1. Case based on: John Gallagher, “Whole Foods Co-CEO Vows No Half Steps at Midtown Detroit Store,” Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com, accessed April 14, 2012; John Bussed, “Whole Foods’ Detroit Gamble,” Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com, accessed March 8, 2012; Michael Wayland, “CEO: If Successful, Detroit Whole Foods Store Could Become Blueprint for Other Cities,” Live, http://blog.mlive.com, accessed April 14, 2012; Jeff Karoo, “Detroit Sees Whole Foods as Proof of Progress,” Time, http://newsfeed.time.com, accessed April 14, 2012; Whole Foods, “Welcome to the Midtown Detroit Store,” Stores: Michigan, http://wholefoodsmarket.com, accessed April 30, 2012.

2. For an excellent discussion of various decisions that managers make, see: Michael Verespej, “Gutsy Decisions of 1991,” Industry Week (February 17, 1992): 21–31. For an interesting discussion of decision making in government agencies, see: Burton Gummer, “Decision Making under Conditions of Risk, Ambiguity, and Uncertainty: Recent Perspectives,” Administration in Social Work 2 (1998): 75–93.

3. Abraham Zaleznik, “What Makes a Leader?” Success (June 1989): 42–45; Daphne Main and Joyce C. Lambert, “Improving Your Decision Making,” Business and Economic Review 44, no. 3 (April/June 1998): 9–12.

4. Mervin Kohn, Dynamic Managing: Principles, Process, Practice (Menlo Park, CA: Cummings, 1977), 38–62.

5. William H. Miller, “Tough Decisions on the Forgotten Continent,” Industry Week (June 6, 1994): 40–44.

6. Walt Nett, “Family-Run Recycling Company Faces Big Decisions as It Grows,” Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, April 18, 2010, http://www.lubbockonline.com.

7. NetSuite, “World’s Largest Carpet Manufacturer Rolls Out NetSuite OneWorld to Power Global Growth in a Two-Tier ERP Model,” news release, October 8, 2013, http://www.netsuite.com; NetSuite, “NetSuite: The World’s #1 Cloud ERP Solution,” Products Overview, http://www.netsuite.com, accessed January 3, 2014; Shaw Industries, “Our Story: Shaw History,” http://shawfloors.com/about-shaw/history, accessed January 8, 2014.

8. Gary Hamel, “Moon Shots for Management,” Harvard Business Review, February 2009, http://hbr.org.

9. Marcia V. Wilkof, “Organizational Culture and Decision Making: A Case of Consensus Management,” R&D Management (April 1989): 185–199.

10. Charles Wilson and Marcus Alexis, “Basic Frameworks for Decision,” Academy of Management Journal 5 (August 1962): 151–164. To better understand the role of ethics in decision making, see: Roselie McDevitt, Catherine Giapponi, and Cheryl Tromley, “A Model of Ethical Decision Making: The Integration of Process and Content,” Journal of Business Ethics 73, no. 2 (2007): 219–229.

11. For a discussion of the importance of understanding decision makers in organizations, see: Walter D. Barndt, Jr., “Profiling Rival Decision Makers,” Journal of Business Strategy (January/February 1991): 8–11; see also: Bard Kuvaas and Geir Kaufmann, “Impact of Mood, Framing, and Need for Cognition on Decision Makers’ Recall and Confidence,” Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 17 (2004): 59.

12. For an analysis of several flawed decisions made by executives as well as recommendations for avoiding decision-making pitfalls, see: Sydney Finkelstein, Jo Whitehead, and Andrew Campbell, “Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions,” Business Strategy Review 20, no. 2 (Summer 2009): 62–69.

13. Maria Panaritis, “Putting Trust Where Others Don’t Dare,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 21, 2010, http://www.philly.com.

14. “New OCC Guidelines for Appraising Management,” Issues in Bank Regulation (Fall 1989): 20–22. For an interesting discussion of decision-making processes used in the United States versus those used in the United Kingdom, see: Mark Andrew Mitchell, Ronald D. Taylor, and Faruk Tanyel, “Product Elimination Decisions: A Comparison of American and British Manufacturing Firms,” International Journal of Commerce & Management 8, no. 1 (1998): 8–27.

15. For an extended discussion of this model, see: William B. Werther, Jr., “Productivity Through People: The Decision-Making Process,” Management Decisions (1988): 37–41.

16. These assumptions are adapted from James G. March and Herbert A. Simon, Organizations (New York: Wiley, 1958), 137–138.

17. William C. Symonds, “There’s More than Beer in Molson’s Mug,” BusinessWeek (February 10, 1992): 108.

18. Chester I. Barnard, The Function of the Executive (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1938).

19. For further elaboration on these factors, see: Robert Tannenbaum, Irving R. Weschle, and Fred Massarik, Leadership and Organization: A Behavioral Science Approach (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961), 277–278.

20. For more discussion of these factors, see: F. A. Shull, Jr., A. I. Delbecq, and L. L. Cummings, Organizational Decision Making (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970).

21. Thomas Kidaa, Kimberly K. Morenob, and James F. Smitha, “Investment Decision Making: Do Experienced Decision Makers Fall Prey to the Paradox of Choice?” Journal of Behavioral Finance 11, no. 1 (2010): 21–30. See also: B. Scheibehenne, Rainer Greifendeder, and Peter M. Tood, “Can There Ever Be Too Many Options? A Meta-Analytic Review of Choice Overload,” Journal of Consumer Research (2010): 37.

22. T. Kogut, “Choosing What I Want or Keeping What I Should: The Effect of Decision Strategy on Choice Consistency,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 116 (2011): 129–139.

23. For an interesting discussion regarding the complexities involved with assigning and understanding probabilities, see: B. Bilgin and L. Brenner, “Context Affects the Interpretation of Low but Not High Numerical Probabilities: A Hypothesis Testing Account of Subjective Probability,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 121 (2013): 118–128.

24. For a worthwhile discussion of forecasting and evaluating the outcomes of alternatives, see: J. R. C. Wensley, “Effective Decision Aids in Marketing,” European Journal of Marketing (1989): 70–79.

25. A. Arad, “Past Decisions Do Affect Future Choices: An Experimental Demonstration,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 121 (2013): 267–277.

26. H. A. Simon, Models of Man: Social and Rational (New York: Wiley, 1957). In an interesting extension of how factors in the environment may influence subconscious decision making, see: K. A. Carlson, R. J. Tanner, M. G. Meloy, and J. E. Russo, “Catching Nonconscious Goals in the Act of Decision Making,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 123 (2014): 65–76.

27. James R. Hagerty, “A Toy Maker Comes Home to the USA,” Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2013, http://online.wsj.com; Chris Petersen, “Building Better,” Supply Chain World (Fall 2013): 58–59; K’Nex Brands, “About Us,” http://www.knex.com, accessed January 8, 2014.

28. K. E. Stanovich and R. F. West, “Individual Differences in Reasoning: Implications for the Rationality Debate,” in T. Gilovich, D. Griffin, and D. Kahneman, eds., Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002); Daniel Kahneman, “A Perspective on Judgment and Choice,” American Psychologist 58, no. 9: 697–720. See also: Jonathan St. B. T. Evans, 2008, “Dual-Processing Accounts of Reasoning, Judgment, and Social Cognition,” Annual Review of Psychology 5 (2008): 255–278.

29. Eduardo Salas, Michael Rosen, and Deborah DiazGrandos, “Expertise-Based Intuition and Decision Making in Organizations,” Journal of Management 36, no. 4 (2010): 941–973.

30. For a complete review of research involving heuristics and biases, see: Thomas Gilovich, Dale Griffin, and Daniel Kahneman, Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

31. Frank Knight, Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921).

32. Many chief executives resort to reorganization in an attempt to improve their company’s performance, but research suggests that most reorganizations fail because they don’t improve the quality of decision making. See: Marcia W. Blenko, Michael C. Mankins, and Paul Rogers, “The Decision-Driven Organization,” Harvard Business Review, June 2010, http://hbr.org.

33. Truman F. Bewley, “Knightian Decision Theory, Part,” Decisions in Economics and Finance 25, no. 2 (2002): 79–110.

34. Steven C. Harper, “What Separates Executives from Managers,” Business Horizons (September/October 1988): 13–19; to better understand the negative influence of poor decision making, see: Joseph L. Bower and Clark G. Gilbert, “How Managers’ Everyday Decisions Create or Destroy Your Company’s Strategy,” Harvard Business Review 85, no. 2 (2007): 72–79. For a different viewpoint on the value of intuition in decision making, see: Andrew McAfee, “The Future of Decision Making: Less Intuition, More Evidence,” Harvard Business Review, January 7, 2010, http://blogs.hbr.org.

35. The scope of this text does not permit elaboration on these three decision-making tools. However, for an excellent discussion on how they are used in decision making, see: Richard M. Hodgetts, Management: Theory, Process and Practice (Philadelphia: Saunders, 1975), 234–266.

36. For more information on probability theory and decisions, see: Johannes Honekopp, “Precision of Probability Information and Prominence of Outcomes: A Description and Evaluation of Decisions Under Uncertainty,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 90 (2003): 124.

37. Richard C. Mosier, “Expected Value: Applying Research to Uncertainty,” Appraisal Journal (July 1989): 293–296. See also: Amartya Sen, “The Formulation of Rational Choice,” American Economic Review 84 (May 1994): 385–390. For an illustration of how probability theory can be applied to solve personal problems, see: Jeff D. Opdyke, “‘Will My Nest Egg Last?’—Probability Theory, an Old Math Technique, Is Providing New—and Better—Answers to That Question,” Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2000, 7.

38. For an example of how financial analysts use decision trees to reduce risk, see: Joseph J. Mezrich, “When Is a Tree a Hedge?” Financial Analysts Journal 50, no. 6 (November/December 1994): 75–81.

39. John F. Magee, “Decision Trees for Decision Making,” Harvard Business Review (July/August 1964). To better understand the relationships among decision trees, firm strategy, and financial analysis, see: Michael Brydon, “Evaluating Strategic Options Using Decision-Theoretic Planning,” Information and Technology Management 7, no. 1 (2006): 35–49.

40. Rakesh Sarin and Peter Wakker, “Folding Back in Decision Tree Analysis,” Management Science 40 (May 1994): 625–628.

41. For a different view of how organizations can incorporate a scientific approach in their decision-making processes, see: “Putting the Science in Management Science?” MIT Sloan Management Review, March 2010, http://sloanreview.mit.edu.

42. This section is based on Samuel C. Certo, Supervision: Quality and Diversity Through Leadership (Homewood, IL: Austen Press/Irwin, 1994), 198–202. See also: D. van Knippenberg, W. P. van Ginkel, and A. C. Homan, “Diversity Mindsets and the Performance of Diverse Teams,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 121 (2013): 183–193.

43. Clark Wigley, “Working Smart on Tough Business Problems,” Supervisory Management (February 1992): 1.

44. Sarah Cliffe, “Making Decisions Together (when You Don’t Agree on What’s Important),” Harvard Business Review, November 12, 2013, http://blogs.hbr.org; Will Yakowicz, “Butting Heads Over a Key Decision? How to Break the Logjam,” Inc., November 12, 2013, http://www.inc.com; Erik Sherman, “Four Ways to Make Smarter Decisions,” Inc., June 17, 2013, http://www.inc.com; Margaret Heffernan, “Don’t Just Go with the Majority Opinion: Here’s Why,” Inc., April 19, 2013, http://www.inc.com.

45. Ferda Erdem, “Optimal Trust and Teamwork: From Groupthink to Teamthink,” Work Study 52 (2003): 229. For more on group decision making in international contexts, see: C. Qian, Q. Cao, and R. Takeuchi, “Top Management Team Functional Diversity and Organizational Innovation in China: The Moderating Effects of Environment,” Strategic Management Journal 34 (2013): 110–120.

46. Joseph Alan Redman, “Nine Creative Brainstorming Techniques,” Quality Digest (August 1992): 50–51.

47. For more information on idea generation, see: Merry Baskin, “Idea Generation,” Brand Strategy 172 (2003): 35.

48. David M. Armstrong, “Management by Storytelling,” Executive Female (May/June 1992): 38–41.

49. Philip L. Roth, L. F. Lydia, and Fred S. Switzer, “Nominal Group Technique—An Aid for Implementing TQM,” CPA Journal (May 1995): 68–69; Karen L. Dowling, “Asynchronous Implementation of the Nominal Group Technique: Is It Effective?” Decision Support Systems 29, no. 3 (October 2000): 229–248.

50. N. Delkey, The Delphi Method: An Experimental Study of Group Opinion (Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 1969); Gene Rowe and George Wright, “The Delphi Technique as a Forecasting Tool: Issues and Analysis,” International Journal of Forecasting 15, no. 4 (October 1999).

51. James Bandler and Doris Burke, “How Hp Lost Its Way,” Fortune (2012); Cliff Edwards, “Hp Crawls Back, One Giant Screen at a Time,” Bloomberg Businessweek (2012); Elizabeth Heichler, “Whitman Plans to ‘Stay The Course’ at Hp,” Computerworld (2012); Ben Worthen, “H-P Shows Age with Layoffs,” Wall Street Journal (2012).

52. This case was based on Nick Wingfield, “Microsoft’s Videogame Efforts Take a Costly Hit,” Wall Street Journal, July 6, 2007, A3.