Bill Starbuck has been one of the leading management researchers over several decades. In this book he reflects on a number of challenges associated with management and social science research - the search for a 'behavioral science', the limits of rationality, the unreliability of many research findings, the social shaping of research agendas, cultures and judgements. It is an engaging, chronologically structured account in which he discusses some of his own research projects and various methodological debates. This is a feisty argument from someone who has been fully engaged with all aspects of research - carrying out research programmes, evaluating research, tirelessly questioning the assumptions and claims of social science research, and never avoiding the awkward theoretical or practical challenges that face organizational researchers. Well written, provocative and unusual, this quasi autobiographical account will inform and entertain, and be a valuable guide to current and future research students.

The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Decision Making comprehensively surveys theory and research on organizational decision-making, broadly conceived. Emphasizing psychological perspectives, while encompassing the insights of economics, political science, and sociology, it provides coverage at the individual, group, organizational, and inter-organizational levels of analysis. In-depth case studies illustrate the practical implications of the work surveyed. Each chapter is authored by one or more leading scholars, thus ensuring that this Handbook is an authoritative reference work for academics, researchers, advanced students, and reflective practitioners concerned with decision-making in the areas of Management, Psychology, and HRM. Contributors: Eric Abrahamson, Julia Balogun, Michael L. Barnett, Philippe Baumard, Nicole Bourque, Laure Cabantous, Prithviraj Chattopadhyay, Kevin Daniels, Jerker Denrell, Vinit M. Desai, Giovanni Dosi, Roger L.M. Dunbar, Stephen M. Fiore, Mark A. Fuller, Michael Shayne Gary, Elizabeth George, Jean-Pascal Gond, Paul Goodwin, Terri L. Griffith, Mark P. Healey, Gerard P. Hodgkinson, Gerry Johnson, Michael Johnson-Cramer, Alfred Kieser, Ann Langley, Eleanor T. Lewis, Dan Lovallo, Rebecca Lyons, Peter M. Madsen, A. John Maule, John M. Mezias, Nigel Nicholson, Gregory B. Northcraft, David Oliver, Annie Pye, Karlene H. Roberts, Jacques Rojot, Michael A. Rosen, Isabelle Royer, Eugene Sadler-Smith, Eduardo Salas, Kristyn A. Scott, Zur Shapira, Carolyne Smart, Gerald F. Smith, Emma Soane, Paul R. Sparrow, William H. Starbuck, Matt Statler, Kathleen M. Sutcliffe, Michal Tamuz, Teri Jane Ursacki-Bryant, Ilan Vertinsky, Benedicte Vidaillet, Jane Webster, Karl E. Weick, Benjamin Wellstein, George Wright, Kuo Frank Yu, and David Zweig.

The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Decision Making comprehensively surveys theory and research on organizational decision-making, broadly conceived. Emphasizing psychological perspectives, while encompassing the insights of economics, political science, and sociology, it provides coverage at the individual, group, organizational, and inter-organizational levels of analysis. In-depth case studies illustrate the practical implications of the work surveyed. Each chapter is authored by one or more leading scholars, thus ensuring that this Handbook is an authoritative reference work for academics, researchers, advanced students, and reflective practitioners concerned with decision-making in the areas of Management, Psychology, and HRM.

For this three-volume set the editors have selected many of the most influential articles published since 1984 on the topics of knowledge management and the improvement of organizational learning, developmental learning by individual organizations and the development of populations of organizations. Many of the articles in Volume I are trailblazers in the field of knowledge management; they discuss ways of fostering learning, managing knowledge and extracting economic benefits from knowledge. Volume II investigates how individual organizations learn: topics covered include cognitive versus behavioural learning, interpretation, incremental change and reorientation, and learning from success and failure. Volume III follows the development of the academic study of populations of organizations: it explores both behavioural and cognitive learning processes from the point of view of industries, geographic neighbourhoods and networks. New, authoritative introductions to each volume by the editors offer a comprehensive overview and informative discussion of the issues.

William H. Starbuck, is one of the most creative, productive and wide-ranging writers in management and organization studies. His work spans three decades and encompasses a whole variety of issues, yet it has never been collected together in one place. This book does just that-bringing together his most seminal writing, prefaced by a personal reflection on some of the themes and conclusions of that emerge from this, and the context I which they were written.
What emerges from this is a picture of organizations and their strategies that emphasizes the characteristics of real-life human beings: their idiosyncratic preferences, their distrust for each other, their struggle for dominance, their personal interests which don't always coincide with the interests of the organization, and the internal politicking and contests between interests groups that take place in organizations. Some chapters review research literature, some report empirical findings, some propose conceptual reformulation, and some offer advice to managers.
This book will be a unique guide to the work of an influential thinker in management and organization studies, and will be of interest to academics, researchers and students of management, strategy and organization studies.

This comprehensive reference work summarizes and reinterprets research, and suggests applications got the design of organizations. Scholars and professionals, from the United States, Europe, and other countries, present the contributions to organization theory of management science, political science, economics, sociology, systems engineering, psychology, history, and anthropology. The chapters draw examples from a large number of diverse industries and governmental activities, and they discuss design alternatives which should prove valuable for planning, redesign, and the continuing operations of organizations. Volume 1 analyzes the effects of environments on organizations, and discusses the adaptive capabilities of organizations such as planning, forecasting, and innovation. Contributors examine the effects of change, particularly changes in technologies and in legal and political systems.

This comprehensive reference work summarizes and reinterprets research, and suggests applications got the design of organizations. Scholars and professionals, from the United States, Europe, and other countries, present the contributions to organization theory of management science, political science, economics, sociology, systems engineering, psychology, history, and anthropology. The chapters draw examples from a large number of diverse industries and governmental activities, and they discuss design alternatives which should prove valuable for planning, redesign, and the continuing operations of organizations. Volume 2 focuses on proceses of change within organizations, including control systems, interdepartmental relations, and job design. Contributors also discuss the effects, both planned and accidental, that organizations have upon their environments, and they analyze the relationships between organizations, governments, and societies.