Wharton on Making Decisions
A Good Researched Book
Perspectives from leaders in decision science at Wharton
Organized in part through Whartons Risk Management and Decision
Processes Center, the book assembles leading researchers from
Whartons business faculty who demonstrate how to apply the latest
approaches in decision-making from four perspectives: personal,
managerial, negotiator, and consumer. Each chapter describes how
decisions are actually made, presents the ideal scenario, and then
provides practical suggestions for improvement. The subjects range from
when consumers will choose variety, integrating intuition into decisions,
and applying game theory and strategic decisions, to decision factors in
negotiations and how choices are made about insurance and health care.
Personal Review: Wharton on Making Decisions
This is one of the volumes which comprise a series published by John
Wiley & Sons. It was edited by Stephen J. Hoch and Howard C.

Kunreuther with Robert E. Gunther. In the first chapter which serves as an
introduction, Hoch and Kunreuther examine what they characterize as a
"complex web of decisions." As they observe, "We need to make the
decision making process conscious, to be aware that we are cutting
corners and when we need more thorough analysis. Building this
awareness of the process - especially given the new complexities of
decision making in our modern age - is crucial to successful
management....The goal of this book is to build this awareness of the
intricacies of the decision-making process." Collectively, the 16
contributors explore decision making on four separate but related levels:
as an individual, in our role as a manager, in the context of negotiations
and other multiparty interactions, and at the broadest level, in terms of how
societal decisions can be managed.
Appropriately, the material is organized within Four Parts:
"Personal Decision Making" (Chapters 2-4): Issues addressed include the
challenges of personal decisions, the role the emotions play in managerial
decisions - for good or ill, how humans make "surprisingly effective
decisions" even when using short cuts, and the same approaches can lead
to serious errors...and consequences.
"Managerial Decision Making" (Chapters5-8): Issues addressed include
how to combine analytical models with intuition and other approaches
during the managerial decision-making process, the significant differences
between "the expedient Western approach" and the "reflective Eastern
strategy" of decision making, and why managers must be able to "manage
their own frames, or they will be blinded by their own successes and the
limits of their world views."
"Multiparty Decision Making" (Chapters 9-12): Issues addressed include
the nature and extent of interactions between and among managers
across multiple periods, what Game Theory suggests about how people
learn from experience, how reputations affect the way partners and
opponents approach negotiations, how these reputations can best be used
and shaped, common deceptions in negotiations and how to recognize
them, how decision-support systems and resources can help improve
negotiation results.
"Impact of Decision Making on Society" (Chapters 13-17): Subjects
covered include various uses of medical tests based on analytical models,
the impact of personal (Protected") values on societal decisions, what
"protected decisions" are and how they are made, the nature of
"information cascades" which involve either "learners" or "lemmings," and
how and why inconsistencies in private and public decisions suggest a
"split personality."
The 16 contributors are to be commended on their collective examination
of how people should make decisions, how they actually do so, and how

they can improve their decision making. I especially appreciate the
generous provision of real-world examples (e.g. Nick Leeson and Barings
Securities), as well as reader-friendly check-lists (e.g. lessons for
managers based on the Leeson/Barings scandal), charts and graphs
which illustrate core concepts, and use of italics and bold face to expedite
periodic review of key points.
My guess (only a guess) is that those in greatest need of what this book
offers are least likely to invest the time and effort required to absorb and
digest the material, much less act upon it. If you are among them, if you
have by now concluded not to read this book, reconsider that decision.
Odds are, it's a bad one.
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