Business Decisions, Human Choices

Business Decisions, Human Choices
Author: Lloyd C. Williams
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 208
Release: 1996-07-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0313035121

Dr. Williams contends that over the last 20 years a change has occurred in organizations that has created a syndrome of dysfunctions that are neither good for businesses nor for the people who work in them. Williams sees businesses as living entities, and argues that how they act and react will have an impact on their employees, and often a devastating impact. In much the same way as businesses make decisions, people make choices, and seldom are these decisions and choices congruent. Unless disparate self-interests and goals can be reconciled—unless a partnership can be restored between people and their organizations—not only will employees be damaged, but the success of their organization, upon which they depend for their livelihoods, will be jeopardized. How this dangerous situation came about, what it means, and how it can be remedied is the subjet of Dr. Williams' book. Research-based and always in touch with the realities of commerce, Dr. Williams will make business people aware that organizations and their people must become reunited, and then show them how it can be done. Dr. Williams makes clear he is not simply speculating or theorizing. His goal is to make management aware of the dysfunctions that are damaging their organizations, and how these are reflected in the behaviors of their employees. When he calls for a focus on humanity, spirit, and context, Dr. Williams is actually offering a workable, real-world strategy to breathe new life into organizations of all kinds—a strategy he calls The Trinity Process. Its purpose: to help management restore the essential partnership between organizational entities and the people who make them succeed or fail. In Part One he shows what it means to be part of any organization and, with anecdotes and cases from his own research, helps readers grasp the dynamics of their own organizations. In Part Two he proposes new or reframed paradigms that provide an underpinning for the reestablishment of equality between organizations and their employees. Then, in Part Three he presents The Trinity Process itself. The result is a remarkably lucid, readable, engrossing exploration of organizational life today, important reading for decision makers in all types of organizations, public as well as private, and for academics concerned with how organizations behave.

The Paradox of Choice

The Paradox of Choice
Author: Barry Schwartz
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2009-10-13
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0061748994

Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions—both big and small—have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented. As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice—the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish—becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice—from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs—has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse. By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counter intuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. He offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on those that are important and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.

Foreign entry commitment as a human choice

Foreign entry commitment as a human choice
Author: Maud Oortwijn
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2012-06-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1470916924

Firms increase commitment to foreign markets with growing experience in international business. The basic premise of the internationalization process theory is that knowledge is acquired through experience abroad. Maud Oortwijn's research work finds how this learning process within the firm is reflected in the managerial host country assessment. Managers perceive the new host country more optimistic with increasing experience in international business. International Business scholars often report on macro-economic factors and post-entrance business performance. This research studies 25 firms on 54 foreign entry commitment choices while in the process of decision making for foreign entrance. This also allows for unique insight in the Go/No-Go decision. Some firms decide to cancel or postpone plans, while others continue with different entry modes.

Business Ethics

Business Ethics
Author: Patrick O'Sullivan
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2012-08-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1136312870

Events such as Trafigura's illegal dumping of toxic waste in Côte d’Ivoire and BP's environmentally disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have highlighted ethical issues in international business at a time when business leaders, academics and business schools were reflecting on their own responsibilities following the global financial crisis. The scope and scale of the global operations of multinational businesses means that decisions taken in different parts of the world have far reaching consequences beyond the national settings where employees are located or where firms are registered and as such, an awareness of these responsibilities needs to be integrated into all levels and all subjects. Using four guiding principles – a critical multi-level approach rooted in the tradition of European social theory, a comparative and international perspective, a global rather than just a European or American stand point and engaging with subject-specific issues this book aims to 'mainstream' business ethics into the work of teachers and students in business schools. This comprehensive volume brings together contributions from a range of experts in different areas of business studies thereby facilitating and encouraging a move away from business ethics being a box to be ticked to being an integrated consideration across the business disciplines. This impressive book brings ethical considerations back to the heart of the business curriculum and in doing so, provides a companion for the progressive business student throughout their university career.

Monthly Labor Review

Monthly Labor Review
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 474
Release: 1998
Genre: Labor laws and legislation
ISBN:

Publishes in-depth articles on labor subjects, current labor statistics, information about current labor contracts, and book reviews.

Decision Making and Business Performance

Decision Making and Business Performance
Author: Eric J. Bolland
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2018
Genre: Business enterprises
ISBN: 1786430169

This breakthrough study examines how business decisions explain successful and unsuccessful performance. Real world and academic research is evaluated, including interviews and cases studies, to create a model of how decisions and performance are connected for businesses of all sizes. Recommendations are made to optimize decision making and projections about the future of decision making and performance are provided.

Impacts of Religious Biases on Leadership Decision Making

Impacts of Religious Biases on Leadership Decision Making
Author: William M. Gasser
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
Total Pages: 134
Release: 2009-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1599422948

The subtle nature of bias can cause leaders to be unaware of religiously based influences. The outcome can be both positive and negative. The leader can make decisions that are more effective by maximizing useful paradigms and constructs, or make less effective and inappropriate decisions through lack of evaluation of alternative approaches, data and responses. In either scenario, understanding one's internal nature is integral to maximizing one's leadership abilities. This qualitative study examined how United States commissioned and noncommissioned military leaders stationed in Europe described effects of religion and their religious upbringing on their decision-making process, and how they viewed the quality of those decisions. With one exception, all the leaders drew connections between their views of how they viewed their decisions and their religious or spiritual backgrounds. The study revealed prominent themes: (a) there is a presence of religious beliefs that helps guide leaders in making their decision, (b) leaders see an importance of religious principles in the decisions leaders make, (c) moral principles are involved in decisions, (d) leaders believe that the rightness of decisions can be innate and transcendent (e) humans have intrinsic, naturally occurring spiritual beliefs that mankind can use to guide decisions, (f) there is a right-wrong aspect of decisions, and (g) decisions can be based on the ethical values of the decision-maker.

Creating the Congruent Workplace

Creating the Congruent Workplace
Author: Lloyd C. Williams
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2002-06-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0313011540

For organizational and personal change to happen and be sustainable, there must first be a system of thought balanced against action. Williams and his concept of congruence provide an alternative to the often chaotic, unbalanced ways in which change is currently understood and its accomplishment attempted. He challenges the organizational model of compartmentalized structures, offers a persuasive refutation of the fashionable paradigm of organizational transformation (one based on dominance and control), and argues a provocative notion that innovation is actually the successful result of reworking what has not worked before. A new look at the processes that create organizational movement, Williams' latest book is a guide for leaders, managers, consultants, and corporate practitioners, and a new way for students, teachers, and researchers to rethink the entire change process. Williams has found through his own experience that people focus too closely on the action behaviors of organizations and too little on the thinking behind them. The result is that gaps open up and create pitfalls in our efforts to achieve excellence in human and organizational performance. Williams suggests that organizations innovate themselves into failure. To counter this, he provides a true systemic approach to enhancing organizational performance, a system of what he visualizes as congruence, a way to fit thoughts to actions. It is as much a way of thinking, says Williams, as it is a method toward goals—goals that are clear and essential to the survival of any organization. Drawing liberally upon his own expertise as a teacher, consultant, and therapist, he helps others to appreciate the successes that can be realized when balance and the alignment of thought and action are achieved, and when the search for change becomes a planned, focused, and systemic endeavor.

Cognitive Processes in Choice and Decision Behavior

Cognitive Processes in Choice and Decision Behavior
Author: Thomas S. Wallsten
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2024-05-01
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 104002551X

Decision theory is a uniquely interdisciplinary field of study with contributions from economics, statistics, mathematics, philosophy, operations research, and psychology. The 1970s had seen important changes in research on behavioral decision theory in terms of a shift from a reliance on economic and statistical models to an emphasis on concepts drawn from cognitive psychology. Originally published in 1980, Cognitive Processes in Choice and Decision Behavior contains papers that explore the reasons why these changes had come about and discuss the future directions to which they pointed. It was clear at the time that research in behavioral decision theory was changing dramatically. The chapters in this book represent a good assessment of the reasons the changes were coming about and some of the merits and problems of the directions in which it was moving. Today it can be read in its historical context.