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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
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Summary
Summary
This practical resource shows business professionals how to improve their decision-making skills and enhance their ability to develop effective interpersonal relationships with co-workers and clients. The book covers a wide range of topics -- identifying tastes and preferences, personal skill assessment, cost-benefit analysis, risk and uncertainty, multi-tasking, human resource management, time constraints, data collection, and more. Designed to help busy professionals make the most effective use of time and energy, it will also be useful in the study of organizational behavior and business psychology.
Reviews 2
Booklist Review
Experiment! The single most important suggestion in this book is--try it. Theory is fine but action is essential; execute an idea or strategy in several different ways before giving up. Simon, an academic and prolific writer, died before this book could be published, and the manuscript was edited by his wife and son. The author offers guidance on how to build effective decision-making skills and develop strong interpersonal relationships with coworkers and clients. He addresses skills that stem from mental discipline ranging from making business decisions to choosing life goals and even knowing how to get to sleep quickly. In part one he suggests that you must know your goals and must specify your criteria for success in life in order to benefit from the information in part two, which describes the analytical process for choosing a course of action from among similar options. Parts three and four address creating ideas, obtaining relevant information, evaluating the alternatives, and drawing conclusions, as well as applications of new knowledge. --Mary Whaley
Choice Review
Simon (Univ. of Maryland) applies traditional decision models and decision-making skills to making business and personal choices. The book's 15 chapters are organized in four sections: "Wants, Abilities, and Goals," "Introduction to Evaluative Thinking," "Getting Useful Ideas and Knowledge," and "Working with Information Knowledge." Topics covered include goal selection, preference assessment, evaluating alternatives, expert systems, data collection, risk and uncertainty, present value and cost-benefit analysis, judgment, and the process of negotiation. Chapter coverage--from creating ideas through exploring alternatives and drawing conclusions, combined with a series of realistic examples--reinforce the author's synthesis of behavioral and quantitative methodology into an integrated decision paradigm. Familiarity with interpersonal management and mathematical expression is a prerequisite to a complete understanding of this book. Appropriate for public libraries as well as upper-division undergraduate through practitioner collections. S. R. Kahn; University of Cincinnati
Table of Contents
Part I Wants, Abilities, And Goals |
1 Tastes, Preferences, Wants, and Values |
2 Assessing Your Resources |
3 Choosing Goals and Criteria of Success |
Part II Introduction to Evaluative Thinking |
4 Evaluating Simple Alternatives |
5 Weighing Present Versus Future Benefits (and Costs) |
6 How To Think About Cost |
7 Allowing For Uncertainty |
8 Dealing With Risks |
9 Reconciling Multiple Goals |
Part III Getting Useful Ideas and Knowledge |
10 Getting and Eliminating Ideas |
11 Experts, Expert Systems, and Libraries |
12 Using Scientific Discipline to Obtain Information |
13 Assessing Consequences and Likelihoods |
Part IV Working with Information and Knowledge |
14 Pitfalls That Entrap Our Thinking |
15 My Favorite Worst Sources of Errors |
16 Good Judgment |
17 Self-Discipline and Habits of Thought |
18 Dealing With People, and Managing Them |