Key Management Decisions

Tools and Techniques of the Executive Decision-Maker

Des Dearlove

Publisher: Pitman Publishing, 1998, 242 pages

ISBN: 0-273-63009-1

Keywords: Management

Last modified: July 10, 2021, 3:27 p.m.

Key Management Decisions is a practical guide to management decision-making, with lessons drawn from the most up-to-date research and a wealth of company case studies and real life examples.

    • Acknowledgements
    • Key for icons
    • Introduction
  1. Decisions, decisions, decisions
    • What are decisions?
    • The point of no return
    • Different types of decisions
    • How decisions are made (in theory)
    • The human factor
    • How are decisions really made?
    • An art, not a science
    • Why decisions are not made
    • Lucky generals
  2. The garbage can and other models
    • The garbage can model
    • The rational deductive model
    • Disjointed incrementalism
    • Reductionism
    • Scientific management: Taylorism
    • Universal predicatbility
    • Total quality management (TQM)
    • Chaos theory
    • Game theory
  3. The decision-makers' tool-box
    • Decision trees
    • Fishbone diagrams (the Ishikawa method)
    • Flow charts
    • Brown papering (process mapping)
    • Mind maps
    • Prioritizing tools
    • Analysis tools
    • Scenario planning
    • Flipping a coin
  4. The hare and the tortoise
    • The different ways managers approach decisions
    • Fast impressions
    • Pigeon-holing decisions
    • Evaluating time-scales
    • Time management
    • The 80/20 principle
    • Crisis? What crisis?
    • Faster, harder
    • The nimble organization
    • Just-in-time decisions
  5. Data, data everywhere
    • Information vs knowledge
    • Do you have the right information to make a decision?
    • How reliable is the information?
    • Chinese whispers
    • Testing for bias
    • Cassandra information
    • Information flow
    • Benchmarking
    • Coping with information overload
    • Developing good information habits
    • Desktop democratization
    • Paralysis by analysis
  6. Desision-making structures
    • The military model
    • Functional chimneys
    • The multi-divisional structure
    • Matrix management
    • The Shamrock organization
    • Membership communities
    • The star
    • The boundaryless organization
    • The amoeba organization
    • The chemical soup organization
    • The virtual organization
    • Flatter management structures
    • Downsizing
    • Business process re-engineering (BPR)
    • Longer reporting spans
    • The changing art of delegation
    • Accountability
  7. Decison-making cultures
    1. Internal cultures
      • Ed Schein's three levels of culture
      • Empowerment
      • Managers as facilitators
      • Learning organizations
      • Blame culture and gain culture
      • Managing mistakes
      • Groupthink
      • Politics and personalities
    2. National cultures
      • The Japanese model of decision-making
      • Living with cultural diversity
      • Culture clashes
      • Brake's culture prism
  8. Intuition and other 'soft skills'
    • Intuition
    • Perception and judgement
    • Left and right brain decisions
    • Nurturing the inner sense
    • Tacit knowledge
    • Picking up signals others miss
    • The heroic leadership myth
    • Counter-cyclical thinking
    • Decision-making personalities
    • The Holy Trinity of decision-making
    • Hearts and minds
  9. Tough decisions
    • Business ethics
    • The range of ethical decisions
    • Grey areas
    • Creating an ethical framework for decisions
    • Ethical codes
    • Monitoring ethical performance
    • Ethical training
    • Knowing right from wrong
    • Corporate values
    • Stakeholders
    • Handling redundancies
    • Blowing the whistle
  10. Real decisions in practice
    • Putting it all together and implementing it
    • Staffing decisions
    • The issues involved in outsourcing
    • Outsourcing IT needs
    • The decision-maker's route map
    • Career decisions
    • Lifestyle decisions: 'Downshifting'
    • Health decisions
    • Afterword

Reviews

Key Management Decisions

Reviewed by Roland Buresund

Very Good ******** (8 out of 10)

Last modified: Oct. 29, 2010, 1:32 p.m.

A very good reference.

And I have to admit that I find it extremely useful from time to time, when I need a refresher.

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