Coming soon · Book Profile
Lib4d8aa0038c6f1943
A comprehensive academic handbook exploring the diverse theoretical, methodological, and practical aspects of organizational decision making from multiple disciplines including psychology, economics, and sociology.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Decision Making provides a state-of-the-art overview of its field, bringing together leading scholars to explore the context, processes, and consequences of how choices are made in organizations. It tackles persistent themes like rationality, politics, and bias, alongside emerging topics such as intuition, emotion, and sensemaking. Examining decision making in both routine and high-stakes situations like crises, the book bridges the gap between rigorous academic research and practical application. It aims to equip researchers, students, and reflective practitioners with critical insights to understand and improve decision-making processes, offering a wealth of frameworks, case studies, and methods for more effective practice in a complex world.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- The reader is a professional decision researcher, management scientist, or reflective practitioner who wants to understand and improve the complex process of decision making within organizations.
- The problem
- Making effective decisions in organizations is incredibly difficult due to complexity, uncertainty, information overload, politics, and conflicting interests. They feel frustrated by persistent decision failures, overwhelmed by the messiness of real-world processes, and uncertain about which theories or methods are truly effective for improving outcomes.
- The plan
- Explore the diverse contexts that shape decisions, from information overload and technology to culture and crisis.
- Master the core processes of decision making, including the roles of rationality, politics, intuition, and emotion.
- Analyze the often unintended and socially constructed consequences of decisions.
- Evaluate and implement methods for more effective decision making, from scenario planning and risk communication to structured group processes.
- The payoff
- Readers will possess a sophisticated, multi-faceted understanding of organizational decision making. · They will be equipped to diagnose decision failures and design more effective processes and interventions. · They will bridge the gap between theory and practice, producing more rigorous research and achieving better organizational outcomes.
See our guide
- Agriculture, Fishing & Forestry Leader →
- Compensation Analyst →
- Compensation Analyst →
- Compensation Analyst →
- Compensation Analyst →
- Make Sound Decisions Under Uncertainty →
- Construction Leader →
- HR Business Partner →
- HR Business Partner →
- HR Business Partner →
- HR Business Partner →
- HR Director →
- HR Director →
- HR Director →
- Law Firm Leader →
- Maintenance & Repair Leader →
- Professional Services Firm Leader →
- Recruiter / Talent Acquisition →
- Recruiter / Talent Acquisition →
- Recruiter / Talent Acquisition →
- Transportation & Logistics Leader →
Related profiles we’ve built
- Agricultural Medicine →
- Antifragile (Incerto) →
- Atomic Habits →
- An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization →
- Anxiety at Work_ 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done →
- Apa Handbook Io V2 →
- Applied Psychology in Human Resource Management →
- Armstrong’s Handbook of Strategic Human Resource Management →
Additional reading
- Diseases of Workers · Bernardo Ramazzini
Cited as the foundational text of occupational medicine, written in the early 1700s, which describes many occupationally related diseases observed in farm patients that are still recognized today.
- The Triple Bottom Line · Andrew Savitz
Introduces the concept of sustainability resting on three pillars: profit, planet, and people. The book uses this to argue that the 'people' component (human capital/worker health) is often dangerously neglected in agriculture.
- The Omnivore's Dilemma · Michael Pollan
Referenced as an example of popular literature that reflects and advocates for the rising consumer voice and public scrutiny concerning sustainable food systems, which is a major trend impacting modern agriculture.
- Silent Spring · Rachel Carson
Cited as the landmark 1962 book that launched the modern environmental movement and fundamentally shifted public and governmental attention toward the potential harms of pesticides, shaping decades of regulation and risk perception.
- Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies · Charles Perrow
The book's theory of 'system accidents' and 'tight coupling' is used by Gonzales to explain how cascading failures, like the Mount Hood climbing disaster, are inevitable features of certain complex systems.
- The Emotional Brain & The Synaptic Self · Joseph LeDoux
LeDoux's neuroscience research on the amygdala's role in fear and memory forms the scientific backbone of Gonzales's argument about how emotion can hijack reason in a crisis.
- The Survivor Personality · Al Siebert
Gonzales cites Siebert's psychological research on the traits of survivors, such as their use of playfulness and humor to stay in contact with reality and manage threats.
- Touching the Void · Joe Simpson
This book provides one of the primary and most detailed case studies Gonzales analyzes to illustrate the psychology of a survivor, including managing pain, using patterns, and the will to live.
- Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea · Steven Callahan
Callahan's story serves as a textbook example of the ideal survivor mindset in action, demonstrating nearly all of the '12 Rules' Gonzales outlines, such as maintaining routine, finding beauty, and surrendering without giving up.
- All Quiet on the Western Front · Erich Maria Remarque
Gonzales quotes Remarque's novel to illustrate the development of instinctual, life-saving secondary emotions in soldiers, a key concept in how experience rewires the brain for survival.