This book takes a fresh look at safety decision-making by documenting and examining stories told by front-line managers in three different high-hazard industries: a chemical plant, a nuclear power station and an air-navigation service provider. From Piper Alpha to Deepwater Horizon, accident analysis has stressed the importance of excellent decision-making by those in charge out in the field. Organizations rely critically on the judgement and experience of such senior operations personnel and yet these qualities are undervalued in a business environment that emphasises documentation and measurement. Whilst operational managers are guided by rules, they also draw on their own long experience and can formulate a situation-specific 'line in the sand' to apply the experience of the operating team to complex, real-world situations that rule writers may not have foreseen. This volume refocuses our attention on the people who make these important decisions and the organizational processes that support the best choices. Jan Hayes uses her multi-disciplinary experience to draw together an account of safety decision-making that is both technically robust and yet accessible to academics, practitioners and regulators alike. Readers will see that the stories retold in this book provide a way for operational managers to share their knowledge, experience and expertise - with each other and with us.

The effective management of knowledge assets is a key requirement for securing competitive advantage in the emerging information economy. Yet the nature of knowledge assets, however, remains poorly understood. In this new work, Max Boisot provides a conceptual framework for managers and students that will help them explore and understand how knowledge and information assets differ from physical assets, and how to deal with them at a strategic level within their organizations.

Radical Decision Making offers a controversial new framework to the conventional strategic change management conversation. While many approaches provide a discussion on a singular level, Dr. Hruska blends theory and research of decision making and social interaction to develop a consistent framework of strategic change.

Frequently (and often inappropriately) decision making in the work environment has been analyzed and modeled in terms of isolated decisions made by one person. In reality, decision making is a continuous, interpersonal process usually involving several ``decision makers'' aiming at dynamic and cooperative control of the state of affairs at work. Based on original contributions from researchers and research teams, this book provides an urgently needed cognitive approach to models of distributed decision making, exploring the basis for design of decision support systems in various complex, collective, modern work environments. It identifies the state of the art of modeling distributed decision making and the problems imposed by modern high-tech systems. A also formulates promising research avenues.

This book provides students with an in-depth understanding of the concepts, frameworks and processes used to analyze and present visual data for better decision-making. Expert contributors provide guidance in translating complex concepts from large data sets and how this translation drives management practice. The book's first part provides a descriptive consideration of state-of-the-art science in visual design. The second part complements the first with a rich set of cases and visual examples, illustrating development and best practice to provide students with real-world context. Through their presentation of modern scientific principles, the editors inspire structured discussions of audience and design, recognizing differences in need, bias and effective processes across contexts and stakeholders. This cutting-edge resource will be of value to students in business analytics, business communication and management science classes, who will learn to be capable managers through the effective and direct visual communication of data. Researchers and practitioners will also find this an engaging and informative book.

Tackling the question of how to effectively aggregate uncertain preference information in multiple structures given by decision-making groups, Theory and Approaches of Unascertained Group Decision-Making focuses on group aggregation methods based on uncertainty preference information. It expresses the complexity existing in each group decision-making process by employing complex networks and studying various methods of aggregating preference information from various unascertained, time-series based decision-making groups' structures. Written by Jianjun Zhu, director of the Chinese Society for Optimization, Overall Planning, and Economic Mathematics, the book starts by examining case studies of group decision making. It discusses consistency measuring and ranking methods of interval number reciprocal judgment matrix and interval number complementary judgment matrix. Next, it presents an unascertained number preference and a three-point interval number preference. Investigating linguistic preferences, the text provides two consistencies definitions. It considers the aggregating methods of several uncertain preferences as well as the multistage aggregating model of uncertain preference. The final chapter proposes an aggregating model of multistage linguistic information based on TOPSIS. The research in this book is supported by a number of scientific foundations from the People's Republic of China, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China; the Social Science Foundation of China, Jiangsu Province; and the Soft Science Foundation of China.

In Computational Organizational Cognition, Davide Secchi presents an innovative definition of organizational cognition using a research tradition that builds on the Embodied/Distributed/Extended Cognition (EDEC) perspectives and it is developed through agent-based computational simulation modelling. After an overview of EDEC perspectives, Computational Organizational Cognition presents four simulations which allow readers to clearly assess the advantages of agent-based computational organizational cognition (AOC) for both theory and practice. The book attempts to demonstrate how AOC is a useful if not essential instrument to explore, understand and analyze the inner complexities of organizational cognition. AOC is a powerful tool and an approach for organizational research enquiry at the service of both organizational scholars and cognitive scientists.

Safety is not easy, it is a full time effort, and is equally important whether people are on the job or on personal time. If an organization is serious about mission success, it must take 'risk' seriously as well. Leaders need to be involved in the risk game at every turn, and understand the key elements (discussed throughout this book) that help them to win. Winning the risk game is what safety is all about. As in operational success, risk management requires the best human faculties to achieve victory; talent of organizational players and commitment from top leadership rule the day. The book covers leadership, safety programs, and risk management for organizations and individuals. It helps in professional development, grooming current and future leaders to understand their roles in safety and risk management. Central to the author's message are: Seven truths of safety that the author discovered as a senior safety officer. Four roadblocks to achieving zero mishaps that must be aggressively addressed. Nine elements to risk reduction, with which leaders must become familiar. He establishes the importance of an organizational leader's role in the safety/risk management game and provides the answer to, 'How safe is safe enough?' Often, managers at various levels do not have an understanding of what goes into a safety program, this book tells them, from an expert's view. The readership includes: executives and middle management; all leaders as a professional development book and students. It is also a supplemental textbook for safety and risk management courses.

In the last few years, competition has become increasingly more complex, variable and dynamic, as can be seen in phenomena like globalization and technological acceleration. To cope with the dynamism and uncertainty of competition, enterprises need capabilities that enable them to respond to competition, as well as to improve their analytical skills and knowledge in order to better manage new strategic projects. Strategic analysis uses both quantitative and qualitative tools to understand both competitive contexts and available company resources. In Strategic Analysis: Processes and Tools, author Andrea Beretta Zanoni develops a theory of strategic analysis and offers models for the application of strategic analysis tools during all phases of the process including planning and decision-making, the development of control, and the formulation of a strategic diagnosis.

The ever increasing public demand and the setting-up of national and international legislation on safety assessment of potentially dangerous plant require that a correspondingly increased effort be devoted by regulatory bodies and industrial organizations to reliability data in order to produce safety analyses. Reliability data are also needed to assess availability of plant and services and to improve quality of production processes, in particular, to meet the needs of plant operators and/or designers regarding maintenance planning and production availability. The need for an educational effort in the field of data acquisition and processing has been stressed within the framework of EuReDatA, an association of organizations operating reliability data banks. This association aims to promote data exchange and pooling of data between organizations and to encourage the adoption of compatible standards and basic definitions for a consistent exchange of reliability data. Such basic definitions are considered to be essential in order to improve quality. To cover issues directly linked to the above areas, space is devoted to the definition of failure events, comon cause and human error data, feedback of operational and disturbance data, event data analysis, life-time distributions, cumulative distribution functions, density functions, Bayesian inference methods, mutivariate analysis, fuzzy sets and possibility theory.

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product. Use machine learning to understand your customers, frame decisions, and drive value The business analytics world has changed, and Data Scientists are taking over. Business Data Science takes you through the steps of using machine learning to implement best-in-class business data science. Whether you are a business leader with a desire to go deep on data, or an engineer who wants to learn how to apply Machine Learning to business problems, you'll find the information, insight, and tools you need to flourish in today's data-driven economy. You'll learn how to: *Use the key building blocks of Machine Learning: sparse regularization, out-of-sample validation, and latent factor and topic modeling*Understand how use ML tools in real world business problems, where causation matters more that correlation*Solve data science programs by scripting in the R programming language Today's business landscape is driven by data and constantly shifting. Companies live and die on their ability to make and implement the right decisions quickly and effectively. Business Data Science is about doing data science right. It's about the exciting things being done around Big Data to run a flourishing business. It's about the precepts, principals, and best practices that you need know for best-in-class business data science.

Managers need access to some statistical advice from time to time to help in solving business problems. Students need access to statistical methods to support work in non-statistics courses, case studies and projects. What is needed will depend on the demands of the problem and how much statistics the manager or student already knows. The requirement is for flexible decision support.This unique book presents statistical ideas and models in easily accessible form describing both methods and issues of application.statsNotes are organized as a set of over one hundred notes rather than as a number of chapters. This enables managers and students to locate just what they need for the problem they have. Each note consists of a description of what to do, an example, the rationale, links to other notes.Managers and students can choose to use as many notes as necessary, which might be just one note or a set of linked notes.Deciding which method will be helpful depends not just on finding an appropriate statistical method but on the business context too. statsNotes provide advice at three levels: While the range of topics covered is similar to those in introductory textbooks and courses, the focus is on management decision and the methods for dealing with risky decisions and management judgment in this book are usually found in more specialist texts.

Ideal for inspiring marketers, artists, teachers, and anyone who needs fresh ideas for work and home, "Jump Start Your Brain" helps readers crank up both their cranium and career. Featuring smart and creative methods for providing better leadership, igniting sales and marketing, and realizing dreams with breakthrough innovations, this book teaches time-tested practices that generate creativity and innovation. Relying on the latest research, the author pinpoints which methods and techniques work best in today's high-stress world so readers can get a leg-up on the competition.

Valuable software, realistic examples, clear writing, and fascinating topics help you master key spreadsheet and business analytics skills with SPREADSHEET MODELING AND DECISION ANALYSIS, 8E. You'll find everything you need to become proficient in today's most widely used business analytics techniques using Microsoft (R) Office Excel (R) 2016. Author Cliff Ragsdale -- respected innovator in business analytics -- guides you through the skills you need, using the latest Excel (R) for Windows. You gain the confidence to apply what you learn to real business situations with step-by-step instructions and annotated screen images that make examples easy to follow. The World of Management Science sections further demonstrates how each topic applies to a real company. Each new edition includes extended trial licenses for Analytic Solver Platform and XLMiner with powerful simulation and optimization tools for descriptive and prescriptive analytics and a full suite of tools for data mining in Excel.

How do you decide the best course of action for your company to take advantage of new opportunities? You must develop a business case to explore multiple alternatives before making a recommendation to support a particular option. This book shows you how to use a business case to define an opportunity, identify and analyze alternatives, and present your final recommendation to key stakeholders. You'll learn to
- Clearly define the opportunity you'll want to address in your business case
- Identify and analyze a range of alternatives
- Recommend one option and assess its risks
- Create a high-level implementation plan for your proposed alternative
- Communicate your case to key stakeholders

'The New Knowledge Management' is the story of the birth of "second-generation knowledge management," told from the perspective of one its chief architects, Mark W. McElroy. Unlike its first-generation cousin, second-generation Knowledge Management seeks to enhance knowledge production, not just knowledge sharing. As a result, 'The New Knowledge Management' expands the overall reach of knowledge management to include "innovation management" for the very first time. 'The New Knowledge Management' introduces the concept of "second-generation knowledge management" to the business community. Mark W. McElroy has assembled a collection of his own essays, written over the past four years, chronicling the development of related thinking in the field. Unlike first-generation KM, mainly focusing on value derived from knowledge sharing, second-generation thinking formally adds knowledge making to the scope of KM. In this way second-generation KM expands the overall reach of KM to include "innovation management" for the very first time. 'The New Knowledge Management' finally begins to bridge the gap between KM and the field of organizational learning, which up until now have been viewed as miles apart.

This book provides administrators in public and non-profit organizations with direction and a framework from which to lead their organizations effectively. Taking a global approach to the issues administrators need to examine when managing a group of employees at any level (including budgeting and expenditures, forecasting, policy creation and execution, communication and reporting), this book explores the driving forces in organizational decision making. Author Nick Valcik takes a holistic view on organizational management, beginning with the core aspects of public organizations and the leadership competencies necessary to manage an organization successfully. Designed to be used on undergraduate and graduate courses in public administration and in public affairs programs, the book discusses the basics of organizational structure, delves into risk management issues, and offers a set of tools that can be used by administrators to make informed decisions based on actual data or documented processes. Throughout the book, real world case studies provide students and practitioners with a clear understanding of how exactly the right decision tool may be applied when facing a particular decision in any organization.

Verna Allee, whose groundbreaking book 'The Knowledge Evolution' helped usher in the exploding field of knowledge management, has brought her experience-tested insights into an exciting new synthesis, penetrating to the very heart of value creation. 'The Future of Knowledge' strips away traditional business thinking to reveal the new patterns of management thought and practice essential for success in a more complex world. With a gift for making the complex simple and practical, Allee weaves together diverse threads such as business webs, communities of practice, knowledge technologies, intangibles, network analysis, and biology to show why organizations must be supported as living systems before their natural networked pattern of organization can emerge. Embodying Allee's visionary approach, 'The Future of Knowledge' brings forward a practical view of new theories, frameworks, tools, and methods offering businesses a guide to managing the increasing levels of complexity within their organizations and in society at large. 'The Future of Knowledge' works on many levels: * At the strategic level, the new tools are intangible scorecards and understanding value networks * At the tactical level, the knowledge management tools for exchanging and applying knowledge are knowledge networks and communities of practice * At the operational level, a wealth of new technologies is supporting the codification, storage and delivery of the knowledge people need to complete their routine tasks.

Risk management has become a critical part of doing business in the twenty-first century. This book is a collection of material about enterprise risk management, and the role of risk in decision making. Part I introduces the topic of enterprise risk management. Part II presents enterprise risk management from perspectives of finance, accounting, insurance, supply chain operations, and project management. Technology tools are addressed in Part III, including financial models of risk as well as accounting aspects, using data envelopment analysis, neural network tools for credit risk evaluation, and real option analysis applied to information techn- ogy outsourcing. In Part IV, three chapters present enterprise risk management experience in China, including banking, chemical plant operations, and information technology. Lincoln, USA David L. Olson Toronto, Canada Desheng Wu February 2008 v Contents Part I Preliminary 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 David L. Olson & Desheng Wu 2 The Human Reaction to Risk and Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 David R. Koenig Part II ERM Perspectives 3 Enterprise Risk Management: Financial and Accounting Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Desheng Wu & David L. Olson 4 An Empirical Study on Enterprise Risk Management in Insurance . . 39 Madhusudan Acharyya 5 Supply Chain Risk Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 David L. Olson & Desheng Wu 6 Two Polar Concept of Project Risk Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Seyed Mohammad Seyedhoseini, Siamak Noori & Mohammed AliHatefi Part III ERM Technologies 7 The Mathematics of Risk Transfer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Marcos Escobar & Luis Seco 8 Stable Models in Risk Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The instant New York Times bestseller! * One of Behavioral Scientist's Notable Books of 2021 "Emily Oster dives into the data on parenting issues, cuts through the clutter, and gives families the bottom line to help them make better decisions." -Good Morning America "A targeted mini-MBA program designed to help moms and dads establish best practices for day-to-day operations." -The Washington Post From the bestselling author of Expecting Better and Cribsheet, the next step in data driven parenting from economist Emily Oster. In The Family Firm, Brown professor of economics and mom of two Emily Oster offers a classic business school framework for data-driven parents to think more deliberately about the key issues of the elementary years: school, health, extracurricular activities, and more. Unlike the hourly challenges of infant parenting, the big questions in this age come up less frequently. But we live with the consequences of our decisions for much longer. What's the right kind of school and at what age should a particular kid start? How do you encourage a healthy diet? Should kids play a sport and how seriously? How do you think smartly about encouraging children's independence? Along with these bigger questions, Oster investigates how to navigate the complexity of day-to-day family logistics. Making these decisions is less about finding the specific answer and more about taking the right approach. Parents of this age are often still working in baby mode, which is to say, under stress and on the fly. That is a classic management problem, and Oster takes a page from her time as a business school professor at the University of Chicago to show us that thoughtful business process can help smooth out tough family decisions. The Family Firm is a smart and winning guide to how to think clearly--and with less ambient stress--about the key decisions of the elementary school years. Parenting is a full-time job. It's time we start treating it like one.

Mathematical Modeling for Business Analytics is written for decision makers at all levels. This book presents the latest tools and techniques available to help in the decision process. The interpretation and explanation of the results are crucial to understanding the strengths and limitations of modeling. This book emphasizes and focuses on the aspects of constructing a useful model formulation, as well as building the skills required for decision analysis. The book also focuses on sensitivity analysis. The author encourages readers to formally think about solving problems by using a thorough process. Many scenarios and illustrative examples are provided to help solve problems. Each chapter is also comprehensively arranged so that readers gain an in-depth understanding of the subject which includes introductions, background information and analysis. Both undergraduate and graduate students taking methods courses in methods and discrete mathematical modeling courses will greatly benefit from using this book. Boasts many illustrative examples to help solve problems Provides many solutions for each chapter Emphasizes model formulation and helps create model building skills for decision analysis Provides the tools to support analysis and interpretation

In this age of Big Data and analytics, knowledge gained through experiential learning and intuition may be taking a back seat to analytics. However, the use of intuition should not be underestimated and should play an important role in the decision process. How Well Do Executives Trust Their Intuition covers the Fulbright research study conducted by this international team of editors. The main question of their investigation is: How well do executives trust their intuition? In other words, do they typically prefer intuition over analysis and analytics. And equally importantly, what types of intuition may be most favorable looking at different variables? The research utilizes survey and biometrics approaches with C-level executives from Canada, U.S., Poland, and Italy. In addition, the book contains chapters from leading executives in industry, academia, and government. Their insights provide examples of how their intuition enabled key decisions that they made. This book covers such topics as: Using intuition How gender, experience, role, industry, and country affect intuition Trust and intuition in management Trusting intuition It's a matter of heart Leadership intuition and the future of work Creating an intuitive awareness for executives Improvisation and instinct. The book explores how executives can use intuition to guide decision making. It also explains how to trust intuition-based decisions. How Well Do Executives Trust Their Intuition is a timely and prescient reminder in this age of data-driven analytics that human insight, instinct, and intuition should also play key roles.

"Kolb and Overdahl have produced a clear and well-written introduction to derivatives that should serve as a useful foundational text. Their mixture of mechanics, pricing, and risk management is as well-balanced as their blend of theory and practical applications."
–Christopher L. Culp, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor of Finance at The University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business and Managing Director at CP Risk Management LLC

"The third edition of Kolb and Overdahl presents a nice blend of theory and application of financial derivatives. The concise anthology introduces institutional background and valuation issues and then shows how each instrument can be used to manage risk. This book is sure to be of interest to risk managers as well as business students about to embark on their finance careers."
–Steve Swidler, J. Stanley Mackin Professor of Finance, Auburn University

"Financial Derivatives is an excellent, accessible introduction to some of the fastest growing markets in modern finance. Kolb and Overdahl clearly explain the uses (as well as the problems underlying several well-publicized abuses) of financial derivatives as risk management tools. Practitioners, regulators, and students of finance will all profit from exercising their option to acquire this book."
–Michael Ferguson, Assistant Professor of Finance, University of Cincinnati