES

DECISION PROCESSES

NOTES

REFERENCES

Chapter 11 - Risk Taking and Strategic Decision Making

RISK IN STRATEGY RESEARCH

DEFINITIONS AND MEASURES OF RISK IN DECISION-MAKING RESEARCH

RISK STUDIES AREAS

BEHAVIORAL DECISION THEORY

THE BEHAVIORAL THEORY OF THE FIRM

AGENCY THEORY

WHAT DO WE KNOW? WHAT DO WE NOT KNOW?

REFERENCES

Chapter 12 - Decision Errors of the 4th, 5th, and 6th Kind

INTRODUCTION

VISIONING ERROR, CORRELATION ERROR, AND ACTION ERROR

CONCATENATION OF VISIONING ERROR, EVIDENCE ERROR, AND ACTION ERROR

NO ERROR

ERROR OF THE 1ST KIND (TYPE I)

ERROR OF THE 2ND KIND (TYPE II)

ERROR OF THE 3RD KIND (TYPE III)

ERROR OF THE 4TH KIND (TYPE IV)

ERROR OF THE 5TH KIND (TYPE V)

ERRORS OF THE 6TH KIND (TYPE VI)

DECISION ERRORS LEADING TO POSITIVE OUTCOMES

CASE STUDIES

CONCLUSION

APPENDIX I

NOTES

REFERENCES

Chapter 13 - Decision Making in Public Organizations

THE DISTINCTIVE CONTEXT OF PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS

OTHER FACTORS INFLUENCING PUBLIC DECISION-MAKING

DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES IN PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

Chapter 14 - Strategic Decision Making and Knowledge: A Heideggerian Approach

DECISION MAKING REVISITED FROM A HEIDEGGERIAN PERSPECTIVE

CONCLUSIONS

NOTES

REFERENCES

Chapter 15 - Challenges of Using IT to Support Multidisciplinary Team Decision Making

MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAM DECISION MAKING

IT AND CLINICAL DECISION MAKING IN HEALTHCARE TEAMS

KNOWING-IN-PRACTICE

METHODOLOGY

CASE DESCRIPTION

CASE FINDINGS

ONCOLOGISTS

SURGEONS

RADIOLOGISTS

NURSES

PATHOLOGISTS

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

NOTES

REFERENCES

Part V - RECENT EMPIRICAL FINDINGS THAT SUPPORT THEORIES AND VIEWS

Chapter 16 - The Bradford Studies: Decision Making and Implementation ...

RESEARCH AND RESEARCHERS - A BRIEF OVERVIEW

THE CONCEPT OF DECISION: A HELP OR A HINDRANCE?

MAKING TOP DECISIONS

CROSS-CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN DECISION-MAKING

SUCCESSFUL DECISION MAKING - IMPLEMENTATION AND OUTCOMES

CONNECTING DECIDING AND IMPLEMENTATION

RELOCATING THE BRADFORD STUDIES

REFERENCES

Chapter 17 - Comparing the Merits of Decision-making Processes

INTRODUCTION

DECISION MAKING

METHODS

RESULTS

DECISIONS WITH CONTINUITY

CONCLUSIONS

APPENDIX I: ILLUSTRATIONS OF ORGANIZATIONS AND DECISIONS IN THE CASE DATA BASE

APPENDIX II: COLLECTING THE DATA BASE OF DECISIONS

APPENDIX III: HOW THE TACTICS ARE USED DURING DECISION MAKING

NOTE

REFERENCES

Chapter 18 - Of Baseball, Medical Decision Making, and Innumeracy

INTRODUCTION

INNUMERACY

METHODS

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

Chapter 19 - The Dimensions of Decisions: A Conceptual and Empirical Investigation

INTRODUCTION

THE STUDY OF DECISIONS IN DECISION MAKING

THE STUDY

DISCUSSION

NOTES

REFERENCES

Part VI - METHODOLOGY FOR THE STUDY OF DECISION MAKING

Chapter 20 - Empirical Methods for Research on Organizational Decision-Making Processes

INTRODUCTION

VARIANCE AND PROCESS RESEARCH APPROACHES

TYPES OF PROCESSES

CONDUCTING PROCESS RESEARCH: THE BASICS

STRATEGIES FOR PROCESS RESEARCH

CONCLUSION

NOTES

REFERENCES

Chapter 21 - On the Study of Process: Merging Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

INTRODUCTION

PRESCRIPTION AND DESCRIPTION IN PROCESS RESEARCH

THE POWER OF A PROCESS EXPLANATION

SOME PROCESS RESEARCH QUESTIONS

THEORETICAL SUPPORT FOR PROCESS

DOING PROCESS RESEARCH

IMPLICATIONS

NOTES

REFERENCES

Chapter 22 - The Bradford Studies: Issues Raised by These and Other Studies ...

INTRODUCTION

CAPTURING THE ESSENCE OF A DECISION

HOW CAN WE RECOGNISE DECISION-MAKING ACTIVITY?

CONNECTIONS IN DECISION PROCESSES

DECISION MAKING OR NOT?

STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY

FINAL THOUGHTS

APPENDIX 1: MAJOR PUBLICATIONS FROM THE BRADFORD STUDIES OF DECISION MAKING (IN ...

REFERENCES

Part VII - DIRECTIONS AND PERSPECTIVES

Chapter 23 - Discussion and Implications: Toward Creating a Unified Theory of ...

INTRODUCTION

TAKING STOCK

CREATING AN INTEGRATION: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE WORK

THE ‘WHAT’ OF DECISION-MAKING RESEARCH

THE ‘HOW’ OF ACTION RESEARCH - SOME METHODOLOGY SUGGESTIONS

CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES

Index

This edition first published 2010

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Handbook of decision making / editors, Paul Nutt. David Wilson.p- cm.

ISBN 978-1-4051-6135-0

I. Decision making. I. Nutt. Paul C. II. Wilson, David C. (David Charles), 1951—

HD30.23.H354 2010

658.4’03—dc22

2009052103

A catalogue record for titis book is available from the British Library.

Paul

To Nancy Davis Nutt

David

For Jo, Alex and Amy Wilson

Notes on the Contributors

Fran Ackermann

Dr Fran Ackermann is a Professor of Management Science at the Strathclyde Business School and an adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia’s Business School. Her research interests range from the management of messy and complex problems, to strategy making. She has particular interests in negotiation and group decision support, project risk, and disruption and delay analysis. She has strong links with industry and not-for-profit organizations, having worked with senior and middle management teams of over 100 organizations in Europe and North America. She has published widely including three books and over 100 refereed journal articles. She serves on a number of journal editorial boards and her work is focused on practice-based research.

Claudia N. Avellaneda

Claudia N. Avellaneda is an assistant professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research interests include comparative politics, public management, and government performance with a regional focus on Latin America. Specifically, she studies the impact of managerial quality on local governmental performance in terms of service delivery, public finance, and education quality.

Michael Barrett

Michael Barrett is Director of Programmes and Reader in IT and Innovation at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. He is co-lead on NIHR grant in Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care. His research interests include service innovation, open innovation, cross cultural teams, and knowledge translation. He has studied the insurance sector, electronic trading in global financial markets, global software outsourcing, and service delivery within healthcare. His work is of an interdisciplinary nature, with publications in a wide range of journals including. Academy of Management Journal, Information Systems Research, Accounting Organisations and Society. He has recently co-edited a book on IT in the service economy.

Patrick Barwise

Patrick Barwise is Emeritus Professor of Management and Marketing at London Business School. He joined the School in 1976, having spent his early career with IBM. He has published widely on management, marketing, and media. Together with Vassilis Papadakis, he co-edited Strategic Decisions (Kluwer, 1998). His book Simply Better (HBS Press), co-authored with Seán Meehan (IMD, Lausanne), won the American Marketing Association’s 2005 Berry-AMA Prize for the best book in marketing.

Kimberly B. Boal

Kimberly B. Boal (PhD, University of Wisconsin) is the Rawls Professor of Management at the Rawls College of Business, Texas Tech University. Kim was co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Management Inquiry from 1997-2006. He served on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Management from 2001-2004, and as President of the Western Academy of Management in 1999-2000. His work appears in: Academy of Management Executive, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Management, Leadership Quarterly, OBHP, Strategic Management Journal, as well as other journals and numerous book chapters.

Philip Bromiley

Philip Bromiley (PhD, Carnegie-Mellon University) is a Dean’s Professor in Strategic Management at the Merage School of University of California, Irvine. Previously he held the Curtis L. Carlson Chair in Strategic Management and chaired the Department of Strategic Management & Organization at the University of Minnesota. He has published widely on organizational decision making and strategic risk-taking. He currently serves on the boards of Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, and Journal of Strategy and Management. Previously, he served on the editorial boards of Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Strategic Organization, and the Journal of Management and as associate editor for Management Science. His current research examines strategic decision making, the behavioral foundations of strategic management research, and corporate risk-taking. He has published over 60 journal articles and book chapters as well as two books. His most recent book, Behavioral Foundations for Strategic Management, argues for a behavioral basis for scholarly theory in strategic management.

Steven Cheng, PhD

Steven Cheng is a Senior Research Associate in the Knight Cancer Institute at the Oregon Health & Science University. His research interests are in process modeling/simulation, supply chain networks, and decision making within healthcare operations. His current research focus investigates the barriers to the development and conduct of oncology clinical trials. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Vanderbilt University.

John Child

John Child MA, PhD, ScD, FBA, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Birmingham and a Professor at FUMEC University, Brazil. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Management, the Academy of International Business, and the British Academy of Management. In 2006, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA). His current interests include the internationalization of SMEs and alternative forms of organization. He has published 19 books and over 140 articles. Recent books include Cooperative Strategy (with David Faulkner and Stephen Tallman, Oxford University Press, 2005), Organization (Blackwell, 2005), and Corporate Co-evolution (with Suzana Rodrigues, Wiley, 2008). This last book won the prestigious Academy of Management Terry award in 2009. Professor Child is a past editor-in-chief of Organization Studies and is currently Senior Editor for Management and Organization Review.

André L. Delbecq

André L. Delbecq holds the McCarthy University Chair, Santa Clara University. His scholarship focuses on executive decision making, organization design, managing innovation, and leadership spirituality. He was Eighth Dean of Fellows and prior President of the Midwest and Western Academy of Management and former Executive Director of the Organization Behavior Teaching Society.

David Dilts

David Dilts, PhD, MBA, is Professor of Healthcare Management in the Division of Management at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and Director of Clinical Research for the Knight Cancer Institute at OHSU. His research interests are in decision making, process modeling, and dynamic supply network structures, particularly those that exist in healthcare. Additional interests include strategic decision making in the context of highly complex healthcare networks, and the integration of systems engineering and complex systems theories within healthcare. His work has been supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute and the Navy, among others.

Colin Eden

Dr Colin Eden is a Professor of Management Science and Strategic Management at the Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow, Scotland. He is an operational researcher by background but has been preoccupied with ‘soft-OR’ for the last 30 years. His recent research activities and publications have been focused on managerial and organizational cognition, the nature of action research, project management, and strategy making. His strategy research has been concerned with understanding the practical implications of the resource-based view and competence-based management, alongside the significance of stakeholder management theories. He has published nine books and over 180 articles in the fields of management science, management, and project management.

Said Elbanna

Dr Said Elbanna, BCom Hons, MBA, PhD (Birmingham Business School), is an Assistant Professor at UAE University in UAE. His main research interests are in strategic decision making, strategic planning, and internationalization of SMEs. Dr Elbanna has published in journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Management Studies, and International Journal of Management Reviews. He has, in addition, built up a valuable competence in executive training and consultancy. Dr Elbanna has received some awards including the JMS Best Paper Award for 2007, and the CBE (UAE University) Outstanding Junior Research Award for 2008.

Samantha Fairclough

Samantha Fairclough (DPhil, University of Oxford) is the Deloitte & Touche Post Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Strategic Management and Organization at the University of Alberta’s School of Business, and an Associate Post Doctoral Fellow of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. A former environmental lawyer, her research interests include institutional theory, the creation and reproduction of categories, business and the natural environment, and the management of professional service firms.

Lori B. Ferranti

Lori B. Ferranti, PhD, MBA, MSN, is the Director of the Office of Policy, Planning, and Assessment for the Tennessee Department of Health. Her research interests are in usage of medical registries in decision making in public and private arenas, and linking multiple data sets to develop and assess outcomes of public health policies and initiatives. Additional interests include the application of business principles of efficiencies and quality improvement in various healthcare operational settings, and the influence of education discipline on the selection of decision-making rules. She received her undergraduate degree at Virginia Commonwealth University and graduate degrees at Vanderbilt University.

Lori S. Franz

Lori S. Franz, (PhD Nebraska, 1980) is Professor of Management in the Trulaske College of Business at the University of Missouri. Her current research interests include decision-making processes, analysis of decision characteristics as predictors of decision outcomes, and the application of modeling for improved decision making. Professor Franz’s research appears in numerous journals including Operations Research, Decision Sciences, Computers and Operations Research, European Journal of Operational Research, and the International Journal of Production Research.

Dennis A. Gioia

Dennis A. (Denny) Gioia is Professor of Organizational Behavior and Chair of the Department of Management and Organization, Smeal College of Business at the Pennsylvania State University. He holds degrees in both Engineering Science and Management from Florida State University and previously worked for Boeing Aerospace at Cape Kennedy during the Apollo lunar program and for Ford Motor Company as corporate recall coordinator. He is a longstanding member of the MBA, Executive MBA, and PhD faculties and has engaged in organizational research for many years. Current research and writing interests focus on the ways in which identity, image, learning, and knowledge are involved in sensemaking, sensegiving, and organizational change.

Royston Greenwood

Royston Greenwood is the TELUS Professor of Strategic Management in the Department of Strategic Management and Organization, School of Business, the University of Alberta, and Visiting Professor at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. He received his PhD from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. His research focuses upon the dynamics of institutional change, especially at the field level of analysis. His favoured empirical settings involve professional service firms. Recently, his research has explored how and why large professional service firms developed new organizational forms with particular reference to how they are ‘theorized’ and thus legitimated. One paper from this research stream won the Academy of Management Journal’s 2006 Best Paper Award. His work has appeared in Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Organization Studies, and the Strategic Management Journal. He is a founding co-editor of Strategic Organization, and is a co-editor of the SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism. He is the Chair-designate for the OMT Division of the Academy of Management.

Terri L. Griffith

Terri L. Griffith (PhD, Carnegie Mellon) is a Professor of Management and Breetwor Fellow in Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business. She focuses on the use of new technologies and organizational practices - especially around virtual work and knowledge transfer. She also blogs on these topics at TerriGriffith.com/blog.

Aimee L. Hamilton

Aimee Hamilton is a doctoral candidate in the Management and Organization Department of Penn State’s Smeal College of Business. Her research interests include innovation, organizational identity, image and reputation, and sustainability. She holds an AB magna cum laude from Harvard University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

Michael W. Kramer

Michael W. Kramer (PhD, Texas, 1991) is professor and chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. His organizational research focuses on employee transitions such as newcomers, exit processes, and corporate mergers. His group research focused on decision making and membership in voluntary groups. He has made theoretical contributions in the theory of managing uncertainty, group dialectical theory, and a theory of language convergence/meaning divergence. His research methods range from multivariate analysis to ethnography. His research appears in journals such as Communication Monographs, Human Communication Research, Small Group Research, and Academy of Management Journal.

Tammy L. Madsen

Tammy L. Madsen (PhD, UCLA) is Associate Professor of Strategy and Chair of the Management Department at the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University. Tammy’s research interests are at the intersection of strategy, innovation, competitive dynamics, and organizational evolution. Her most recent work explores how innovation contributes to sustained differences in superior profits among rivals. Her work has received various awards from the Business Policy & Strategy (BPS) Division of the Academy of Management and appears in a variety of journals including Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Industrial and Corporate Change, Journal of Knowledge Management, and International Marketing Review. She serves on the editorial review boards of SMJ, SEJ, and AMR and is 2010 Chair-elect for the BPS Division of the Academy of Management. Tammy teaches strategy in the MBA and Executive MBA programs at SCU.

Mark Meckler

Mark Meckler, PhD is an associate professor of management in the Robert B. Pamplin School of Business Administration at The University of Portland in Portland, Oregon. His research focuses on the relationships between events, theories, truth, and knowledge. His work is published in such quality journals as Organization Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of Management Inquiry. Dr Meckler teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in leadership, strategic management, and management of technology and innovation. He has served the US Government as a Fulbright Professor in Eastern Europe, and is a former professional chef. He received his PhD from Florida Atlantic University in 2001, his MBA in hospitality management from Michigan State University in 1990, and his undergraduate BA in philosophy from Brandeis University in 1985.

Susan Miller

Susan Miller is Professor of Organizational Behaviour at the Business School, University of Hull in the UK. She has research interests in the fields of strategic decision making and strategy implementation and has published widely in these areas. She is also interested in issues to do with management education and has written about the nature of business and management knowledge and education.

Henry Mintzberg

Henry Mintzberg is Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies in the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University in Montreal. His research has dealt with issues of general management and organizations, focusing on the nature of managerial work, forms of organizing, and the strategy formation process. Currently, he is completing a book about Managing (which explores 29 days in the lives of managers), a book on Organizing (a revision of Structure in Fives), and an electronic pamphlet entitled Getting Past Smith and Marx . . . Towards a Balanced Society. He is also promoting the development of a family of masters programs for practicing managers in the private and health sectors. His own teaching activities focus on ad hoc seminars for managers and work with doctoral students.

Professor Mintzberg earned his doctorate and Master of Science degrees at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management and his mechanical engineering degree at McGill, working in between in operational research for the Canadian National Railways. He has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada and of l’Ordre Nationale du Québec and holds honorary degrees from 13 universities in eight countries. He also served as President of the Strategic Management Society from 1988-1991, and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (the first from a management faculty), the Academy of Management, and the International Academy of Management. He was named Distinguished Scholar for the year 2000 by the Academy of Management.

Tim Morris

Tim Morris is Professor of Management Studies at Saïd Business School, Oxford University. His research interests in professional service firms concern the ways in which they organize to innovate and processes of decision and change.

Eivor Oborn

Eivor Oborn is a Lecturer in Public Management and Organisations at Royal Holloway University of London. She is an honorary research associate in the Medical Faculty at Imperial College London and a Fellow at Judge Business School, Cambridge University. Her research interests include healthcare, organisational change, knowledge translation, multidisciplinary collaboration, and service innovation. She has published work related to multidisciplinary knowledge work in a number of peer reviewed journals including Human Relations, Public Administration, and British Journal of Management.

David Obstfeld

David Obstfeld is a Visiting Professor of Management and Organizations at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Professor Obstfeld’s research examines how the knowledge-intensive, network-based social processes, which result in organizational change and innovation, unfold at the local and firm levels. Currently, his interests focus on how the interaction of social network-based linking activity, knowledge articulation, and creative projects influence entrepreneurship, innovation, and firm strategy.

Vassilis M. Papadakis

Vassilis M. Papadakis is a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Business Administration at the Athens University of Economics and Business. With a PhD from the London Business School, his main research interests are in the areas of strategic decision making and mergers and acquisitions. He has published articles in Strategic Management Journal, Organisation Science, British Journal of Management, and others. Two of his papers have been published in the best papers proceedings of the US Academy of Management, in 1996 and 2003. He is a reviewer for international academic journals, including Academy of Management Review, Management Science, Journal of Management Studies, and British Journal of Management.

Marshall Scott Poole

Marshall Scott Poole (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is a professor in the Department of Communication, Senior Research Scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and Director of the Institute for Computing in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is the author or editor of ten books and over 130 articles and book chapters. Recent books include Theories of Small Groups: Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Organizational Change and Innovation Processes: Theory and Methods for Research. His research interests include group and organizational communication, organizational change, and information technology, particularly its implementation and impacts.

Hal G. Rainey

Hal G. Rainey is Alumni Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia. His book, Understanding and Managing Public Organizations, was recently published in its fourth edition. In 2009, he received the Dwight Waldo Award for career scholarly contributions from the American Society for Public Administration. Rainey serves as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Devaki Rau

Devaki Rau earned her PhD in management at the University of Minnesota and is currently a faculty member in the Department of Management at Northern Illinois University. Her research focuses on the recognition and utilization of expertise in teams and individuals, managerial decision making, and top management teams. She has published her research in journals such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Small Group Research, and Journal of Business Research. She worked as a business development executive in CMC Ltd, a software development and maintenance firm in Bangalore, India, prior to obtaining her PhD.

Suzana Rodrigues

Suzana B Rodrigues MSc, PhD holds the Chair of International Business at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. She is also a Professor at FUMEC University in Brazil. Her current interests include the relevance of interorganizational arrangements in SME internationalization, and the internationalization of R&D facilities and mechanisms of knowledge development in MNCs. She has published in Human Relations, Journal of International Management, Journal of Management Studies, Management and Organization Review, Management International Review and Organization Studies. The book she co-authored with John Child, Corporate Co-evolution: A Political Perspective, received the Terry Book Award at the 2009 Academy of Management Meeting.

John C. Ronquillo

John C. Ronquillo is a doctoral candidate in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia. His primary research interests are in public and nonprofit management, innovation and organizational change, and social entrepreneurship. Prior to entering academia he worked in the areas of social impact assessment, intergovernmental relations, and public policy analysis.

Kathleen M. Sutcliffe

Kathleen M. Sutcliffe (PhD) is Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Research and the Gilbert and Ruth Whitaker Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Her research program has been devoted to investigating how organizations and their members perceive and cope with uncertainty and how organizational designs influence reliability and resilience. In particular, Professor Sutcliffe has studied the antecedents of untoward organizational events such as errors and crises as well as ways in which organizations, their units, and their members can anticipate untoward events or cope with them after they are manifest.

Ioannis C. Thanos

Ioannis C. Thanos holds an MSc in Marketing and Strategy from Warwick Business School (UK) and is a doctoral candidate and a research assistant at the Athens University of Economics and Business in Greece. His research interests are in the area of strategic decision making and mergers and acquisitions. His research has appeared in the British Journal of Management and has been presented in conferences including the Academy of Management, the British Academy of Management, and the European Academy of Management.

Haridimos Tsoukas

Haridimos Tsoukas is the George D. Mavros Research Professor of Organization and Management at the Athens Laboratory of Business Administration (ALBA), Greece and a Professor of Organization Studies at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK. He obtained his PhD at the Manchester Business School (MBS), University of Manchester, and has worked at MBS, the University of Warwick, the University of Cyprus, the University of Essex, and the University of Strathclyde. He has published widely in several leading academic journals, including the Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal,Organization Studies,Organization Science , Journal of Management Studies, and Human Relations. He was the editor-in-chief of Organization Studies (2003-2008) and serves on the editorial board of several journals. His research interests include: knowledge-based perspectives on organizations; the management of organizational change and social reforms; the epistemology of practice; and epistemological issues in organization theory. He is the editor (with Christian Knudsen) of The Oxford Handbook of Organization Theory: Meta-theoretical Perspectives (Oxford University Press, 2003). He has also edited Organizations as Knowledge Systems (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, with N. Mylonopoulos) and Managing the Future: Foresight in the Knowledge Economy (Blackwell, 2004, with J. Shepherd). His book Complex Knowledge: Studies in Organizational Epistemology was published by Oxford University Press in 2005. He is also the author of the book If Aristotle were a CEO (in Greek, Kastaniotis, 2004).

Andrew H. Van de Ven

Andrew H. Van de Ven is Vernon H. Heath Professor of Organizational Innovation and Change in the Carlson School of the University of Minnesota. His books and journal articles over the years have dealt with the Nominal Group Technique, organization theory, innovation and change. His most recent book is Engaged Scholarship (Oxford University Press, 2007).

Karl E. Weick

Karl E. Weick is the Rensis Likert Distinguished University Professor of Organizational Behavior and Psychology, and Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan. His PhD is from Ohio State University in Social and Organizational Psychology. He is a former editor of the journal Administrative Science Quarterly (1977-1985) and former Associate editor of the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Performance (1971-1977). Dr. Weick’s research interests include collective sensemaking under pressure, handoffs and transitions in dynamic events, high reliability performance, improvisation, and impermanent systems.

Frances Westley

Frances Westley holds as the JW McConnell Chair in Social Innovation at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. Dr. Westley is a renowned scholar and consultant in the areas of social innovation, strategies for sustainable development, middle management and strategic change, visionary leadership and inter-organizational collaboration. Her most recent book, Getting to Maybe (2006) focuses on the dynamics of social innovation, and institutional entrepreneurship in complex adaptive systems. Before joining the University of Waterloo, Frances Westley held the position of Director, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies (2005-2007) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Other positions she has previously held include the James McGill Professor of Strategy at McGill University’s Faculty of Management.

Frances Westley serves on the editorial board of several journals, including Journal of Applied Behavioral Science and Ecology and Society. She is the recipient of several awards including the Ulysses S. Seal award for innovation in conservation, and the Corporate Knights Award.

Jennifer L. Woolley

Jennifer L. Woolley MBA, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Management at the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University. Her teaching focuses on international business, strategy, and entrepreneurship. Jennifer’s research examines the emergence of technology, firms, and industries. Prior to joining Santa Clara University, Jennifer worked in international finance.

About the Editors

Paul C. Nutt

Paul C. Nutt is Professor Emeritus of Management Sciences at the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University and Professor of Management at University of Strathclyde’s College of Business. He received his PhD degree from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and a BS and MS from the University of Michigan, all in Industrial Engineering. He has written 150 articles and eight books on subjects that include organizational decision making, strategic management, planning, and radical change. His books include Why Decisions Fail for Berrett-Koehler and The Strategic Management of Public and Third Sector Organization and Making Tough Decisions for Jossey-Bass. He is a fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute and is a charter member of the Academy of Management’s hall of fame. His work has appeared in many academic journals as well as Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company Magazine , and NPR/PRI’s Marketplace. He serves on numerous editorial review boards and regularly consults for public, private, and non-profit organizations.

David C. Wilson

David Wilson is Professor of Strategy and Organization in the University of Warwick where he is also Deputy Dean of the Business School. He is the author of eight books and over 70 journal articles. He was Chairman of the British Academy of Management (1994-1997) where he served for over 10 years as an Executive member. He is a Fellow of the Academy, elected in 1994. He is listed in Who’s Who in Social Science a list of leading international scholars in their field, published by Edward Elgar (2000). He was Chairman of the scholarly society, the European Group for Organisation Studies (EGOS) from 2002 to 2006. He has had a long association with the journal Organization Studies, beginning as Editorial Assistant (1981-1996), becoming Co-Editor (1992-1996), Deputy Editor (1996-1999), and finally Editor-in-Chief (1999-2003). He is currently Chair of the Editorial Advisory Board for Organization Studies. He has been a member of EGOS for over 20 years and has served on the Board for the last eight years.

Part I

INTRODUCTION

1

Crucial Trends and Issues in Strategic Decision Making

PAUL C. NUTT AND DAVID C. WILSON

INTRODUCTION1

Studies of strategic decision making are central to organization theory. March and Simon (1958) suggested that managing organizations and decision making are virtually synonymous. The dynamics of organizing require a deep understanding of decision making. As organizations grow and become more complex, decision making becomes a central activity. Managers are expected to make choices among alternatives that are often uncertain and to choose wisely in order to benefit both the organization and its key stakeholders. This has prompted researchers to study decision processes to find ways in which decisions can be improved.

The study of decision making has spanned a number of levels of analysis, which range from individual cognition to the cultural characteristics of nation states. Many disciplines inform our knowledge from mathematics to behavioural theories of social science. The term strategic decision making is often used to indicate important or key decisions made in organizations of all types. The term organization includes any collective social, economic or political activity involving a plurality of human effort. Strategic decisions emphasize the social practice of decision making as it is carried out among and between individuals in the organization. When studying decision making, both the organizing of decision activity as a collective phenomena and the cognitive processes of individual decision makers take centre stage.

Strategic decision making is more than computation carried out to make judgements and choices. Various branches of mathematics can inform us about risk, options, game theory and choice. All have their utility in understanding choice processes, but are less useful when considering how people in organizations make decisions. As an example, consider the most well known variant of game theory (decisions between two players), the prisoners’ dilemma. Two criminals in separate cells have to decide whether to betray each other, having agreed not to betray one another in advance of the game. The greatest pay-off results when both prisoners stick to their agreement, but most betray each other and experience a significantly reduced pay-off. Computational mathematics help the players maximize their returns, but this is just part of the strategic decision-making story.