1st Edition

The Bradford Studies of Strategic Decision Making

    506 Pages
    by Routledge

    506 Pages
    by Routledge

    This title was first published in 2001. This volume brings together the 25-year output of the longest running programme of research into the making of decisions by top management. It describes and explains the processes of arriving at major decisions and how they are affected by the issue under decision, the form of organization and national differences and then, finally, success and failure in implementation. The programme continues with research on routes in successfully managing implementation.

     Introduction - aims, means and results. Part 1 Issues and ideas: studying deciding - an exchange of views between Mintzberg and Waters, Pettigrew and Butler, H. Mintzberg and J. Waters; decision making at the top of organizations, D.J. Hickson; complexity and cleavage - dual explanations of strategic decision making, W.G. Astley, R. Axelsson, R.J. Butler and D.C. Wilson; organization as power, D.J. Hickson, W.G. Astley, RJ. Butler and D.C. Wilson. Part 2 Decision-making processes: sporadic, fluid and constricted processes - three empirical types of strategic decision making in organizations, D. Cray, G.R. Mallory et al; explaining decision processes, D Cray et al; electricity and resistance - a case study of innovation and politics, D.C. Wilson; the interdepartmental influence of managers - individual and sub-unit perspectives, G.K. Kenny and D.C. Wilson; breaking the bounds of organization in strategic decision making, D.C. Wilson et al; the limits of trade union power in organization decision making, D.C. Wilson et al; strategic investment decision making - complexities, politics and process, R.J. Butler et al. Part 3 Organizational features: strategic decision making - influence patters in public and private sector organizations, G.K. Kenny et al; governmental influence upon decision makingin organizations in the private and public sectors in Britain, D.J. Jickson; volunatry organizations in action - strategy in the British voluntary sector, D.C. Wilson and R.J. Butler. Part 4 National features: implanted decision making - American-owned firms in Britain, R. Axelsson et al; decision style in British and Swedish organizations - a comparative examination of strategic decision making, R. Axelsson et al; sensitivity to societal culture in managerial decision making - an Anglo-Brazilian comparison, C.A. Arruda and D.J. Hickson. Part 5 Successfully managing implementation: decision making - different organizations, differing reasons for success, S.B. Rodrigues and D.J. Hickson; implementing strategic decision - four key success factors, S. Miller; how organizations can overbalance - decision overreach as a reason for failure, D.C. Wilson et al. Part 6 Doing the research: ruminations on munificence and scarcity in research, D.J. Hickson.

    Biography

    Dave J. Hickson, Richard J. Butler, David C. Wilson