Selected Annotated Bibliography on Decision Making

Achilles, C. M., J. S. Reynolds, & S. H. Achilles (1997). Problem Analysis: Responding to School Complexity. Larchemont, NY: Eye On Education, Inc.
This book offers non-technical treatment of decision modeling and the issues that confront school leaders in solving problems.

Altier, W. J. (1999). The Thinking Manager’s Toolbox: Effective Processes for Problem Solving and Decision Making. London: Oxford University Press.
An introductory text for practitioners interested in improving their decision-making skills. One advantage of this text is that, unlike most decision-making texts that close at the alternative selection step, this volume outlines a process for implementing decisions.

Berens, L. V. and Nardi, D. (1999). The 16 Personality Types. Huntington Beach, CA: Telos Publications.
A short introduction to the sixteen personality types which have become
so familiar to those who work with the Myers-Briggs instrument. The provides brief two page introductions to each personality type and familiarizes readers with the Johari Window.

Baird, B. F. (1989). Managerial Decision Under Uncertainty: An Introduction to the Analysis of Decision Making. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Well presented as an introduction to the analysis decisionmaking, this text is best reserved for those with well-developed analytical and computational skills.

Borg, D. (2001). The Book of Risk. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
An enjoyable and instructive introduction to managing risk in the decision-making process. Those with little or no experience in decision-making science will find the discussion and examples presented comprehensible and insightful.

Clemen, R. T. and Reilly, T. (2001). Making Hard Decisions. Australia: Duxbury.
An intermediate book on the theory and tools of decision making. A well written and sophisticated book that can be appreciated even if one is not mathematically inclined. The book is designed for use in decision making courses in business schools.

Folger, H. S., S.E. LeBlanc (1995). Strategies for Creative Problem Solving. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
An elementary text on problem solving/decision making that is filled with examples and exercises that facilitate reader’s comprehension of the material presented.

Gaynor, A. K. (1998). Analyzing Problems in Schools and School Systems: A Theoretical Approach. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
This book is directed towards readers interested and organizational theory as it applies problems faced by educational administrators. Bureaucratic theory, social systems theory, political systems theory, and leadership theory are among the frameworks used to analyze educational administrative problem-solving.

Gigerenzer, G. and Selton, R. (eds) (2001). Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
A collection of papers related to the project on the psychology of
decision making that has developed the theory that people tend to make decisions by relying on a set of heuristics that speed the decision making process. The claim of these researchers is that people act with bounded rationality yet despite the departure in their approaches from the norm of rationality reach satisfactory decisions.

Gloub, A. Lang (1997). Decision Analysis. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Resting on expected utility theory, the book provides a step by step
introduction to the use of expected utility. The book use a minimum of
mathematics to introduce tools that form the backbone more advanced and mathematical decision making books.

Hammond, K. R. (2000). Judgments Under Stress. New York: Oxford University Press.
A synthetic review of psychological research regarding decision making
under stress. The book aims to shape future research. A good starting point for researchers seeking to obtain an overview of the field.

Hammond, J. S., R. L. Keeney, & H. Raiffa (1999). Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
This is the first of two texts that serve as the instructional foundation for EDU 515: Administrative Decision-Making in Schools & Universities: Processes and Promises. The text lays out a rational decision making model in a manner that is both defensible and easily understood by those with no previous decision making training.

Hastie, R. and Dawes, R. M. (2001). Rational Choice in an Uncertain World. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
A review and synthesis of insights from the research of psyhologists on
decision making. The book falls into the same genre of work as the books by Plous and Sutherland. It adds to those books by looking at the short cuts people use in reaching decisions and the circumstances when people tend to resort to those short cuts rather than rely on more elaborate rational decision making approaches. The book is written at an intermediate level.

Hogarth, R. M. (1980). Judgment and Choice. Chichester, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
An elegant summary of research on the psychology of human judgment with a view to helping making make better decisions.

Hoy, W. K. & C. J. Tarter (2004). Administrators Solving the Problems of Practice: Decision-Making Concepts, Cases, and Consequences. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, Inc.
An excellent resource for reviewing multiple models on how educational administrators make decisions. The models explored include the classical rational, satisficing, mixed scanning, garbage can and political models. Presentation and discussion of administrative cases facilitates readers understanding of these various models.

Janis, I. L. and Mann, L. (1977). Decision Making. New York, NY: The Free Press.
A classic in the field of the psychology of decision making. The authors develop a theory of decision making under stress. The book outlines a flow-chart model of decision making which includes the triggers which would lead a decision maker to depart from rational decision making. The book goes on to explore other important topics including the effects of commitment and improving the quality of decision making.

Janis, I. (1989). Crucial Decisions. New York, NY: The Free Press.
A synthesis of Janis¹s own thinking on decision making. Provides a
conceptual framework that identifies the circumstances in which people may depart from a rational mode of decision making and how people in fact change their decision making methods in the face of various pressures and exigencies.

Jones, M. (1998). The Thinker’s Toolkit: 14 Powerful Techniques for Problem Solving. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press.
This text rivals Smart Choices in its ability to present a comprehensive decision process in a manner that is both easily understood by and enjoyable to readers.

Klein, G. (1998). Sources of Power. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
A study of how people caught up in emergency situations, e.g.
firefighters, make decisions involving life and death. The book develops a model of decision making in those high pressure high risk circumstances.

Kleindorfer, P. R., Kundreuther, H. C., & Schoemaker, P. J.H.
(1993). Decision Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Designed as a textbook for advanced undergraduates or graduates, this book provides a synthesis of both of models and techniques of decision making by individuals, groups and organizations. It is more theoretical rather than a "how to book". It requires some mathematical knowledge.

Levin, H. M., & P. J. McEwan (2001). Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: Methods and Applications (2nd Edition). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.
This is the second of two texts that serve as the instructional foundation for EDU 515: Administrative Decision-Making in Schools & Universities: Processes and Promises. Unlike smart choices, the first text, cost-effectiveness analysis addresses explicitly and thoughtfully the implications of cost in decision-making. Using a model termed the “ingredients method,” the text outlines clearly the means to identify and account for costs in the decision-making process.

March, J. G. (1994). A Primer on Decision Making: How Decisions Happen. York, NY: The Free Press.
This is an intermediate-level text that explores the limits/bounds of rational decision making. The focus here is on how decisions are made, rather than how decisions ought to be made.

Marshall, K. T., & R. M. Oliver (1995). Decision Making and Forecasting. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
The text best used by advanced students decision-making analysis. Minimally use of the text requires an appreciation for and understanding of how to model uncertainty with probability.

McMurty, J. R. & D. D. Murphy (2000). Decision Making and Problem Solving. Albany, NY: South-Western Thomson Learning.
An elementary text on decision making presented in a “workbook” like fashion.

Munter, M. & L. Russell (2002). Guide to Presentations, Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Prentice Hall.
This text does not present or address decision making models. Nevertheless, volume presents a reader friendly model for making oral presentations, an important, yet often overlooked, close to the decision making process. The issues that it addresses range from analyzing your audience, to designing visual aids, to refining your verbal and nonverbal delivery skills.

Nisbett, R., & L. Ross (1980 ). Human Inference. Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Prentice-Hall.
A summary of research on human cognitive processes that affect decision making and judgment.

Nutt, P. C. (2002). Why Decisions Fail. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Through a series of cases studies of failed decision studies drawn
from the public and private sector - Nutt examines the factors that led to the failures in each case. A readable book with important cautionary
lessons.

(1989). Making Tough Decisions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Publishers.
A rich book with many decision making techniques and insights. The book is accessible to all readers, but, however, suffers from being poorly organized and some redundancy.

Plous, S. (1993). The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
A readable yet sophisticated introduction to the research conduct by psychologists regarding decision making. The topics include various cognitive illusions people are prone to, biases that affect understanding and decision making and attitudes and emotional commitments that lead to decision making mistakes.

Russo, J. E., & P. J. H. Shoemaker (1990). Decision Traps. New York. A Fireside Book.
Relying on a basic rational approach to decision making the book
emphasizes various psychological traps which decision makers can fall into, e.g. failures of problem formulation , failures in gathering information. The authors are professors of business.

Russo, Edward and Schoemaker, Paul J.H. (2002). Winning Decisions. New York. Currency.
Like their previous book, Russo and Shoemaker provide insights into the mistakes and traps decision makers can fall into, but, unlike their earlier book, this book also provides more tips and approaches to avoid the mistakes the book identifies. Readable and practical.

Skinner, D. C. (1999). Decision analysis. Gainesville, FL: Probablistic.
An introduction to the tools of decision making. The book is designed to be practical and accessible to a broad range of readers. The author adds his own concepts and understandings of decision making in ways that are not found in standard textbooks used in business schools.

Shapiro, J. P. & J. A. Stefkovich (2001). Ethical Leadership and Decision making in Education: Applying Theoretical Perspectives to Complex Dilemmas, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
This text introduces and applies multiple ethical paradigms for examining administrative decision making in education. Through the use of cases, readers are given the opportunity to consider for themselves how they would resolve various ethical dilemmas sometimes found in educational settings.

Strike, K. A., E. J. Haller, & J. F. Soltis (1988). The Ethics of School Administration. New York, New York: Teachers College Press.
This book is a short primer on the ethics of educational administration. Through the use of cases this text introduces readers to ethical thinking in administrative practice in general, and ethical issues concerning intellectual liberty, individual freedom and the public interest, equal educational opportunity, and educational authority in particular.

Sutherland, S. (1992). Irrationality New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Like the Plous book this book provides a readable introduction to the
research conducted by psychologists regarding human psychological foibles that have a bearing on decision making.

Case Texts: The following texts offer cases that instructors can use to facilitate discussions about administrative decision making in education settings.

Hanson, K. L. (2001). Preparing for Educational Administration Using Case Analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Kirschman R. E. (1996). Educational Administration: A Collection of Case Studies. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Kowalski, T. J. (2001). Cases in Educational Administration. New York, NY: Addison Wesley Longman.

Merseth K. K. (1997). Cases in Educational Administration. New York, NY: Addison Wesley Longman.