Customer Reviews

Judgment in Managerial Decision Making

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The book is acomprehensive and in depth look at Decision Making. A topic no person who is in charge of choices bigger than "what should I wear" should ignore. Bazerman walk you through Biases,Heuristics, Awareness and Ethics as well as touching on the relevant issues of Negotiations and some common investment mistakes.
Once the tools are at one's fingertips, the hues around you begin to change.
P.S Relying on this review may be flawed: there is an inherant bias: Out of all the people who read this book only those who recognized its use would bother writing a review. This then should not be taken as a REPRESENTATIVE of all reader's views.

Consider this scenario: Two groups are playing basketball. One group wears black, the other white. Researchers film each group separately passing a basketball back and forth, and superimpose the two films on a television monitor. They ask research participants to add up the number of passes the players make. Because the separate images of basketballs flying here and there overlap, the counters must pay close attention. Under such circumstances, how many of the observers would fail to see a man dressed as a gorilla stroll through the basketball court while dramatically thumping his chest? Believe it or not, eight out of ten. Scientists call this "inattentional blindness." Distinguished Harvard professor Max H. Bazerman refers to such tests as he explains the concept of "bounded awareness." When people fail to notice information, their lack of perception may preclude them from making sound decisions. Bazerman fills his book with learned insights, fascinating research and intriguing tests. He exposes the mental biases, skewed logic, false premises and misleading emotions that interfere with good decision making. getAbstract recommends this tantalizing book to those who want to understand the nuts-and-bolts of the thinking process, and to enhance their decision-making prowess.

Have you ever wondered why some people make such stupid mistakes? Well, we are all prone, hard-wired and influenced to make astounding errors in judgment. Bazerman takes you on a journey into all the reasons why, full substantiated by science. All of it is fascinating. And, hopefully, once you are aware of what is really going on in our own brains we can be aware enough to mitigate those dangerous tendencies and become very clear about what we do.

The book covers a lot of territory about what is new in decision making based on the latest science and real world examples. Most managers know the basics of making decisions. But this book outlines and explains why those processes instilled in school or by our role models may create incorrect frames for making the best decisions. Once these are uncovered in the book, one becomes more aware and the book provides solutions that help to correct our misguided notions. Decisions are not just about optimizing for monetary gain - and the book has chapters on ethics, negotiations, and methodology to make better decisions. What is missing though is how we make decisions in groups.

A very well written book that will lead you to the most rigorous introspection in decision making