The Managerial Decision‐making Process (5th ed.)

Citation

Peters, J. (1999), "The Managerial Decision‐making Process (5th ed.)", Management Decision, Vol. 37 No. 5, pp. 57-58. https://doi.org/10.1108/md.1999.37.5.57.1

After reports about all the facts have reached their desks, after all the advice has been offered, all the opinions listened to, after everything has been listed for the final plan and the most talkative of the experts is on their way back to the airport deciding in advance what they are going to tell the next client, the manager still remains alone with the responsibilities: he/she is the person who has to get something done. Specialists have uttered their warnings, research consultants have thrown doubt on the accuracy of the data, local academics have drawn attention to the precedent of the Taff Vale judgment, the public relations officer sees certain weaknesses if the affair has to be reported on the international network, and the economic adviser, while voicing no views about the cash flow, still shakes his head, knits his brow and purses his lips about the cash flow situation. But the manager alone has to do something about it all (

Reg Revans, The ABC of Action Learning, re‐issued Lemos and Crane, London, 1998.)

Not an extract from Frank Harrison′s The Managerial Decision‐Making Process, but it almost could be. Harrison has, undoubtedly, the definitive collection of theory, philosophy and case example around this most simple and difficult of tasks ‐‐ the decision, and does so in a scholarly yet no‐nonsense way. The Managerial Decision‐making Processis in its fifth update in 1999, and shows signs of crafting and polishing. Harrison conveys complex information in a style which is always easy and readable.

Part I deals with what Harrison calls the foundations of decision‐making, and discusses values, rationality and some of the process of decisions. Part II, interdisciplinary aspects, leads off nicely with “eclectic approaches to decision making” and covers sociology, psychology and politics of decisions. It is the part of the book which I enjoyed most, and there is hardly a business student (or indeed practitioner) who could not learn from some of Harrison′s collected insights in here.

Part III covers strategic decision making, and part IV presents four “case sets” ‐‐ series of discussions on decision cases, including the Cuban missile crisis, the Iranian hostage crisis, Challenger disaster, General Motors, Chrysler, Philip Morris and Disney Corporation.

It is a book which certainly no serious business library should be without, and it would prove an asset as a foundation for most MBA program students. Criticism of such a large‐scale work seems almost churlish ‐‐ if I had a criticism it would be that Harrison might have looked in more detail, possibly with a dedicated section, at that most important but most ignored sector of business ‐‐ the small to medium‐sized organization. It would be useful to have the same level of analysis and data collection (and a few cases) devoted to the kind of firm most people actually work in, as well as the ones we have all heard of.