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Kinicki/Williams, Management, 8e: Chapter 7 Individual and Group Decision Making: How Managers
Make Things Happen
Individual and Group Decision

Chapter
7
Making: How Managers Make Things Happen
CHAPTER CONTENTS
Teaching Resource Manual: A Guide to Implementation ii

Learning Objectives 1
Teaching Resources 2
Overview of the Chapter 7
Classroom Outline 9
Challenge: Major Questions 34
Management in Action 36
Legal/Ethical Challenge 38
Textbook Examples 40
Textbook Practical Actions 47
Self-Assessments 49
Group Exercise 54
Manager’s Hot Seat 64
Publisher Videos 69
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Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent
of McGraw-Hill Education.
Make Things Happen
Teaching Resource Manual: A Guide to Implementation

The purpose of the Teaching Resource Manual (TRM) is to support you in the delivery of your
chosen curriculum in either a face-to-face or online classroom formats. It also was created to
help you address some of the following challenges in higher education:
 Addressing the inability to measure student comprehension prior to major assignments

such as a midterm or project.
 Overcoming the inability to tailor your lecture to the topics that students find difficult.
 Increasing student engagement by providing opportunities for them to apply the
knowledge gained in the classroom to real-world scenarios.
 Providing students with opportunities for self-reflection outside of classroom activities.
 Increasing students’ critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
You will learn that we created many different teaching resources you can use either before,
during, or after class. Because of the quantity of options, the goal of this implementation guide
is to provide an overview of how you might select the many teaching resources at your
disposal.
So What Assets Can I Chose From?
Generally, a typical class session for any course comprises three “touch points”: before, during,
and after class. For a face-to-face course, your class session would normally be the day you
lecture to students. For an online course, the class session would be when you recorded the
lecture or when the live lecture is streamed on the Web.
Our teaching resources fall into nine categories: SmartBook, connect application exercises,
videos, self-assessments, online readings, discussion starters, mini-cases and full cases,
experiential or follow-up activities, and group exercises. After describing the use of SmartBook
and connect application exercises, we discuss how you might use these teaching resources
before, during, or after class.
Assigning SmartBook and Connect Application Exercises
Connect gives you a wide array of flexibility in making assignments and creating grading
policies. You may choose to:
 assign as many assignments as appropriate.
 determine point values for each question/application exercise individually.
 make available multiple attempts per assignment with options of accepting the highest
score or averaging all the scores together.
 deduct points for late submissions of assignments (percentage deduction per
hour/day/week/so forth) or create hard deadlines.
 show feedback on application exercises/questions immediately or at your preference.
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 provide for study-attempts to allow for completion of the assignment after the due date
without assigning a point value.
Some recommendations include:

 Before selecting the option for one attempt only, select unlimited or multiple attempts
on the first few assignments to allow students a chance to learn and navigate the
system.
 Provide a low point value for each question because multiple questions are usually
assigned for each chapter. A good rule of thumb would be to make “Quiz Questions”
worth 1 point each and “Application Exercises” worth 5 to 10 points each because these
require more time and thought.
 Select feedback to be displayed after the assignment due date in order to limit students
from giving the correct answers to other students while the application exercise is still
available.
So When Do I Assign Each Type of Teaching Resource?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could transition from simply assigning readings, lecturing, and
testing to actually adapting your teaching to student needs? By utilizing the teaching resources
outlined below during the three touch points, you can significantly impact students’ learning
and create a learning environment that is more engaging, involving, and rewarding. In other
words, you can now tailor your classrooms to pinpoint and address critical challenges, thereby
creating the greatest impact. The following recommendations pertain to these mentioned
touch points, with an additional matrix that follows.
Before Class
The learning goals we have for students determines our assignments before, during and after
class. For example, you may want to focus on mastering content, applying content, or using
content to solve problems. Alternatively, you may want to achieve all three goals.
If your goal is mastery of content, Connect offers a host of additional pre-class assignments to
choose from. They include case analyses, click and drags, video cases, Manager’s Hot Seats,
self-assessments, and quizzes and tests. Case analyses, click and drags, and video cases are
optimal exercises to be utilized prior to class, as they provide students the opportunity to
practice and apply key course concepts.
A reading assignment—typically a chapter from the product in use—is a student’s initial

exposure to course content. Requiring students to complete a SmartBook module either prior
to class or an online lecture allows you to gauge their comprehension of the material. Having a
better sense before class of which concepts your students are “getting” and which ones they
are not, allows you to more effectively and efficiently plan your time with them during class. To
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ascertain student competency, use the reporting function of SmartBook, where you can view
general results of their performance. To ascertain student confidence in their competency, pull
a metacognitive skills analysis report. Below are screenshots of both a general results report
and a metacognitive skills analysis. In the sample report of student comprehension by topic,
note the percent of questions answered correctly in the last column of the report.
Sample Report of Student Comprehension by Topic shows you what topics students are struggling with.
In the sample metacognitive skills analysis, the percentages show how much students know,
but didn’t realize they knew, as well as how much they didn’t know, but thought they did know.
This allows instructors to make sure students are cognizant about what they know or don’t
know, before expecting them to be competent in the concepts being taught. Such
metacognitive analysis would have been unimaginable in the past because it would be difficult
to find out which students had read and understood the material, let alone if they were aware
or unaware of their inability to comprehend.
Sample Report of Metacognitive Skills Analysis shows you student consciousness or unconsciousness in regards to competency.
Additionally, Connect application exercises, such as case analyses, click and drags, and video
cases, offer students a second exposure to important sections of the chapter after their
completion of a SmartBook assignment.
Finally, you can use iSeeIt videos to emphasize content we have found difficult for students to
understand. These animated videos were developed to further unpack in brief, yet effective,
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fashion the course topics that most commonly challenge students. Each animated video is
accompanied by auto-graded multiple-choice questions that can be assigned to confirm student
comprehension.
If your learning objectives include fostering application and integrating the concepts discussed
with real world practice, then Management in Action or legal/ethical challenge cases can be
assigned so students can think critically and understand how what they are learning is actually
practiced by successful professionals. The Management in Action cases have multiple-choice
questions that can be assigned in Connect to gauge student comprehension.
During Class
The TRM offers a host of additional materials and experiential activities you can use to bring
chapter content to life.
If your goal is content mastery and you are utilizing SmartBook, you can plan class activities and
lecture based on results from the general results report and the metacognitive skills report.
This allows for a more tailored class period that enhances student engagement and more
opportunities to resolve gaps in knowledge. We also provide links to online readings that you
can use to supplement the content covered in the textbook. They are useful if you desire to
provide additional material beyond that covered in the text.
If your goal is to create an engaging learning environment filled with student discussion and
interactions, we provide multiple resources. First, each major heading in a chapter contains
suggested discussion starter questions. These open-ended questions are likely to foster student
discussion and engagement. We also provide additional activities (i.e., experiential exercises)
for every Example and Practical Action box.
If your goal is to provide for additional application of material, the TRM breaks down the
textbook Management in Action cases and legal/ethical challenges by providing questions and
ideal responses. Connect also has multiple-choice questions that can be assigned for the
Management in Action cases. Finally, the TRM has a selection of group exercises that allows
instructors to focus on team learning methods.
If your goal is to jointly engage your students while applying content from the text, you can
select such activities as the Manager’s Hot Seats Connect follow-up activities, or self-
assessment follow-up activities (all follow-up activities are found in the TRM). These assets are
especially useful if you are “flipping” your classroom, wherein the class session is used for
application and analysis of key concepts rather than lecture. The Resources across Teaching
Touch Points Matrix provides a quick reference for activities that can be utilized during class.
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After Class
After the face-to-face class session, or online lecture, you can assign Connect application
exercises as homework to further reinforce the material covered in the textbook and lecture.
You may also want to assign an iSeeIt! animated video if you notice that students are struggling
with a particular topic, even after class. After each unit (planning, organizing, leading, and
controlling) students can also be assigned the cumulative case, which includes assignable
multiple-choice and essay-based questions. To further gauge student comprehension, you can
also assign a quiz or exam. The quiz banks in Connect focus more on defining and explaining
material, and the test banks focus more on application and analysis.
Resources Across Teaching Touch Points Matrix
Type of Asset Before-Class/Lecture During-Class/Lecture After-Class/Lecture

Smart Book
Connect Application
Exercises
Connect Application
Exercise TRM Follow-up
Activities
iSeeIt! Animated Videos
Self-Assessments
TRM Self-Assessment
Follow-up Activities
Quizzes/Tests
Legal/Ethical Challenges
Manager’s Hot Seats
Cumulative Case
TRM Box Additional
Activities (i.e. Example
and Practical Action)
Management in Action
Group Exercises
TRM Discussion Starters
TRM Online Readings
A Week at a Glance
When creating a syllabus and schedule for students, you can utilize the above-mentioned
matrix as a guide. Let’s use the following example: You teach a face-to-face Principles of
Management course, and the course meets once-a-week on Wednesday afternoons. If this is
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the fourth week of the semester and you are covering Chapter 4 on Global Management, the
following format can be utilized:
Before Class (before Wednesday)

 Assign Chapter 4 in SmartBook, making it due Tuesday evening so that reporting can be
reviewed prior to the lecture on Wednesday. The lecture can be customized based on
what concepts in the chapter students are struggling most with, as can be seen in the
reporting function of SmartBook by going to “Reporting” then clicking the “LearnSmart”
tab.
 A click and drag, such as one on “The GLOBE Project,” can be assigned. This can also be
due on Wednesday so that students are able to practice prior to class, and you can also
review results prior to lecturing.
 A case analysis, such as “Costco Plans to Grow Its International Market,” can also be
included so that students can learn about applying the concepts from the reading to a
real-life scenario; therefore, further engaging them prior to the class session. If desired,
you can then introduce a follow-up activity, found in the Teaching Resource Manual,
during class on Wednesday.
 A self-assessment can be assigned, such as “Assessing Your Consumer Ethnocentrism,” in
order to follow-up on content covered in the reading and to provide students with an
opportunity to self-reflect, and by seeing how it affects their personal lives, become
engaged with the content. This can set up a class activity to follow on Wednesday.
Follow-up activities can be found in the Teaching Resource Manual.
During Class (on Wednesday)

 You can deliver a short, yet effective, lecture and focus on areas that students are really
struggling with. This can be done by reviewing the reporting from SmartBook and any
assigned Connect application exercises, such as the recommended click and drag and
case analysis. If students are struggling with a particular learning objective, you can then
tailor the lecture and/or class activities to address those challenging concepts.
 If you are flipping the class and utilizing the in-person session for activities, you can
utilize the follow-up activities from previously assigned Connect application exercises in
the TRM.
 You can assign a self-assessment earlier in the week, for example on “Assessing Your
Global Manager Potential,” and have students complete a follow-up activity during the
class session based on the self-assessment results. Remember, follow-up activities for
each Connect application exercise can be found in the TRM.
 Manager’s Hot Seats can be utilized to open up class discussion. Many of these Hot Seats
cover frequent, yet controversial topics, and they ask students to describe what their
decision-making process would be in those situations. Many times students will
recommend conflicting approaches to solving the issues in the videos; therefore, there is
more class engagement. For the global management chapter, one recommended
Manager’s Hot Seat is “Cultural Differences: Let’s Break a Deal.” Follow-up activities for
this, and every other Hot Seat, can be found in the TRM.
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 If time allows, and you would like to dive into real situations, you can discuss an Example
Box from the text titled, “E-Commerce: Peer-to-Peer Shopping by Smartphone.” There is
an additional in-class activity in the TRM that asks students to read a Wall Street Journal
article on a mobile shopping network, then watch a four-minute video.
After Class (after Wednesday)

 You can assign a Connect application exercise, such as “Disney Imagineering,” to
reinforce student comprehension of material and to also test application of concepts.
 If students have been struggling with a particular topic, an iSeeIt! animated video can be
assigned to reinforce the concept in a short, effective manner. For Chapter 4, the iSeeIt!
video titled “Global Expansion” can be assigned via Connect.
 You can assign an online quiz or test on the material. For example, Chapter 4 includes 20
available quiz questions and 95 test questions.
 If you would like students to have one final application-based exercise, you can ask them
to review the Management in Action case titled, “Costco Plans to Grow Its International
Markets.” Students can respond to the four essay questions that follow, and/or they can
complete multiple-choice questions on Connect.
If you are teaching a completely online course asynchronously, then the in-person class above
can be substituted for a recorded online lecture that is customized based on SmartBook
reporting. Students can be instructed to complete pre-class activities prior to watching the
lecture, and post-class activities after the online lecture. A gap can be included between pre-
class activities and the recording of the lecture so that reporting can be reviewed.
This example is simply a week out of many that will provide for rigorous learning and student
impact! You can utilize this format when creating a syllabus and extrapolate the rest of the
weeks.
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, students should be able to answer the following
questions:
7.1 How do people know when they’re being logical or illogical?

7.2 What guidelines can I follow to be sure that decisions I make are not just lawful
but ethical?
7.3 How can I improve my decision making using evidence-based management and
business analytics?
7.4 How do I decide to decide?
7.5 Trying to be rational isn’t always easy. What are the barriers?
7.6 How do I work with others to make things happen?
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TEACHING RESOURCES
Section Title Resource Type

7.1: Two Kinds of
Decision Making:
Rational & Nonrational
SC Johnson’s CEO on Doing Harvard Business

the Right Thing, Even When It Review article*
Hurts Business
Supplemental Activity
Starbucks Plans New Upscale Online Article

Chains
How Decision-Making Is Online Article

Different Between Men and
Women and Why It Matters in
Business
Make Better Decisions Harvard Business

Review IdeaCast
(16 minutes)
Assessing Your Problem- Self-Assessment

Solving Potential
Self-Assessment Activity
Boeing Ramps Up Push Into Online Article

the Airplane Parts Business
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When Data Goes Beyond Web Video

Intuition (2 minutes)
Assessing Your Level of Self-Assessment

Intuition
Trying to Solve an “Electric” Group Exercise

Problem in Managerial
Planning
Hindrances to Decision Making Connect Click and

Drag
Family Business Decision Connect Case Analysis

Making
7.2: Making Ethical

Decisions
When Tragedy Strikes the Harvard Business

Supply Chain Review Case Study*
Ethical Decision Making Group Exercise
7.3: Evidence-Based
Decision Making &
Analytics
The Business of Data: Web Video

Evidence Based Decision- (2 minutes)
Making
Forget Stars—Companies Do Online Article

Best When They Grow Their
Own Talent
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Using Algorithms to Build a Online Article

Better Workforce
Researchers Caused an Online Article

Uproar By Publishing Data
From 70,000 OkCupid Users
7.4: Four General

Decision-Making Styles
Knowing How You Decide Is as Online Article

Important as the Decision
How You Make Decisions Says Online Article with Self-

a Lot about How Happy You Assessment
Are
What Is Your Decision-Making Self-Assessment

Style?
Your Preferred Decision- Group Exercise

Making Style
Decision-Making Styles Connect Click and

Drag
7.5: How to Overcome

Barriers to Decision
Making
Challenge the Middleman Harvard Business

Review Case Study*
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Mohawk Fine Papers Up and Online Article

Running Making Envelopes in
South Hadley
Decision Making Biases Connect Click and

Drag
7.6: Group Decision

Making: How to Work
with Others
One Frame of Reference Isn't Web Video

Enough (3 minutes)
Assessing Groupthink Self-Assessment

Assessing Participation in Self-Assessment

Group Decision Making
How to Make Better Decisions Web Video

(10 minutes)
Stranded in the Desert: An Group Exercise

Exercise in Decision-Making
Advantages and Connect Click and

Disadvantages of Group Drag
Decision Making
Rules for Brainstorming Connect Click and

Drag
Decision-Making Overload Connect Video Case
Comprehensive Materials
How Did Decision Making Management in Action

Contribute to Volkswagen's
Emissions Cheating Scandal?
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Should Apple Comply with the Legal/Ethical

U.S. Government's Requests to Challenge
Unlock iPhones?
Decisions, Decisions Publisher Video
JCPenney Fires CEO Ron Publisher Video

Johnston
*Harvard Business Review articles are subscription based or accessible via hbsp.harvard.edu as examination copy.
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OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTER
7.1 Two Kinds of Decision Making: Rational and Nonrational

Decision making, the process of identifying and choosing alternative courses of
action, may be rational, but often it is nonrational. The rational model of decision
making explains how managers should make decisions, with complete information
and unemotional analysis. Four steps in making a rational decision are (1) identify
the problem or opportunity, (2) think up alternative solutions, (3) evaluate
alternatives and select a solution, and (4) implement and evaluate the solution
chosen. Nonrational models explain how managers do make decisions, given
that they face bounded rationality, or constraints in decision making. Two
examples of nonrational models of decision making are satisficing and intuition.
Satisficing occurs when decision makers seek alternatives until they find one that
is satisfactory. Intuition is making a decision without conscious thought or logical
interference.
7.2 Making Ethical Decisions

Businesses have a dismal record of ethics. Many companies now have an ethics
officer, someone trained about matters of ethics in the workplace. The decision
tree presented in Figure 7.3 can help managers to make more ethical decisions.
Managers must consider if a proposed action is legal, if it maximizes shareholder
value, if it is ethical, and whether it would be ethical not to take the action.
7.3 Evidence-Based Decision Making & Analytics

Evidence-based decision making brings rationality to the decision-making
process. There are seven principles for implementing evidence-based
management and challenges to its implementation. Analytics is the term used for
sophisticated forms of business data analysis. Big Data refers to stores of data so
vast that conventional database management systems cannot handle them,
requiring the use of very sophisticated analysis software and supercomputing-level
hardware. Big Data can be used to analyze consumer behavior, improve hiring
decisions, aid public policy, and to help farmers, hospitals, doctors, and
governments make better decisions.
7.4 Four General Decision-Making Styles

Decision-making styles reflect how one perceives and responds to information.
One model of decision-making styles is based on the idea that styles vary along
two different dimensions: value orientation and tolerance for ambiguity. When
these two dimensions are combined, they form four styles of decision making:
directive, analytical, conceptual, and behavioral, each with its own set of
advantages and disadvantages.
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7.5 How to Overcome Barriers to Decision Making

Responses to a decision situation may take the form of four ineffective reactions:
relaxed avoidance, relaxed change, defensive avoidance, or panic; or three
effective reactions: importance, credibility, or urgency. Decision making is prone
to biases when people rely on heuristics, strategies or rules of thumb that simplify
the process of making decisions. The availability bias occurs when decisions are
based on readily available data. The representativeness bias is the tendency to
assess the likelihood of an event occurring based on one’s impressions about
similar occurrences. With the confirmation bias, we seek information that
confirms our decisions and discount information that does not. The sunk-cost bias
occurs when managers add up all the money already spent on a project and
conclude it is too costly to simply abandon it. With the anchoring and adjustment
bias, our estimates are biased by the first information received about a decision.
The overconfidence bias occurs when people’s subjective confidence in their
decision making is greater than their objective accuracy. The hindsight bias
occurs when people view events as being more predictable than they really are.
The way a situation or problem is presented impacts how it is perceived with the
framing bias. Finally, the escalation of commitment bias is the tendency of
decision makers to increase their commitment to a project despite negative
information about it.
7.6 Group Decision Making: How to Work with Others

Group decision making has various advantages and disadvantages and it should
be used only when the circumstances warrant. Groupthink occurs when members
of a cohesive group strive to agree for the sake of unanimity and thus avoid
accurately assessing the decision situation. Removing barriers to minority dissent
by allowing criticism and fostering other perspectives can help prevent groupthink.
Using groups generally requires that they reach a consensus when solving
problems. Consensus does not require unanimous agreement, but dissenters
should feel that their concerns were “heard” and are willing to work toward the
decision’s success. Three group problem-solving techniques are brainstorming,
the Delphi technique, and computer-aided decision making.
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CLASSROOM OUTLINE
The Manager’s Toolbox: How Exceptional Managers Check to See If Their

Decisions Might Be Biased
An important part of a manager’s job is making decisions, but there are a variety of
biases that can cause you to make the wrong decision. You can fall victim to the
overconfidence bias when you are dealing with less familiar subjects. The prior-
hypothesis bias may cause you to make a decision based on your strong prior beliefs,
even when those beliefs are wrong. To overcome the ignoring-randomness bias, you
must be willing to attribute trends to random events. It is important to use a broad,
representative sample to avoid sampling biases. To avoid the hindsight bias, it is
important to remember that hindsight does not equal foresight.
Possible Topics for Discussion:
● Facing the hard facts about what works and what doesn’t, how able do you think
you are to make the tough decisions that effective managers have to make? Can
you describe an instance in which you were badly wrong about something or
someone?
● Do you believe these biases are more likely to occur with individual decision
making or group decision making? Explain your position.
● Identify your own strongly held beliefs which may have the ability to impact your
decision-making process. How can you overcome the tendency to fall victim to
the prior hypothesis bias for those beliefs?
● How could you determine if an event is just a random event or the sign of a
genuine trend?
7.1 Two Kinds of Decision Making: Rational & Nonrational

How do people know when they’re being logical or illogical?
PowerPoint Slides: 3-13

Section 7.1 discusses four steps in the rational decision-making process: (1) identify the
problem or opportunity, (2) think up alternative solutions, (3) evaluate alternatives and
select a solution, and (4) implement and evaluate the solution chosen. There is also a
discussion on the two nonrational models of decision making: (1) satisficing and (2)
intuition.
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One way that you could begin your coverage of these topics is to have the students
read the Harvard Business Review article “SC Johnson’s CEO on Doing the Right
Thing, Even When It Hurts Business.” In this article, Fisk Johnson, SC Johnson CEO,
describes the firm’s decision to reformulate Saran Wrap over environmental concerns,
knowing that the reformulation was likely to negatively impact the product’s sales. For a
supplemental activity, have the students evaluate the extent to which SC Johnson’s
decision to reformulate Saran Wrap is an example of rational decision making or
nonrational decision making.
Article Citation:
Johnson, F. (2015). SC Johnson’s CEO on doing the right thing, even when it hurts
business. Harvard Business Review, 93(4), 33-36.
Product #: R1504A-PDF-ENG
● Discuss why it can be so hard to be purely rational in the decision-making
process.
● Describe a time you used satisficing when making a decision. Why did you just
make a decision that was good enough rather than searching for a better
decision?
● Describe a time you used intuition to make a decision. Describe the advantages
and disadvantages of having used intuition to make this decision.
Section 7.1 Key Concepts:
Decision Making
● A decision is a choice made from among available alternatives.
● Decision making is the process of identifying and choosing alternative courses
of action.
Interactive Classroom Material:

EXAMPLE: Crisis Leading to the Strategic-Management Process: Starbucks
Reclaims Its Soul
Shortly after CEO Howard Schultz stepped down from Starbucks in 2000, the
company “lost a certain soul” and the stocks nosedived. Schultz returned as CEO
in 2008 and reorganized the company by closing 800 stores, laying off 4,000
employees, and letting go of most top executives. After a couple of years, the
company turned around, the result of better operations, modernized technology, a
reinvigorated staff, and several innovations.
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Two Systems of Decision Making

● Psychologist Daniel Kahneman describes two kinds of thinking that he labels
System 1 and System 2.
o System 1 operates automatically and quickly; it is our fast, automatic,
intuitive, and largely unconscious mode.
o System 2 is our slow, deliberate, analytical, and consciously effortful
mode of reasoning.
The Curse of Knowledge
● Specialization improves efficiency but it also leads to tunnel vision and blind
spots.
● With the curse of knowledge, we may be less and less able to see things from an
outsider’s perspective as our knowledge and expertise grow and, hence, we are
often apt to make irrational decisions.
Rational Decision Making
● The rational model of decision making, also called the classical model,
explains how managers should make decisions.
● It assumes managers will make logical decisions that will be the optimum in
furthering the organization’s best interests.
● Four Stages of Rational Decision Making:
o Stage 1: Identify the Problem or Opportunity
▪ Problems are difficulties that inhibit the achievement of goals.
▪ Opportunities are situations that present possibilities for
exceeding existing goals.
▪ How to change conditions from the present to the desirable is a
matter of diagnosis, or analyzing the underlying causes.
o Stage 2: Think Up Alternative Solutions
▪ After you’ve identified the problem or opportunity and diagnosed its
causes, you need to come up with alternative solutions.
▪ You will want to consider both the obvious and the creative.
o Stage 3: Evaluate Alternatives and Select a Solution
▪ If an alternative isn’t ethical, you shouldn’t give it a second look.
▪ A proposed solution may not be feasible for a variety of reasons,
including high costs, unavailable technology, or resistant
customers.
▪ If the solution ultimately will not be effective in the long-run, a short-
term “good enough” solution may not be the best option.
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o Stage 4: Implement and Evaluate the Solution Chosen.

▪ With some decisions, implementation is straightforward but for
others, the implementation can be quite difficult.
▪ For implementation to be successful, you need to plan carefully and
be sensitive to those affected.
▪ You also need to follow-up and evaluate the results of the decision
and take action.
▪ If it is not working, there are some possibilities: you may need to
give it more time, change it slightly, try another alternative, or start
over.

EXAMPLE: Making a Correct Diagnosis: Does Billionaire Warren Buffet, the
World's Third Richest Man, Invest Like a Girl?
Warren Buffett is the renowned billionaire investor known as the “Oracle of
Omaha” who heads the financial juggernaut Berkshire Hathaway. His investment
decisions are so successful that $1,000 invested with him in 1957 was worth $30
million in 2014. It seems that Buffett and female investors have something in
common. Women trade less often than men, do a lot more research, and tend to
base their investment decisions on considerations other than just numbers.
Buffett’s style is similar. He uses basic arithmetic to analyze annual reports and
other company financial documents, as well as taking pains to make a correct
diagnosis before making a decision.
SELF-ASSESSMENT 7.1
Assessing Your Problem-Solving Potential
This 12-question self-assessment assesses students’ approaches to problem
solving at work. Students are asked to consider their current or former employer. If
a student has never been employed, then university experiences can be
considered. Questions on solutions, consequences, and implementation are
presented.
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EXAMPLE: Evaluation: The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a Bet-the-Company
Decision
When Boeing was losing business to its European rival Airbus, the company was
wracked by scandals involving Pentagon contracts, and rising fuel costs were
dramatically impacting the commercial airline industry. Boeing management made
a bold decision: It would build a new medium-sized commercial jet, the 787
Dreamliner.
First planned for a summer 2007 launch, the date was revised for 2008. Then the
company began encountering a number of problems. In October 2007, Boeing
announced it would no longer meet its May 2008 target date and was postponing
its first delivery to late fall of that year. It later changed the date to the first quarter
of 2009, and then rescheduled it again—to the third quarter of 2009. Finally, the
Dreamliner had its first flight in December 2009 but was not put into service until
October 2011—three years behind schedule.
Limitations of the Rational Model

● The rational model is prescriptive, describing how managers ought to make
decisions, not how managers actually make decisions.
● The rational model makes three unrealistic assumptions:
o Managers have complete and error-free information about all alternative
courses of action and their consequences.
o Managers are able to make an unemotional analysis, with no prejudices or
emotional blind spots.
o Managers are able to make the best decision for the organization.

CLICK AND DRAG: Hindrances to Decision Making
Summary of Activity:
Decision making can be a difficult process if managers are not well versed in
recognizing and addressing various hindrances they face when attempting to make
rational decisions. In this click and drag exercise, students will match provided
descriptions with the correct hindrance to decision making.
Follow-Up Activity:
Instructor should ask students to discuss hindrances in the decision-making process.
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Which factors have they seen influence the decision-making process in their
respective fields? How have they or their co-workers dealt with these constraints or
barriers? Discussion may be closed out by highlight the conflicting goals managers
face on a day-to-day basis.
Nonrational Models of Decision Making

● Nonrational models of decision making explain how managers do make
decisions.
● They assume that decision making is nearly always uncertain and risky, making it
difficult for managers to make optimum decisions.
● The nonrational models are descriptive rather than prescriptive; they describe
how managers actually make decisions.
● Two nonrational models are (1) satisficing and (2) intuition.
● Bounded Rationality and the Satisficing Model
o Herbert Simon’s research found that managers could not act truly logically
because their rationality was bounded by so many restrictions.
o Called bounded rationality, the concept suggests that the ability of
decision makers to be rational is limited by numerous constraints
described in Figure 7.2.
o As a result of these constraints, managers don’t make an exhaustive
search for the best alternative, but rather they follow the satisficing
model—that is, managers seek alternatives until they find one that is
satisfactory, not optimal.
● The Intuition Model
o Going with your gut, or intuition, is making a choice without the use of
conscious thought or logical interference.
o Intuition that stems from expertise—a person’s explicit and tacit
knowledge about a person, situation, object, or decision opportunity—is
known as a holistic hunch.
o Intuition based on feelings—the involuntary emotional response to those
same matters—is known as automated experience.
o The benefits of intuition are that it can speed up decision making when
deadlines are tight and it can be helpful when resources are limited.
o A drawback of intuition is that others may not see your logic, and,
therefore, it might be hard to convince them that your decision makes
sense.
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CASE ANALYSIS: Family Business Decision Making
Family-owned businesses have a unique decision-making system. In this case
analysis, students will first read about the differences between family businesses and
traditional organizations before responding to 5 multiple-choice questions to measure
comprehension.
Follow-Up Activity:
Instructor should begin by asking students if they are currently involved with, or have
ever been involved in, a family business. What type of business was it and who were
they involved with? Students should share personal experiences. After this
discussion, instructor can divide students into groups. Students should discuss the
advantages and disadvantages of family-run businesses as opposed to bigger
operations. Information from the case analysis should be used in these discussions.
Groups can come write on the board and instructor can lead discussion afterwards.

PRACTICAL ACTION: Tips for Improving Your Intuition
This Practical Action highlights five tips for improving your intuition, these include 1)
trust your intuitive judgments, 2) seek feedback, 3) test your intuitive success rate, 4)
try visualizing solutions, and 5) challenge your intuition.
SELF-ASSESSMENT 7.2
Assessing Your Level of Intuition
This eight-question self-assessment assesses students’ levels of intuition at their
current place of employment. If a student is not currently employed, he or she can
utilize a past employer or current university experience. Questions on projects, plans
and instructions are presented.
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Group Exercise #1: Trying to Solve an “Electric” Problem in Managerial Planning

There is a group exercise available at the end of this manual that allows students to
apply what they have learned about planning and problem-solving.
Exercise Objectives
● To assess a specific problem where planning is required.
● To arrive at a mutual and effective solution as a group, taking into consideration
different perspectives and different goals.
7.2 Making Ethical Decisions

What guidelines can I follow to be sure that decisions I make are not just
lawful but ethical?

Section 7.2 discusses the dismal record of business ethics and presents a decision tree
which can help managers make ethical decisions. Key questions to answer with the
ethics decision tree are: Is the proposed action legal? Does the proposed action
maximize shareholder value? Is the proposed action ethical? Would it be ethical not to
take the proposed action?
read the Harvard Business Review article “When Tragedy Strikes the Supply Chain.”
This article is a HBR Case Study and includes a fictional case and case commentary by
industry experts. In this case, a clothing retailer must decide whether to relocate
production after a devastating factory collapse. Using this case study would be a
relevant way for students to apply the ethical decision tree. For a supplemental activity,
you could have the students decide if T&T should relocate its production from
Bangladesh to China.
Article Citation:
Subramanian, R. (2016). When tragedy strikes the supply chain. Harvard Business
Review, 94(1), 109-113.
Product #: R1601K-PDF-ENG
● Think of a time when you were not sure if a course of action you were
considering was ethical or not. How could you have applied the ethical decision
tree in Figure 7.3 to help you make a decision?
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● What are the limitations of using the ethical decision tree presented in the
chapter?
● Discuss the extent to which ethics officers and values statements can help
companies avoid unethical actions by their employees.
The Dismal Record of Business Ethics
● Recent high-profile scandals have spurred interest in ethical decision making.
● Many companies now have an ethics officer, someone trained about matters of
ethics in the workplace, particularly about resolving ethical dilemmas.
● More and more companies are also creating values statements to guide
employees as to what constitutes desirable business behavior.
● Managers now must try to make sure their decisions are not just lawful but also
ethical.
Road Map to Ethical Decision Making: A Decision Tree
● Businesses continually try to balance the pressure to maximize shareholder
value while acting ethically.
● A decision tree is a graph of decisions and their possible consequences; it is
used to create a plan to reach a goal.
● Figure 7.3 presents an ethical decision tree.
● When confronted with a decision, a manager should ask the following questions:
o Is the proposed action legal?
▪ If it is illegal, do not do it.
▪ If it is legal, consider impact on shareholder value.
o If “yes,” does the proposed action maximize shareholder value?
▪ A decision maximizes shareholder value when it results in a more
favorable financial position (e.g., increased profits) for an
organization.
▪ Whether or not an action maximizes shareholder value, the
decision tree shows that managers still need to consider the ethical
implications of the decision or action.
o If “yes,” is the proposed action ethical?
▪ The answer to this question is based on considering the positive
effect of the action on an organization’s other key constituents
(customers, employees, the community, the environment,
suppliers) against the benefit to the shareholders.
o If “no,” would it be ethical not to take the proposed action?
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▪ If an action would not directly benefit shareholders, you need to

consider whether it would be ethical not to take the proposed
action.
▪ If it would not be ethical to not take the action, the action should be
taken, but the effect of the action should be disclosed to the
shareholders.
Group Exercise #2: Ethical Decision Making

There is a group exercise available at the end of this manual that allows students to
gain practice in ethical decision making.
Exercise Objectives
● To look at the stages in practical decision making.
● To gain practice in ethical decision making.
7.3 Evidence-Based Decision Making & Analytics

How can I improve my decision making using evidence-based
management and business analytics?

Section 7.3 discusses implementing evidence-based decision making and the seven
principles for implementing evidence-based decision making. Analytics and Big Data
are also discussed.
watch the Economist video “The Business of Data: Evidence Based Decision-Making.”
This six-minute video discusses strategies to successfully manage Big Data. For a
supplemental activity, you could have the students provide examples of how Big Data
could help either their current or previous employer reduce costs or generate additional
revenue for the organization.
● Discuss reasons why it might be difficult for managers to use evidence-based
decision making.
● Describe industries or products that will undergo dramatic transformation as our
ability to capture and process data improves.
● What concerns should we have about “Big Data?”
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Evidence-Based Decision Making
● Evidence-based management means translating principles based on best
evidence into organizational practice.
● Evidence-based management implementation principles:
o Treat your organization as an unfinished prototype—not something that
will be ruined by dangerous new ideas or that is impossible to change.
o Follow the slogan “No brag, just facts” by ignoring assertions made with
complete disregard for facts.
o See yourself and your organization as others do without inflated views of
your talents and prospects for success.
o Ensure everyone is guided by the responsibility to gather and act on
quantitative and qualitative data, not just for senior executives.
o You need to sell evidence-based decision making by using vivid stories to
sell preferred practices.
o If all else fails, slow the spread of bad practices through so-called
“evidence-based misbehavior.”
o Use the best diagnostic question: what happens when people fail?
Challenges to Being Evidence Based
● There’s too much evidence.
● There’s not enough good evidence.
● The evidence doesn’t quite apply.
● People are trying to mislead you.
● You are trying to mislead you.
● The side effects outweigh the cure.
● Stories are more persuasive, anyway.

EXAMPLE: Evidence-Based Decision Making: “If People Are Your Most
Important Assets, Why Would You Get Rid of Them?”
What are the costs of layoffs? While there are circumstances in which layoffs are
necessary for a firm to survive, companies incur big direct and indirect costs of
layoffs, such as low morale, risk-averse survivors, potential lawsuits, etc. Even
following 9/11, when airlines announced thousands of layoffs, Southwest Airlines
was the exception.
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In Praise of Analytics
● The purest application of evidence-based management is the use of analytics.
● Analytics, or business analytics, is the term used for sophisticated forms of
business data analysis.
● Examples include portfolio analysis in which an investment advisor evaluates the
risk of various stocks, and a time-series forecast that predicts future data based
on patterns of historical data.
● Three key attributes among analytics competitors are that they go beyond simple
descriptive statistics and use modeling; they having multiple applications to
support many parts of the business; and they have support from top
management.
● Predictive modeling is a data mining technique used to predict future behavior
and anticipate the consequences of change.

EXAMPLE: Analytics in Athletics: The Personal “Moneyball” Coach
Some professional basketball players have personal trainers and chefs, and now
some even have their own personal statistician. The use of analytics in the NBA and
NFL has increased as teams try to find better indicators of player success.
The Uses of “Big Data”

● Big Data are stores of data so vast that conventional database management
systems cannot handle them.
● Big Data includes not only data in corporate databases but also web-browsing
data trails, social network communications, sensor data, and surveillance data.
● Big Data analytics is the process of examining large amounts of data of a
variety of types to uncover hidden patterns, unknown correlations, and other
useful information.
● Among some of the uses of Big Data analytics are the following:
o Analyzing consumer behavior and spurring sales.
o Improving hiring and personnel management.
o Tracking movie, music, TV, and reading data.
o Exploiting farm data.
o Advancing health and medicine.
o Aiding public policy.
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EXAMPLE: Data, Hacking, & Privacy: Who's Driving My Car?!
This Example profiles the risk of having personal data stolen in this digital age.
Hacking has been a major concern for years, but now even some cars can be
hacked into. With all this, no wonder each case of unauthorized computer access by
hackers trying to steal information or disrupt a firm’s operations on average costs a
U.S. company $3.5 million.
7.4 Four General Decision-Making Styles

How do I decide to decide?

Section 7.4 discusses the four general decision-making styles of directive, analytical,
conceptual, or behavioral. One’s decision-making style reflects how he or she perceives
and responds to information.
One way that you could begin your coverage of these topics is to profile a different
model of decision-making styles by describing “maximizers” and “satisficers.” These
styles are described in the New York magazine article “Knowing How You Decide Is as
Important as the Decision” and the Wall Street Journal article “How You Make Decisions
Says a Lot about How Happy You Are.” Maximizers like to take their time and weigh a
wide range of options before choosing, while satisficers prefer to quickly choose the
option that meets their minimum standards. For a supplemental activity, you can have
the students take the online assessments included with the article to determine if they
are maximizers or satisficers, and have them discuss how the ability to reverse a
decision will impact their happiness with decisions.
● When making a decision, do you like to weigh every option even if it takes a long
time, or do you often think “good enough” is good enough?
● Describe how the type of decision you are making impacts your preferred
decision-making style.
● Describe a time you experienced an interpersonal conflict as a result of
differences in decision-making styles. How was the conflict resolved?
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Decision-Making Styles
● A decision-making style reflects the combination of how an individual perceives
and responds to information.
● One model of decision-making styles bases it on two dimensions:
o Value orientation: the extent to which a person focuses on either task and
technical concerns or people and social concerns.
o Tolerance for ambiguity: the extent to which a person has a high need for
structure or control in his or her life.
● Combining the two dimensions creates four styles of decision making.
o Directive
▪ People with this style have low tolerance for ambiguity and are
oriented toward task and technical concerns.
▪ They are efficient, logical, practical, and systematic in their
approach to solving problems.
▪ They can also be autocratic and focus on the short run.
o Analytical
▪ People with this style like a lot of information and alternative
choices and may overanalyze a situation.
▪ They take longer to make decisions but also respond well to new or
uncertain situations.
o Conceptual
▪ People with this style have a high tolerance for ambiguity and focus
on the people/social aspects of a work situation.
▪ They adopt a long-term perspective and rely on intuition and
discussions with others to acquire information.
▪ This style can foster an indecisive approach to decision making.
o Behavioral
▪ People with this style work well with others, are supportive and
receptive to suggestions.
▪ Because they tend to be nonconfrontational, they may adopt a
wishy-washy approach to decision making.
● Which style do you have?
o Very few people have only one dominant decision-making style.
o There is not a best decision-making style that applies to all situations.
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o You can use knowledge of styles to understand yourself, influence others

and deal with conflict.
SELF-ASSESSMENT 7.3
What Is Your Decision-Making Style?
This 20-question self-assessment assesses students’ decision-making styles. Based
on the questions, students can ascertain if they are more prone to directive,
analytical, conceptual, or behavioral decision-making styles.

CLICK AND DRAG: Decision-Making Styles
An individual's decision-making style reflects the combination of how that person
perceives and responds to information. In this click and drag exercise, students will
read a provided description of each fictitious person’s value orientation and tolerance
for ambiguity and match it with the correct decision-making style.
Follow-Up Activity:
Students should be divided into small groups of four or five. Each group is tasked with
choosing and discussing a prominent leader (such as Steve Jobs, Sheryl Sandberg,
or Mark Zuckerberg) and dissecting his/her decision-making style. Which dimension
does this leader fall into? Which style does he/she most utilize? Instructor may close
out the activity by asking a student representative from each group summarize their
findings.
Group Exercise #3: Your Preferred Decision-Making Style

There is a group exercise available at the end of this manual that provides students
with an opportunity to further explore their decision-making style.
Exercise Objectives
● To assess your knowledge of decision making.
● To give students an opportunity to further explore their decision-making style
through analyzing its strengths and weaknesses.
7.5 How to Overcome Barriers to Decision Making

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CopyrightTrying to be rational
© 2018 McGraw-Hill isn’t
Education. All rightsalways easy.
reserved. No What
reproduction are the
or distribution barriers?
without the prior written consent
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Section 7.5 discusses the four ineffective and three effective reactions to a decision. It
also expands on the nine common decision-making biases of which managers should
be aware.
read the Harvard Business Review article “Challenge the Middleman.” This article is a
HBR Case Study and includes a fictional case and case commentary by industry
experts. In this case, a hotelier considers investing in a company to respond to online
travel agencies. Using this case study would be a great way for students to discuss the
barriers to effective decision making. For a supplemental activity, you could have the
students discuss the biases to effective decision making impacting Lotta Tindal and
decide if Ervaring should invest in HotelShield.
Article Citation:
Dev., C., & O’Conner, P. (2015). Challenge the middleman. Harvard Business Review,
93(12), 119-125.
Product #: R1512K-PDF-ENG
● Describe a time when you displayed an ineffective reaction when faced with a
challenge. How should you have handled the situation differently?
● Think of the last large-dollar purchase that you made (i.e., new car, new
cellphone, etc.) and consider the extent to which you were influenced in the
decision-making process by the heuristics described in the chapter.
● Assume you are interviewing job applicants for a managerial position. Provide
specific examples of how you might fall victim to the common decision-making
biases when making your hiring decision.
How Do Individuals Respond to a Decision Situation?
● Ineffective Reactions:
o With relaxed avoidance, a manager decides to take no action in the
belief that there will be no great negative consequences; this is a form of
complacency.
o With relaxed change, a manager realizes that complete inaction will have
negative consequences but opts for the first available alternative that
involves low risk; this is a form of “satisficing.”
o With defensive avoidance, a manager can’t find a good solution and
follows by procrastinating, passing the buck, or denying the risk of any
negative consequences; this is a denial of responsibility for taking action.
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o With panic, a manager is so frantic to get rid of the problem that he or she
can’t deal with the situation realistically.
● Effective Reactions
o In deciding to decide, a manager agrees that he or she must decide
what to do about a problem or opportunity and take effective decision-
making steps.
o To help decide whether to decide, evaluate the following:
▪ Importance: “How high priority is this situation?”
▪ Credibility: “How believable is the information about the situation?”
▪ Urgency: “How quickly must I act on the information about the
situation?”

EXAMPLE: Deciding to Decide: How Should a Paper Maker Reinvent Itself?
In 2000, the paper industry was at its height, with 94 million tons of paper and paper-
based packaging being produced. Then the computer revolution and the vogue
phrase “the paperless office” really began to be felt and the demand for paper
plummeted.
Nine Common Decision-Making Biases: Rules of Thumb or “Heuristics”

● Heuristics are strategies that simplify the process of making decisions but can
also be barriers to high-quality decision making.
● Common Heuristics:
o The availability bias: using only the readily available information from
memory to make judgments.
▪ Managers tend to give more weight to more recent behavior and
use information readily available from memory to make judgments.
▪ Readily available information may not present a complete picture of
the situation.
o The representativeness bias: generalizing from a small sample or single
event.
▪ Just because something happens once, that doesn’t mean it will
happen again or that it will happen to you.
o The confirmation bias: seeking information to support one’s point of view
and discounting data that do not.
▪ Though this bias would seem to be obvious, people practice it all
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the time by listening to the information they want to hear and

ignoring the rest.
o The sunk-cost bias: continuing because of money already spent.
▪ This occurs when managers add up all the money already spent on
a project and conclude it is too costly to simply abandon it.
▪ If people have an aversion to wasting money, they continue to push
on with an iffy-looking project to justify the money already sunk into
it.
o The anchoring and adjustment bias: making decisions based on an
initial figure.
▪ The bias is that the initial figure may be irrelevant to market
realities.
o The overconfidence bias: people’s subjective confidence in their
decision making being greater than their objective accuracy.
▪ People can be blind to their own blindness.
o The hindsight bias: the tendency of people to view events as being more
predictable than they really are.
▪ This is the “I knew it all along” effect, when we look back on a
decision and try to reconstruct why we decided to do something.
o The framing bias: the tendency to be influenced by the way a situation or
problem is presented.
▪ How a problem is framed may lead us to consider certain solutions.
o The escalation of commitment bias: when decision makers increase
their commitment to a project despite negative information about it.
▪ To reduce the escalation of commitment, researchers recommend
that decision makers set minimum targets for performance and then
compare their performance results with their targets.
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CLICK AND DRAG: Decision Making Biases
Decision making is often a biased and flawed process. If people can identify and be
aware of their biases, they may be able to make better decisions for themselves and
may be able to diagnose flawed decisions that affect their workplace. In this click and
drag exercise, students will match fictitious characters with the decision-making bias
that he or she is facing.
Follow-Up Activity:
This activity focuses on a current event in the news. Pick something that involves
some type of decision made by a person, group, or company. In class, place students
into groups and then explain the current event under consideration. It might help to
have students do a quick internet search of the situation or you can pass out some
short reading from the paper. Next, ask each group to discuss whether or not the
eight biases may have played a role in the situation. Finally, ask students how any
relevant biases may have been prevented. Ask each group to share their findings with
the class.
7.6 Group Decision Making: How to Work with Others

How do I work with others to make things happen?

Section 7.6 discusses the advantages and disadvantages of group decision making.
The symptoms of groupthink and recommendations for avoiding it are discussed. The
group problem-solving techniques of brainstorming, the Delphi technique and computer-
aided decision making are discussed.
watch the Harvard Business Review video “One Frame of Reference Isn't Enough.” In
this three-minute video, Professor David Garvin explains how forcing a group to ponder
a contrary point of view can improve group decision making. For a supplemental
activity, you can have the students describe how forcing a group to wrestle with a
contrary point of view can improve the decision-making process.
● Describe situations where individual decision making probably works better than
group decision making.
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● How can managers make sure that groups making decisions seek out
information from all members of the group, rather than just the extroverted or
dominating team members?
● Discuss why groupthink is dangerous and describe best practices managers
should follow in order to avoid falling victim to groupthink.
Advantages of Group Decision Making
● A group possesses more information and knowledge than one individual acting
alone.
● Individuals with different backgrounds and experiences bring varied perspectives
to diagnosing and solving problems.
● A group of people can brainstorm or otherwise bring greater intellectual
stimulation and creativity to the decision-making process than is usually possible
with one person acting alone.
● Participating in a decision increases group members’ understanding about why a
decision is being made.
● If you’ve been part of the group that has bought into the final decision, you’re
more apt to be committed to seeing that the course of action is successfully
implemented.
Disadvantages of Group Decision Making
● The quality of a group’s decision can be influenced by a few vocal people who
dominate the discussion, cutting down on the variety of ideas.
● Groups are prone to groupthink, which occurs when group members strive for
agreement among themselves for the sake of unanimity and avoid accurately
assessing the decision situation.
● Groups often satisfice by seeking a decision that is “good enough” rather than
“best.”
● Goal displacement can occur when considerations other than the primary goal
rise to the fore, such as rivals trying to win an argument.
Symptoms of Groupthink
● Sense of invulnerability: an illusion that breeds excessive optimism and risk
taking and the ignoring of ethical implications.
● Rationalization: protects pet assumptions underlying the group’s decisions from
critical questions.
● Illusion of unanimity and peer pressure: a member's silence is interpreted to
mean consent and peer pressure leads members to question a dissenters'
loyalty.
● The wisdom of crowds: groupthink’s pressure to conform often leads members
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with different ideas to censor themselves, limiting the possibilities for collective
wisdom.

CLICK AND DRAG: Advantages and Disadvantages of Group Decision Making
Managers have to decide when to make decisions themselves and when they should
involve a group. In this click and drag exercise, students will match provided
descriptions with the advantages or disadvantages of group decision making.
Follow-Up Activity:
Students should be placed in groups to discuss the advantages and disadvantages to
group decision making. The following questions should be responded to:
1. Are there specific companies or industries that work better without group
decision making?
2. How can leaders within a team or group facilitate efficient group decision
making?
3. Is there a certain team or group size that facilitates better group decision
making?
The instructor can ask for volunteers or randomly select groups to respond to these
questions.
SELF-ASSESSMENT 7.4
Assessing Groupthink
This 11-question assessment measures students’ level of groupthink. Questions on
team agreement, outsider advice, and contingency planning are presented.
Preventing Groupthink
● Prevention is better than treatment or cure when dealing with groupthink, and it is
important to allow criticism and other perspectives.
● Assign each group member the role of critical evaluator, able to actively voice
objections and doubts.
● Subgroups within the group should be allowed to discuss and debate ideas.
● Once the group has reached a consensus, everyone should be encouraged to
rethink his or her position to check for flaws.
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● Outside experts should be used to introduce fresh perspectives.

● Different groups with different leaders should explore the same policy questions.
● Top-level executives should not use policy committees to rubber-stamp decisions
that have already been made.
● When major alternatives are discussed, someone should be made the devil’s
advocate to try to uncover all negative factors.
What Managers Need to Know about Groups and Decision Making
● Groups take longer to make decisions and they are less efficient.
● Group size affects decision quality; the larger the group, the lower the quality of
the decision.
● Groups may be too confident, and it can lead to groupthink.
● Decision-making accuracy is higher when group members know a good deal
about the relevant issues, or if the group leader can weigh members’ opinions.
● Managers should also consider using certain guidelines in using groups in
decision making:
o If additional information would increase the quality of the decision, involve
those people who provide the needed information.
o If acceptance within the organization is important, involve those individuals
whose acceptance and commitment are important.
o When it can increase development, involve those individuals whose
development is important.
● In general, group decision making is more effective when there is minority
dissent, a feeling group members can freely and safely disagree with each
other.
SELF-ASSESSMENT 7.5
Assessing Participation in Group Decision Making
This 10-question self-assessment assesses the level of minority dissent,
participation in group decision making, and satisfaction in work groups that students
have participated in. If students have never participated in work groups, school
groups may be considered as well. Questions on disagreement, satisfaction, and
majority opinions are presented.
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Group Problem-Solving Techniques: Reaching for Consensus

● Using groups to make decisions generally requires that they reach a consensus.
● Consensus occurs when members are able to express their opinions and reach
agreement to support the final decision.
● It does not mean that all group members agree with the decision; only that they
are willing to work toward its success.
More Group Problem-Solving Techniques
● Brainstorming
o Brainstorming is a technique used to help groups generate multiple ideas
and alternatives for solving problems.
o The technique consists of having members of a group meet and review a
problem to be solved.
o Individual members are then asked to silently generate ideas that are then
collected and written on a board, after which they are critiqued and
evaluated.
o A variation is electronic brainstorming, or brainwriting, in which group
members come together over a computer network to generate ideas.
o Managers are advised to follow the seven rules for brainstorming
described in Table 7.5.
o Even though brainstorming can encourage the expression of many useful
new ideas, it can also waste time generating a lot of unproductive ideas.

CLICK AND DRAG: Rules for Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a very useful technique intended to help groups generate creative
and novel ideas for solving problems. If done properly, brainstorming can be very
effective, but if the process is stifled, the results will not be produced. In this click and
drag exercise, students will match the appropriate “rule” for brainstorming with its
provided description.
Follow-Up Activity:
Students should be placed in groups to discuss brainstorming. Groups should be
tasked with creating a list of brainstorming rules or norms to facilitate group
brainstorming. Instructor should have each group choose one or two rules to write on
the board. Duplication should be avoided. Afterwards, instructor should lead
discussion on best practices and link the drafted rules with the rules provided in the
Connect activity.
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● The Delphi Technique

o The Delphi technique is a group process that uses physically dispersed
experts who fill out questionnaires to anonymously generate ideas.
o The judgments are combined and in effect averaged to achieve a
consensus of expert opinion.
o The Delphi technique is useful when face-to-face discussions are
impractical, when disagreements and conflict are likely to impair
communication, when certain individuals might dominate group
discussion, and when groupthink is a probable outcome of the group
process.
● Computer-Aided Decision Making
o Computer-aided decision making can produce greater quantity and quality
of ideas than traditional brainstorming.
o A decision support system is a computer-based information system that
provides a flexible tool for analysis and helps managers focus on the
future.
o This kind of computer-based system aims to produce collected information
known as business intelligence, gathering data from a wide range of
sources in a way that can be interpreted by humans and used to support
better business decision making.

PRACTICAL ACTION: How Exceptional Managers Make Decisions
This Practical Action highlights the guidelines for making decisions. When should
you make a decision and when should you delay? Are there guidelines for making
tough choices? Management consultant Odette Pollar suggests some ways to make
decision making easier:
● Decide in a timely fashion.
● Don’t agonize over minor decisions.
● Separate outcome from process.
● Learn when to stop gathering facts.
● When overwhelmed, narrow your choices.
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Group Exercise #4: Stranded in the Desert: An Exercise in Decision-Making

There is a group exercise available at the end of this manual that allows students
to apply the effectiveness of individual versus group decision making.
Exercise Objective
 To determine the effectiveness of individual versus group decision making.

VIDEO CASE: Decision-Making Overload
In this video case, students will first view a video on some of the basic decision-
making challenges in the workplace, which have also been discussed in this chapter.
Then, they will respond to 5 multiple-choice questions to measure comprehension.
Follow-Up Activity:
Decision-making overload can cause a manager to freeze and not make important
decisions. Instructor should open up class discussion with the following questions:
1. Have you ever experienced the inability to make a decision based on
overload?
2. In what ways can you overcome indecisiveness? How about group decision
making?
3. Can over analyzing a situation be a positive and a negative? If so, how?
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CHALLENGE: MAJOR QUESTIONS
7.1 How do people know when they’re being logical or illogical?

Being logical or not all depends on rationality. The four steps in making a rational
decision are as follows: (1) identify the problem or opportunity, (2) think up
alternative solutions, (3) evaluate alternatives and select a solution, and (4)
implement and evaluate the solution chosen. If someone is just considering
alternatives until they find one that is satisfactory but not optimal, he is satisficing.
This may not be logical. Another illogical method may be to always use intuition,
which is making decisions without the use of conscious thought or logical
inference.
7.2 What guidelines can I follow to be sure that decisions I make are not just
lawful but ethical?
You can make sure that your decisions are both ethical and legal by using an
ethical decision tree, such as the one presented in Figure 7.3. The first question
you should ask yourself is if the action you are considering is legal. If the answer
is no, then it is not an action you should take. If the action is legal, you must
consider if it maximizes shareholder value by fostering a more favorable financial
position for the organization. If it does maximize shareholder value, you have to
next consider if the action is ethical. In this step, you must weigh the effect on
customers, employees, the community, the environment, and suppliers against
the benefit to the shareholders. If based on this analysis you believe the action is
ethical, you can take the action. If, however, you do not believe the action is
ethical, you should not take it. Even if in Step 2 you determined that the action
does not maximize shareholder value, you still need to further consider if you
should take the action. You must now ask yourself if it would be ethical not to
take the action. Here you must weigh the harm or cost that would be imposed on
shareholders against the costs or benefits to other stakeholders. If costs to other
constituents exceed the cost to the firm’s shareholders, the action should be
taken, but the effect of the action should be disclosed to the shareholders. Only if
the costs to the shareholders outweigh the costs against other stakeholders
should the action not be taken.
7.3 How can I improve my decision making using evidence-based management
and business analytics?
Evidence-based management has seven implementation principles that you
should follow to improve your decision making: 1) Treat your organization as an
unfinished prototype; 2) Don’t brag; 3) See yourself and your organization as
outsiders do; 4) Evidence-based management should be used by everyone, not
just top management; 5) You still need to sell it; 6) If all else fails, slow the
spread of bad practice; and 7) Consider what happens when people fail.
Business analytics is the term used for sophisticated forms of business data
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analysis. Big Data can be used to track and analyze consumer behavior, improve
personnel decisions, aid public policy, and to help farmers, hospitals, doctors,
and governments make better decisions.
7.4 How do I decide to decide?
Making a decision starts with choosing a decision-making style. A decision-
making style reflects the combination of how an individual perceives and
responds to information. Each decision-making style is based on two dimensions:
value orientation and tolerance for ambiguity. Once you decide which level of
each is acceptable to you, you can choose from one of the four decision-making
styles: analytical, directive, conceptual or behavioral.
7.5 Trying to be rational isn’t always easy. What are the barriers?
In order to be rational, you must first “decide to decide” rather than use an
ineffective reaction such as relaxed avoidance, relaxed change, defensive
avoidance or panic. Whether or not you decide to have an effective response to a
problem will be based on if you believe the situation is important, you have
credible information about the situation, and you believe that you must act with
urgency. Even if you want to be rational, there are nine decision-making biases
that can impact the quality of your decision making. These biases include: (1)
availability, (2) representativeness, (3) confirmation, (4) sunk cost, (5) anchoring
and adjustment, (6) overconfidence, (7) hindsight, (8) framing, and (9) escalation
of commitment.
7.6 How do I work with others to make things happen?
Group decision making provides many advantages and is important in today’s
day and age. To effectively use group decision making, you need to avoid
groupthink by allowing criticism and fostering other perspectives. Group decision
making usually requires groups to reach consensus, whereby everyone is willing
to work toward the decision’s success. You can use brainstorming, the Delphi
technique, or computer-aided decision making to harness the power of group
problem solving.
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MANAGEMENT IN ACTION: How Did Decision Making

Contribute to Volkswagen's Emissions Cheating Scandal?
1. What are the major causes of Volkswagon's emissions cheating scandal?

Preliminary investigations suggest that a purposeful effort to deceive was the root
cause of the Volkswagen scandal. The organization purposefully decided to use
defective parts because it could not meet U.S. emissions standards. The
organizational culture and structure also contributed to the scandal. Decision
making was too centralized, and the top-down approach slowed the ability for
leadership to figure out when things were going wrong.
2. Do you think the causes of the "cheat" were more intuitive and
unconscious or analytical and conscious? Explain.
It seems as if the causes were more analytical and conscious. The company
knew it had to meet tough U.S. emissions standards and that it was not meeting
them with its technology, but produced these cars anyway because it was too
focused on growth. Even more important, the company came up with “defeat”
devices that fooled emissions standards. In the test mode, the cars are fully
compliant with all federal emissions levels. But when driving normally, the
computer switches to a separate mode—significantly changing the fuel pressure,
injection timing, exhaust-gas recirculation, and in models with AdBlue, the
amount of urea fluid sprayed into the exhaust. While this mode likely delivers
higher mileage and power, it also permits heavier nitrogen-oxide emissions
(NOx)—a smog-forming pollutant linked to lung cancer—that are up to 40 times
higher than the federal limit. This was deliberate and analytical.
3. Do you think it is ethical for VW to offer amnesty for only employees

covered by a collective bargaining agreement? What about the other
employees? How will this decision affect employees coming forward?
It does not seem ethical or equitable for VW to only offer amnesty for those
covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Whether or not an employee is
protected by such an agreement should not affect the outcome of what they did
while on the job. Either all employees should be protected, or none of them
should be. Going forward, employees will most likely refuse to work unless they
are protected by a collective bargaining agreement. Why would an employee
want to risk being held responsible for decision-making consequences when he
or she can fall under the umbrella of a collective bargaining agreement in the
future?
4. Do you see any evidence that the decision-making styles of Mr. Winterkorn,
Mr. Müller, or Mr. Horn contributed to the scandal?
First, Winterkorn set goals that may have been too difficult to accomplish. Many
times this leads to unethical, and possibly illegal, behavior by employees in order
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to meet these very challenging goals. Sometimes these types of executive

expectations can also lead to deception, which is what happened with some of
the engineers purposefully lowering fuel consumption by mixing motor oil with
diesel and also overinflating tires. For his part, Müller contributed unethical and
unequitable behavior that followed the scandal by not protecting employees who
were not unionized (part of a collective bargaining agreement). This may have
stopped many employees from coming forward with important information.
Finally, Horn simply blamed software engineers for the issue, but as the person
in charge of U.S. operations, he needs to take responsibility for his actions as
well (though in the end he was forced to resign).
5. What type of decision-making style would be most effective at helping to

resolve the scandal? Provide your rationale.
Directive and analytical may work best here. People with a directive style have a
low tolerance for ambiguity and are oriented toward task and technical concerns
in making decisions. They are efficient, logical, practical, and systematic in their
approach to solving problems. Managers with an analytical style have a much
higher tolerance for ambiguity and are characterized by the tendency to
overanalyze a situation. People with this style like to consider more information
and alternatives than those following the directive style. In this situation, things
need to be done right and done right quickly. Tolerance for ambiguity is limited
and the focus needs to be on action. However, because there should be a focus
on the long-run and careful decision making, an analytical style may also be
important. This is especially true because you need a technical fix that will meet
U.S. standards, and to find a way to repair all these faulty automobiles as well.
Nevertheless, students may choose conceptual and behavioral if they can
provide logical rationales to support their conclusions.
6. Which of the common decision-making biases played a role in how this

case unfolded?
The confirmation bias is when people seek information to support their point of
view and discount data that do not. Here, based on Winterkorn’s challenging
goals, engineers seemed to discount information pointing toward not meeting
U.S. emissions standards and just utilized information on fuel efficiency. The
representativeness bias is the tendency to generalize from a small sample or a
single event. After the scandal, VW believes that this was a small circle of
people, not an overall organizational issue.
7. What is your biggest takeway from reading this case?

Students should understand how VW’s decision making, especially intentional
decisions, led to such an enormous scandal. The decision-making process was
faulty from the beginning, and the cover up was even worse. Students should
understand how ethics intersects with decision making, and how biases can
affect both the causes and outcomes of decision making.
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LEGAL/ETHICAL CHALLENGE
.
Should Apple Comply with the U.S. Government's Requests to Unlock iPhones?
After a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California that killed 14 people, the FBI
demanded that Apple assist its investigators in unlocking one of the killer’s iPhone.
Apple refused to comply, providing only what was stored on its cloud service. Apple
feared that such special assistance would require creating a master key that could be
used to unlock any person’s iPhone in the future and risk security breaches for iPhone
users’ phones by hackers. A third-party was able to assist the FBI in the end, but the
issue remains with many more locked smartphones and devices in the government’s
possession that they still want Apple to unlock.
Where do you stand on this issue?
SOLVING THE CHALLENGE
1. I think national security is more important than privacy. After all, we are
talking about unlocking the phones of criminals. Technology firms need to
be forced to comply with government officials' requests to unblock
encrypted devices.
Though unlocking the phones of criminals is important, especially with a court
order, what if unlocking one phone could lead to all users to have their
information at risk? This includes criminals and noncriminals. Based on the way
encryption works, if one phone’s encryption is broken, it creates the ability for all
users to have their phones compromised because there is a gap in the
encryption. Before demanding that one phone be unlocked, even if it rightfully
should, we should examine the effects on the greater population.
2. Although our data and privacy need to be protected, I think Apple and other
technology companies should be forced to comply only when the case
involves terrorism. Encrypted devices should not be unlocked for other
criminal activities.
Categorization of crimes is always difficult. Though terrorism is one of the
ultimate “high crimes,” it does not mean that privacy rights should not be
protected. The U.S. Constitution affords rights to all citizens notwithstanding the
type of crime. Overall, the needs of law enforcement in protecting our nation
should be weighed against fundamental rights to privacy. Though the level of the
crime and the ability to stop future crimes is important in this comparison, it is
one of many considerations and should not be the sole element of examination.
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3. The privacy of our data and phone contents need to be protected. I am not
in favor of forcing Apple or any technology firm to unblock encrypted
devices.
There is an argument to be made that if breaking the encryption to one device
will put all devices at risk, we should be very cautious in deciding to break that
one device, no matter what it will provide law enforcement. However, we must
also understand that technology is creating new challenges for law enforcement,
and we need to assist them to the extent possible without putting society at-large
in harm’s way.
4. Invent other options.
The FBI came up with another option in the Apple case, which was to use a third-
party. There is not much information available on what exactly that third-party
did, but if the entity was able to hack into this one device without putting the
encryption of all devices in danger, it should be something that Apple and other
technology companies take note of so that they can possibly assist law
enforcement with the current phones in the Justice Department’s possession, as
well as providing assistance in future cases.
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TEXTBOOK EXAMPLES
EXAMPLE: Crisis Leading to the Strategic-Management Process: Starbucks

Reclaims Its Soul
Shortly after CEO Howard Schultz stepped down from Starbucks in 2000 the
company “lost a certain soul” and the stocks nosedived. Schultz returned as CEO in
2008 and reorganized the company by closing 800 stores, laying off 4,000
employees and letting go of most top executives. After a couple of years, the
company turned around, the result of better operations, modernized technology, a
reinvigorated staff, and several innovations.
YOUR CALL
Thus, despite the innovation in products, attempts to rekindle the cozy
neighborhood café, and emphasis on positive social values, do you think
another economic downturn could alter the fortunes of Starbucks?
Starbucks continues to increase its prices and has recently started even more
luxurious endeavors, such as rare coffee and alcohol-infused beverages, at
some of its locations. If the economy takes a turn for the worse, Starbucks is in a
prime position to suffer losses because consumers will not be able to afford the
ever-increasingly priced beverages that Starbucks has to offer. Unless the
organization decides on halting price increases, and possibly offer lower-cost
beverages, Starbucks is in a prime position to lose fortunes if there is an
economic downturn.
Additional Activities:
One way to build on this Example is to profile the decision of Starbucks to introduce
a new brand of stores called Starbucks Reserve-only. As profiled in the CNN article
“Starbucks Plans New Upscale Chains,” the new stores will offer premium, small-lot
reserve coffee in more of a café environment than in current Starbucks stores.
Starbucks also announced that it has invested in Princi, an Italian bakery and it
plans to open a chain of Princi bakeries around the world. Consider using the
following discussion questions:
Evaluate the extent to which you believe that introducing the Starbucks Reserve-
only stores is consistent with Starbucks’ desire to “reclaim its soul”?
Given that Starbucks has closed a chain of 23 bakeries which it had bought for a
reported $100 million, do you think it was a wise decision for the firm to invest in
the Princi bakery? Defend your point of view.
Using concepts from Chapter 6, perform a SWOT analysis on Starbucks.
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EXAMPLE: Making a Correct Diagnosis: Does Billionaire Warren Buffet, the

World's Third Richest Man, Invest Like a Girl?
Warren Buffett is the renowned billionaire investor known as the “Oracle of Omaha”
who heads the financial juggernaut Berkshire Hathaway. His investment decisions
are so successful that $1,000 invested with him in 1957 was worth $30 million in
2014. It seems that Buffett and female investors have something in common.
Women trade less often than men, do a lot more research, and tend to base their
investment decisions on considerations other than just numbers. Buffett’s style is
similar. He uses basic arithmetic to analyze annual reports and other company
financial documents, and takes pains to make a correct diagnosis before making a
decision.
YOUR CALL
When preparing to make important decisions—especially financial decisions—
do you spend a lot of time trying to make a correct diagnosis, doing deep
research or do you chase “hot” tips and make snap judgments? How well do
you do when you’re under stress or participating in a group?
Answers here are pretty subjective, but a good mix of both characteristics can
lead to success in all measures of decision making. Taking time to do your
research will assist in making more informed decisions, but sometimes one must
make a quick decision in order to reap benefits.
One way to build on this Example is to have the students read the Forbes article
“How Decision-Making Is Different Between Men and Women and Why It Matters in
Business.” The article features an interview with Therese Huston, author of the book
“How Women Decide: What’s True, What’s Not, and What Strategies Spark the Best
Choices.” You might also ask the students to listen to the Harvard Business Review
IdeaCast “Make Better Decisions.” In this 16-minute audio interview, Therese
Huston offers research-based tips for both men and women on how to make high
quality, defensible decisions. Consider using the following discussion questions:
Describe how women might approach managerial decision making differently
than men.
Describe a time you either experienced or saw a “dogsled problem” at work.
What can organizations do to avoid the “dogsled problem”?
How should decision-making advice for women be different than for men?
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EXAMPLE: Evaluation: The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a Bet-the-Company

Decision
When Boeing was losing business to its European rival Airbus, the company was
wracked by scandals involving Pentagon contracts, and rising fuel costs were
dramatically impacting the commercial airline industry. Boeing management made a
bold decision: It would build a new medium-sized commercial jet, the 787
Dreamliner.
First planned for a summer 2007 launch, the date was revised for 2008. Then the
company began encountering a number of problems. In October 2007, Boeing
announced it would no longer meet its May 2008 target date and was postponing its
first delivery to late fall of that year. It later changed the date to the first quarter of
2009, and then rescheduled it again—to the third quarter of 2009. Finally, the
Dreamliner had its first flight in December 2009 but was not put into service until
October 2011—three years behind schedule.
YOUR CALL
How would you evaluate Boeing’s decisions? Do you think despite all the
effort on the 787-8 that the company will be able to apply what it learned
regarding the use of carbon fiber composite materials and global experiments
with different vendors to the newer Dreamliner versions (787-9, 787-10)? Was
this a risky bet-the-company decision?
Boeing is attempting to correct many of the issues with the 787-8 with the 787-9
(Dash Nine). There was some poor decision making on the 787-8, but that does
not mean that Boeing should not create a better aircraft for the market, if
possible, with the Dash Nine. This may be risky for the organization, but it is the
right thing to do and may mean that the profits from the 787-9 can assist it with
any losses with the 787-8.
One way to build on this Example is to have the students read the Wall Street Journal
article “Boeing Ramps Up Push Into the Airplane Parts Business.” The article profiles
the decision of Boeing to no longer allow its suppliers to sell parts directly to other
airlines. Consider using the following discussion questions:
Using the rational model of decision making, analyze whether it is a good
decision for Boeing to limit the ability of its suppliers to sell parts directly to other
airlines.
Using the material from Chapter 6, perform a Porter’s Five Forces analysis on
the commercial jetliner industry. What are the key factors impacting the
attractiveness of this industry?
Using the material from Chapter 6, perform a SWOT analysis on Boeing.
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EXAMPLE: Evidence-Based Decision Making: “If People Are Your Most

Important Assets, Why Would You Get Rid of Them?”
What are the costs of layoffs? While there are circumstances in which layoffs are
necessary for a firm to survive, companies incur big direct and indirect costs of
layoffs, such as low morale, risk-averse survivors, potential lawsuits, etc. Even
following 9/11, when airlines announced thousands of layoffs, Southwest Airlines
was the exception.
YOUR CALL
Can you think of any instances of people being laid off unnecessarily? What is
your evidence that it was not necessary?
There are many instances of lay-offs being made without financial provocation.
Sometimes these lay-offs have been made so the company can save money and
pay executives more. The Huffington Post has a list of the highest paid CEOs
who laid off the most workers: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/01/ceo-
pay-layoffs_n_701908.html. Some of the evidence that this was not necessary
was the excessive money the CEOs made while laying off workers. For example,
HP’s CEO, Mark Hurd made $24.2 million in 2009 as the company laid off 6,400
workers.
One way to build on this Example is to have the students read the Wired online
article “Forget Stars—Companies Do Best When They Grow Their Own Talent.” This
article profiles how companies would be better served by investing in their own
employees and preparing them for greater opportunities than by hiring “stars” from
other companies since their performance is likely context-specific. Consider using
the following discussion questions:
Discuss how firms could use evidence-based decision making to determine if
hiring “stars” is the best strategy.
Discuss the reasons why “star” women are more effective at shifting from one
employer to another.
Explain why it might be hard for you to prove to other managers that hiring “stars”
is not the best strategy for your company. How could you overcome any
resistance to the idea of no longer hiring “stars”?
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EXAMPLE: Analytics in Athletics: The Personal “Moneyball” Coach

Some professional basketball players have personal trainers and chefs, and now
some even have their own personal statistician. The use of analytics in the NBA
and NFL has increased as teams try and find better indicators of player success.
YOUR CALL
What other, more quantifiable measures might be used instead when hiring
new college graduates?
There are some quantifiable measures already in place, such as GPA, class
rank, and standardized test scores. Organizations can also quantify
accomplishments in class projects, volunteer activities, and the degree of
challenge in course schedules.
One way to build on this Example is to have the students read the HR Magazine
article “Using Algorithms to Build a Better Workforce?” The article profiles how
human resource managers are increasingly using analytics to guide them in
making workforce decisions. Consider using the following discussion questions:
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of companies using analytics to
make employee hiring decisions.
Do you believe that data algorithms produce better hiring results than people
can? Explain your point of view.
Assume you are the HR manager for your company. What recommendations
would you make about to what extent your firm should rely on analytics in
employee hiring decisions?
EXAMPLE: Data, Hacking, & Privacy: Who's Driving My Car?!

This Example profiles the risk of having personal data stolen in this digital age.
Hacking has been a major concern for years, but now even some cars can be
hacked into. With all this, no wonder each case of unauthorized computer access by
hackers trying to steal information or disrupt a firm’s operations on average costs a
U.S. company $3.5 million.
YOUR CALL
As companies begin to monitor their employees’ health and habits, with a view
toward reducing health costs, are you concerned how that information might
be used? For instance, if an employer picks up symptoms of diabetes in you
after you’ve used a retina scanner to enter secure facilities, should you be
informed of that fact, or is that an invasion of privacy? How would you feel if
devices are used to track your presence at, say, union meetings or meetings
with other companies who might recruit you?
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Answers will vary here based on student opinions of privacy and what types of
information they believe employers should or should not know. For example,
though employers should try and reduce healthcare costs, do they have a right to
know about your medical conditions? What if this type of behavior did extend to
union meetings or other prospective employers? This is where students need to
designate where a line may or may not have been crossed with this type of
tracking.
One way to build on this Example is to have the students read the Fortune online
article “Researchers Caused an Uproar By Publishing Data From 70,000 OkCupid
Users.” This article profiles how Danish researchers published data from the online
profiles of nearly 70,000 OkCupid users—including usernames, political leanings, drug
usage, and intimate sexual details. The researchers got the data not by hacking into
the system, but by using data scraping software to collect the public information.
Although the researchers did not release the real names of the OkCupid users, their
identities likely could easily be uncovered from the details provided—such as from the
usernames. Consider using the following discussion questions:
The authors of the research study defended their actions by stating: “All the data
found in the dataset are or were already publicly available, so releasing this
dataset merely presents it in a more useful form.” To what extent do you agree
with the authors? Defend your point of view.
Do stories such as this give you pause about the amount of personal information
that you provide to social media sites? Explain your point of view.
Provide recommendations for academic institutions on the policies they should
have for students and professors conducting researching using social media and
“public” information.
EXAMPLE: Deciding to Decide: How Should a Paper Maker Reinvent Itself?

In 2000, the paper industry was at its height, with 94 million tons of paper and paper-
based packaging being produced. Then the computer revolution and the vogue
phrase “the paperless office” really began to be felt, and the demand for paper
plummeted.
YOUR CALL
With this knowledge in hindsight, how would you have handled O’Connor’s
initial decisions about finding a new direction for the company?
O’Connor made a good decision to move forward and reinvent the use of paper
from commodity to keepsake. The situation was handled using the deciding to
decide effective-based reactions described in the book. Revenues were slipping
and operations shrank, signifying the importance of the matter. The entire paper
industry was suffering, which showed a credible problem. Lastly, the company
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quickly decided to act by borrowing money and moving into the fine stationery
business in order to create a niche. This was the urgency principle.
One way to build on this Example is to have the students read the MassLive article
“Mohawk Fine Papers Up and Running Making Envelopes in South Hadley.” This
article profiles the firm’s continued expansion into new products to offset the decline
of paper sales. Consider using the following discussion questions:
Discuss the factors that likely impacted Mohawk Fine Papers’ “decision to
decide” about entering the envelope industry.
Describe the decision-making biases that could have impacted Mohawk Fine
Papers’ decision to enter the envelope business. How can managers seek to
overcome these biases?
Using content from Chapter 6, perform a SWOT analysis on Mohawk Fine
Papers. Do you support the firm’s decision to enter the envelope business?
Defend your position.
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TEXTBOOK PRACTICAL ACTIONS
PRACTICAL ACTION: Tips for Improving Your Intuition

This Practical Action highlights five tips for improving your intuition, these include 1)
trust your intuitive judgments, 2) seek feedback, 3) test your intuitive success rate, 4)
try visualizing solutions, and 5) challenge your intuition.
YOUR CALL
Which of the five tips might be most helpful in improving your intuition?
Outline a brief action plan for using this tip.
Student responses may vary here based on the value they place on each of the
five tips. No matter which tip is chosen, the student should create a brief action
plan on what he or she intends on doing so that this tip can be utilized.
One way that you could build on this Practical Action is to have the students watch
the Wall Street Journal video “When Data Goes Beyond Intuition.” In this two-minute
video, Hilary Mason, CEO and Founder of Fast Forward Labs, describes how a
business owner discovered customers he had previously overlooked by using
intuition with data. Consider using the following discussion questions:
Contrast the advantages and disadvantages of relying on intuition versus “hard
data.”
Evaluate the extent to which you think companies are beginning to rely too much
on “hard data” when making their strategic decisions.
Discuss how using “hard data” might result in a worse decision than using one’s
intuition.
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PRACTICAL ACTION: How Exceptional Managers Make Decisions

When should you make a decision and when should you delay? Are there guidelines
for making tough choices? Management consultant Odette Pollar suggests some
ways to make decision making easier:
● Decide in a timely fashion.
● Don’t agonize over minor decisions.
● Separate outcome from process.
● Learn when to stop gathering facts.
● When overwhelmed, narrow your choices.
YOUR CALL
What have you found aids you in making decisions?
Student responses will differ here based on past experiences. Some students
may have also found that relaxation and stress relief helps when making
important decisions. Others may have found that focusing on the big picture often
helps decision making and safeguards against indecision. Overall, it is important
for students to accept failure as a possible outcome and not to confuse failure in
outcome with failure in process. This is especially important for leadership and
entrepreneurial careers.
One way that you could build on this Practical Action is to have the students watch
the Harvard Business Review video “How to Make Better Decisions.” In this 10-
minute video, John Beshears and Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School
describe a five-step process for mitigating the effects of cognitive biases and low
motivation for decision making. The video also effectively summarizes key concepts
from the chapter. Consider using the following discussion questions:
Describe situations where it would be appropriate for you as a manager to trigger
System 1 thinking in your employees versus System 2 thinking.
Describe the types of underlying causes of poor decision making.
Describe how you could test a proposed solution to determine whether it will
accomplish its objectives and discuss why this is an important step in the
decision-making process.
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SELF-ASSESSMENTS
SELF-ASSESSMENT 7.1
Assessing Your Problem-Solving Potential
This survey is designed to assess students’ approach to problem solving.
Student Questions:
1. What is the status of your problem-solving skills? Are you surprised by the
results?
Student responses will differ based on assessment results. Many students
will be surprised to see that their current approach to problem solving may
not be as effective as they had thought. Others will be more assured that
they are on the right track.
2. Based on identifying the four lowest scored items on the assessment, what
can you do to improve your problem-solving skills? Explain.
Generally, individuals should consider long-term consequences associated
with implementing solutions, generate multiple outcomes when dealing with a
work problem and implement solutions in a timely and effective manner, with
a follow-up planned.
3. Reflect on a recent decision you made that did not turn out to your
satisfaction. Now, consider what you learned about the rational model and
your problem-solving skills and think through the decision for a second time.
What would you do differently based on these considerations?
Students should implement actual steps from the rational model and apply
them to their recent decision. They can then state which step or steps they
need to work on.
Supplemental Activity:
1) Students can be divided into groups based on their scores on the assessment.
The groups can review the scenario below.
Parker and Melissa are managers at Telenet Solutions. Parker has noticed that
Melissa’s team submits its earnings reports in an ambiguous way and seems to
not properly portray revenues. This leads to a bonus for the team every quarter,
but a loss for the company. Parker decides to call a meeting with upper
management and Melissa to discuss this situation.
If you were the CEO of Telenet Solutions, what would you do at the meeting?
2) Each group is to write a one-two paragraph speech that the CEO is to give to the
company’s employees that discusses the ethical dilemma presented. The three-
step approach should be utilized in this speech.
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3) The class should discuss as a whole based on each group’s scores on the
assessment. Did the scores affect the type of speech given?
SELF-ASSESSMENT 7.2
Assessing Your Level of Intuition
This survey is designed to assess the extent students use intuition in their current
jobs.
Student Questions:
1. Are you intuitive at work? Did the results surprise you?
Student responses will differ based on assessment results. Many students will
be surprised to see their high or low levels of intuition at work.
2. What can you do to increase the amount of intuition you use at work?
There are different general ways to increase intuition. Students can
sometimes go without a plan and/or circumventing regular habits. Though we
teach proper planning, it does not mean that everything and every day has to
be planned. For example, believe it or not, daydreaming at work is a sign of
good intuition!
3. What factors are inhibiting your use of intuition? What if anything can be done
to eliminate these hindrances?
Students should build on their response to Question 2. Possible inhibitions at
work can be micromanagement by one’s boss and/or a bureaucratic work
environment.
1) Students should be put into groups based on their Self-Assessment scores with
high scorers in the same group and low scorers in the same group.
2) High scorers should review the cons of intuition and brainstorm examples of
these cons in the workplace. Some questions:
a) What can happen if you base too much on intuition?
b) What types of decisions is intuition best for?
3) Low scorers should do the same for the pros of intuition. Some questions:
a) What are some of the benefits of intuition?
b) How can one better his or her intuition-based decision making?
4) The groups should then reveal their examples/thoughts to the class as a whole,
and the instructor can lead discussion.
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SELF-ASSESSMENT 7.3
What Is Your Decision-Making Style?
This survey is designed to assess students’ decision-making style.
Student Questions:
1. What is your dominant decision-making style?
Student responses will differ based on assessment results. Students will
either exhibit directive, analytical, conceptual, or behavioral decision-making
styles.
2. What are the pros and cons of your style?
Directive: People with this style are action oriented and decisive and like to
focus on facts. In their pursuit of speed and results, however, these
individuals tend to be autocratic, to exercise power and control, and to focus
on the short run.
Analytical: Analytic individuals are careful decision makers who take longer
to make decisions but who also respond well to new or uncertain situations.
Conceptual: They are willing to take risks and are good at finding creative
solutions to problems. However, a conceptual style can foster an indecisive
approach to decision making.
Behavioral: Although they like to hold meetings, people with this style have a
tendency to avoid conflict and to be concerned about others. This can lead
behavioral types to adopt a wishy-washy approach to decision making and to
have a hard time saying no.
3. Based on your results, what are some things you can do to incorporate
aspects of your less-dominant styles into your decision making? Explain.
Students should review the pros of some of the other decision-making styles
(can be found in response to Question 2 above). These can be incorporated
into their main decision-making style.
1) Students should be put into groups in order to review this scenario:
Jerry is a manager at FTG Corporation. Jerry likes to gather all the information
he possibly can in a situation before making a decision. He attempts to get
feedback from his subordinates and receive their buy-in before proceeding with
a decision. Though he follows this process, Jerry likes to make decisions as
rapidly as possible. He is creative and social, but enjoys rules to keep staff
disciplined.
2) After reviewing the scenario above, students should decide which decision-
making style Jerry has, and why.
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3) Groups should then discuss with the class, with the instructor leading the
discussion.
4) Which decision making style is “best” and why?
SELF-ASSESSMENT 7.4
Assessing Groupthink
The following survey was designed to assess groupthink.
Student Questions:
1. Where does the team stand on the three aspects of groupthink?
Student responses will differ.
2. Based on your survey scores, what would you do differently to reduce
groupthink in the group you evaluated? Be specific.
Student responses will differ, but should be based on the symptoms of
groupthink described in Section 7.6
The following questions can be asked of students during class discussion as a
supplemental activity:
1) Have students ever been in a situation that involved groupthink?
a. If so, what was the result?
2) How can groupthink create challenges for organizations?
3) How would students overcome groupthink?
a. If students have encountered groupthink, and overcome it, an example can
be provided.
b. If students have not encountered groupthink, a hypothetical situation can
be considered.
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SELF-ASSESSMENT 7.5
Assessing Participation in Group Decision Making
The following survey measures minority dissent, participation in group decision
making, and satisfaction with a group.
Student Questions:
1. What is the level of minority dissent in the group, and to what extent are you
satisfied with being a member of this group?
Student responses will differ based on assessment results. It is important that
students focus on their results for items 1 through 5 in order to answer this
question.
2. Use the three lowest items that measure minority dissent to answer the following
question: What can you do to increase the level of minority dissent in this group?
In order to improve the level of minority dissent, groups should allow for more
disagreement between members, with the caveat of actually thinking critically
about the matter and not going with the first result provided.
3. Why do you think many groups muzzle the level of minority dissent?
By bypassing the minority, decisions can be made more quickly. Time does not
have to be used to discuss the matter and introduce multiple points of view.
Groups also will not have to “stress” by debating different ideas.
1) Students should be put into groups based on their Self-Assessment scores.
Each group should have a good mix of students.
2) Students should discuss experiences they have had on groups in the past, and
how much minority dissent took place. Some questions:
a) Did minority dissent assist the group?
b) If there was no minority dissent, did it have a detrimental effect on the group?
3) Groups can then share the examples with the class.
4) How can students increase the level of minority dissent and participation in
groups? Is there a certain level of minority dissent that will impede efficient
group decision making?
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GROUP EXERCISES
Group Exercise #1: Trying to Solve an “Electric” Problem in

Managerial Planning
Objectives
● To assess a specific problem where planning is required.
● To arrive at a mutual and effective solution as a group, taking into consideration
different perspectives and different goals.
Introduction
Increasingly problems are being solved by groups of people, each with a different stake
in the outcome. However, for a company to achieve its goals successfully, these
problems must be solved without alienating members of the group.
Scenario
The company, a large processing center operating in a highly bureaucratic fashion, was
experiencing challenging problems in a major division of its operations. Fifteen months
earlier, when an electrical storm caused loss of power in one company building, five of
the seven members of the night-shift service staff reported strange sensations
emanating from their computer terminals causing tingling in their hands. In the following
days, other staff members reported similar sensations, as well as numbness,
headaches, and nausea. Two weeks later there were almost 100 reports of such
“electrical shocks.” Union representatives requested immediate action on the problems.
The issues of workplace health and safety at the company became a hot topic in the
local media. Various health and government agencies began to investigate.
Reports of the shocks continued sporadically for the next nine months, then began to
rise significantly. During a 10-week period, there were more than 150 reports, many
from people working in other parts of the company. The ensuing uproar produced a
walkout lasting three days, costing the company an estimated $1 million in lost revenue.
The problem didn’t seem to be solvable simply by top managers’ exercising their
authority and dictating a solution. What could be done to get the company back on the
right track?
Instructions
The class should divide into groups of seven people each. Within each group, each
person should assume one of the roles described below. Take turns discussing the
case from each of the seven perspectives, with each person staying within his or her
role, until your group has solved the problem by consensus. The goal of the group is to
arrive at a solution that will get the company moving efficiently and effectively again.
Roles: The Perspectives of the Positions Involved
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1. Senior management. “We don’t need this problem. We have to restore normal
levels of control and efficiency, based on measured results.”
2. The ergonomists. “There are some routine ergonomic problems that can be
improved through the physical redesign of equipment. But there is no evidence of
major health and safety problems.”
3. Labor leaders. “This mess has got to be cleared up. The health and safety features
are critical. Management has to take action, but we don’t trust them. We are strong
and can apply a lot of pressure if necessary.”
4. The politicians. “We don’t want more media coverage on this one and more
charges of mismanagement that consume our time. We don’t want the unions asking
us to solve their problems.”
5. The service staff. “We’re working with a poor system. We don’t want the strain and
stress. Management has to sort the situation out. More stress breaks. Safer
equipment. Find the ‘techies’ that are ‘zapping us.’”
6. The human resources people. “The problem rests with the stressful nature of the
work itself. We need to redesign the work process. We also need to deal with the
collective stress phenomenon that’s emerged.”
7. Line managers. “The situation has changed on us. We’re held accountable, but we
don’t have the power to deliver. We need to get better informed and to learn new
skills for managing in a turbulent world.”
Questions for Discussion
1. How did your group resolve the situation? Explain.
2. To what extent did your decision-making process represent a rational or
nonrational approach? Explain.
3. How difficult do you think it is it for people to see each other’s perspectives when
solving problems? Explain.
4. How would you manage people who are in conflict about a situation such as the
one presented above? Describe.
Written by Anne C. Cowden, PhD; adapted from a case in Gareth Morgan,

Imaginization: The Art of Creative Management (Newbury Park, CA.: Sage, 1993),
Chapter 5.
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Group Exercise #2: Ethical Decision Making

Objectives
● To look at the stages in practical decision making.
● To gain practice in ethical decision making.
Introduction
In this chapter you learned there are four stages in making practical decisions. The third
stage involves evaluating alternatives and selecting a solution. Part of this evaluation
entails deciding whether the solution is ethical. The purpose of this exercise is to
examine the stages in practical decision making and consider the issue of ethical
decision making.
Instructions
Break into groups of five or six people and read the following case. As a group, discuss
the decision made by the company and answer the questions for discussion at the end
of the case. Before answering questions 5 and 6, brainstorm alternative decisions the
managers at TELECOMPROS could have made. Finally, the entire class can reconvene
and discuss the alternative solutions that were generated.
The Case
For large cellular service providers, maintaining their own customer service call center
can be very expensive. Many have found they can save money by outsourcing their
customer service calls to outside companies.
TELECOMPROS is one such company. It specializes in cellphone customer service,
saving large cellular companies money by eliminating overhead costs associated with
building a call center, installing additional telephone lines, and so on. Once
TELECOMPROS is hired by large cellular service providers, TELECOMPROS
employees are trained on the cellular service providers’ systems, policies, and
procedures. TELECOMPROS derives its income from charging a per-hour fee for each
employee.
Six months ago, TELECOMPROS acquired a contract with Cell2U, a large cellular
service provider serving the western United States. At the beginning of the contract,
Cell2U was very pleased. As a call center, TELECOMPROS has a computer system in
place that monitors the number of calls the center receives and how quickly the calls are
answered. When Cell2U received its first report, the system showed that
TELECOMPROS was a very productive call center and handled the call volume very
well. A month later, however, Cell2U launched a nationwide marketing campaign.
Suddenly, the call volume increased and TELECOMPROS customer service reps were
unable to keep up. The phone-monitoring system showed that some customers were on
hold for 45 minutes or longer, and at any given time throughout the day there were as
many as 50 customers on hold. It was clear to Cell2U that the original number of
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customer service reps they had contracted for was not enough. They renegotiated with
upper management at TELECOMPROS and hired additional customer service reps.
TELECOMPROS managers were pleased because they were now receiving more
money from Cell2U for the extra employees, and Cell2U was happy because the call
center volume was no longer overwhelming and its customers were happy with the
attentive customer service.
Three months later, though, TELECOMPROS customer service supervisors noticed a
decrease in the number of customer service calls. It seemed that the reps had done
such a good job that Cell2U customers had fewer problems. There were too many
people and not enough calls; with little to do, some reps were playing computer games
or surfing the Internet while waiting for calls to come in.
Knowing that if Cell2U analyzed its customer service needs it would want to decrease
the number of reps to save money, TELECOMPROS upper management made a
decision. Rather than decrease its staff and lose the hourly pay from Cell2U, upper
management told customer service supervisors to call the customer service line.
Supervisors called in and spent enough time on the phone with reps to ensure that the
computer registered the call and the time it took to “resolve” the call. They would then
hang up and call the call center again. Thus, TELECOMPROS did not have to decrease
its customer service reps, and Cell2U continued to pay for the allotted reps until the end
of the contract.
1. Was the decision made by TELECOMPROS an ethical one? Why or why not?
2. What stages in the Practical Decision-Making Process did TELECOMPROS
managers skip? Describe and explain.
3. Which of the nonrational models of decision making did managers at
TELECOMPROS follow? Explain.
4. Which of the hindrances to rational decision making listed in Figure 7.3 explain
the decision made by TELECOMPROS managers? Explain.
5. What is your recommended solution? Explain why you selected this alternative.
6. How would you implement your preferred solution? Describe in detail.
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Group Exercise #3: Your Preferred Decision-Making Style

Objectives
● To assess your knowledge of decision making.
● To give students an opportunity to further explore their decision-making style
through analyzing its strengths and weaknesses.
Introduction
The goal of this exercise is to consider the pros and cons of different decision-making
styles. Although there is no generic “best style,” the different styles can lead to conflict
and disagreement when people solve problems in a group setting.
Instructions
1. Complete the “What Is Your Decision-Making Style” self-assessment. Once
complete, determine your decision-making style (directive, analytical, conceptual, or
behavioral).
2. Break into groups by decision-making style.
3. Answer the discussion questions.
4. Brainstorm strengths and weaknesses of your decision-making style.
5. Reconvene as a class to share and discuss observations.
6. Break into mixed groups.
7. Using previous class discussion and the Decision-Making Styles Matrix below,
brainstorm in groups to determine “what drives you crazy” about other decision
makers and “things you admire about” other decision makers.
8. Share your observations with the class.
1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your decision-making style?
2. How might you interact with someone with a style different from yours?
3. Do you identify with any of the other decision-making styles? Which one(s)?
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Decision-Making Styles Matrix
Directive Analytical Conceptual Behavioral

Decision Decision Decision Decision
Makers Makers Makers Makers
Things that
drive you
crazy about
Things you
admire
about
Source: A. Johnson and A. Kinicki, Group and Video Resource Manual: An Instructor’s
Guide to an Active Classroom, 2006, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York, NY, p. 217
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Group Exercise #4: Stranded in the Desert: An Exercise in Decision

Making
Objectives
● To determine the effectiveness of individual versus group decision making.
Introduction
The goal of this exercise is to examine effective group decision making. In this exercise,
students work individually and in groups to decide which gear is essential to surviving a
week in the desert.
Instructions
1. Give a brief lecture on group decision making. Distribute a copy of the “Stranded in
the Desert” scenario and the “pack item ranking sheet.”
2. Ask students to individually read the scenario and complete the “pack item ranking
sheet.”
3. Break students into groups of five and review the following rules:
● Present your position, but listen carefully and weigh others’ positions as well.
● Avoid changing your mind just to reach consensus.
● Don’t flip a coin, use majority rule, or bargaining.
● Make sure everyone has a say.
4. Groups have 10 minutes to reach a consensus on each pack item’s importance to
survival.
5. Using the “Pack Item Ranking Sheet,” each group member then computes the
difference between his or her ranking of each item and the group ranking. Individuals
record this number in the column marked “influence.” This number represents the
extent the individual influenced his or her group to his or her way of thinking. The
lower the number, the more influence the individual had in the group decision
making. Individuals compare this number to the other group members. Compute an
average group influence score.
Example influence score:
Subtract the group ranking from the individual ranking.
My ranking for flashlight: 8
Group ranking for flashlight: 4
Difference/influence score: 4
Avoid using positive/negative numbers; use the absolute value.
My ranking for denim jacket: 3
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Group ranking for denim jacket: 10

Difference/influence score: 7
6. Reconvene as a class for discussion. Record the list of pack items on the
blackboard/whiteboard, flipchart, or overhead. Ask each group for its ranking for
each of the items.
1. Which items did the class rank as most important?
2. How many of you were frustrated by your influence attempts? What did you learn
about influencing others?
3. Based on the influence scores, did your group make an effective decision?
4. Which group members had the most influence on your group’s decisions? Why?
5. Give the students the following research information:
● Groups were often less effective than individuals.
● Groups were more confident about their judgments than individuals.
● Group size affected decision outcomes—the larger the group the poorer the
decision quality.
● Decision-making accuracy was higher when (a) groups knew a great deal about
the issues and (b) group leaders possessed the ability to effectively evaluate the
group members’ opinions and judgments.
● The composition of a group affects its decision-making processes and ultimate
performance.
6. Were these research results reflected in your group’s decision making?
Stranded in the Desert

You and your four friends decide it would be fun to spend a nice spring weekend hiking
in the Sonoran Desert. Excitement is high as all five of you squeeze into your Jeep and
head for the wilderness. As you drive, you enjoy looking for wildlife and trying to identify
types of cacti. Several hours have gone by when the road suddenly ends. A recent
storm washed it away and even with the Jeep’s four-wheel drive you can’t cross. One of
your friends points to a rocky hill just on the other side of the road and suggests a hike
to “survey the terrain” and find a good place to camp. You don’t want to haul all of your
gear until you find a spot to camp and so you will leave it in the Jeep. You hike about a
mile until you find a nice flat spot on the side of the hill. When you return to where you
parked your Jeep, you find only tire tracks and a few scattered items which used to be
in your packs. You and your friends discuss your situation. You estimate you drove the
Jeep 30 miles before the terrain was too rough for it to go any further. The desert
reaches a high of at least 90° during the day in late spring and drops to 50° at night.
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You realize no one from home knows where you are and you have no cellphone
reception. You and your friends estimate it will take four or five days to walk to the
highway, taking into consideration time to sleep and to take breaks. The terrain is also
very rough heading back and doesn’t flatten out until you near the highway. You decide
your best option is to start walking right away, considering it’s almost nighttime and you
don’t have any sleeping bags or blankets. One of your friends gathers the scattered
gear and lays it out in front of you. You have:
● A flashlight
● A Swiss Army knife
● One canteen filled with water
● A denim jacket with a pack of cheese and peanut butter crackers in the pocket
● Three dented cans of soda
● A ½ gallon of whiskey
● Approximately 8 feet of nylon rope
● A water purification kit
● A compass
● A cellphone with one bar of power
Pack Item Ranking Sheet

Instructions:
1. Individually rank the remaining pack items from 10 (most important to survival) to
1 (least important to survival). Record these rankings in the “individual ranking”
column.
2. As a group, rank the remaining pack items from 10 (most important to survival) to
1 (least important to survival). Record these rankings in the “group ranking”
column.
3. Compute the difference between your individual ranking and the group ranking
and record this number in the “influence” column.
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Pack items Individual ranking Group ranking Influence
Flashlight
Swiss Army knife
Canteen
Denim jacket
Soda
Whiskey
Nylon rope
Water purification kit
Matches
Compass
Cellphone
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MANAGER’S HOT SEAT
Students may complete the “Privacy: Burned by the Firewall?” Manager’s Hot Seat
exercises in Connect for this chapter.
I. Introduction
The interaction in this scenario lends itself to a rich discussion of the role of
Human Resources and their interaction with line management. Issues related to
email privacy and appropriate disciplinary actions given certain situations are
brought to the forefront. For those seeking careers in HR, this scenario provides
an example of what not to do to be a strategic business partner.
II. Learning Objectives
1. To assess students’ understanding of issues with company property use and the
appropriate disciplinary process when company policies are violated.
2. To analyze the role of HR in enforcing company policies.
III. Scenario Description:
Overview: An employee, Willy Kushing, has been put on administrative leave by

the HR department for misuse of company property [internet service and
telephone]. His Manager is just returning from vacation and had no prior notice
that Willy would be put on leave. The Manager goes to meet with HR to find out
what has happened.
Profile:
 Lynn Couchara is the Director of Distribution for Bank Street Films, a film
distribution house. Lynn manages a team of 30 people and is responsible
for the film distribution in 40 states, distributing over 75 films per year.
 Janet Pierce is the Director of Human Resources and has been working
with Bank Street Films for eight years and was promoted to Director five
years ago. Since becoming Director, Janet has restructured her
department and revamped many policies at the company. Janet has
known Lynn since she hired her six years ago. Janet was not involved in
the hiring of William Kushing.
References: The references included in the DVD are:

 EPolicy Do’s and Don’ts (PPT 4-3 to 4-6)
 The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (PPT 4-8)
 2003 E-Mail Rules, Policies and Practices Survey (PPT 4-10)
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Back History: Willy Kushing has been working at Bank Street for just over two
years [recruited from Bank Street’s #2 competitor]. He has proven to be a vital
employee for Couchara, handling the largest accounts in the distribution
department as well as being the ‘go-to man’ for many others in the office when
they are in need of advice, support or help.
While Couchara was on her annual two-week vacation, Kushing was called for
an immediate meeting with the head of HR, Janet Pierce. Pierce informed
Kushing that he was being put on administrative leave for misuse of computer
property, effective immediately. HR had reviewed all of his internet and phone
usage, as is their right to do, and found numerous and regular abuses. There
were “constant’ calls being made to Iowa, to a number having no business
relation to Bank Street Films. In addition semi-regular calls have been made to
Gloucester Massachusetts and Schenectady, New York. The internet abuses
consisted of many hours logged on various news and auction sites, that also fall
outside the realm of Bank Street business.
Kushing had explained to HR that he’d been making more personal calls from
work to his mother in Iowa and siblings in Gloucester and Schenectady because
his father has been seriously ill for months, in and out of emergency rooms and
hospitals. He assured them these calls had not interfered with his ability to do his
job and that his performance had been consistent and solid. This information was
deemed to be irrelevant by Pierce, and Kushing was sent to tie up loose ends
and prepare for his leave.
Scene Set-up: Couchara has made an appointment with Pierce to discuss the
Kushing situation.
Scene Location: Pierce’s office, HR department, Bank Street Films, Inc,

Monday 11am
The Meeting - Summary: Lynn Couchara meets with Janet Pierce to discuss the
surprising punitive actions taken against one of her employees, Willy Kushing.
Lynn is very concerned that this action was taken while she was on vacation and
without notifying or discussing the situation with her. She also values Willy’s
contributions very much and notes that he has had no performance issues. Janet
defends her actions based on the company’s policies and says that it was merely
coincidence that this happened when Lynn was on vacation and that she was
very sorry for that. When Lynn tries to suggest that Willy be reinstated, Janet
becomes defensive and then goes on to suggest that Lynn has also misused
company property.
Lynn wants to resolve this issue by having Willy, a key employee, return to work
and suggests going over Janet’s head to the VP of HR if she needs to. The
situation remains unresolved at the end of the scenario.
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Afterthoughts – Summary: Lynn does not think the meeting went well because
the HR Director did not understand her point of view. She notes frustration with
the way the HR enforced the company’s policies absent of management
involvement. Specifically, she is upset that she was not consulted or informed
about the pattern of misuse or the punitive action. She also doesn’t agree that
email or phone use should be entirely forbidden for personal use if it doesn’t
impact productivity or the budget. She plans to go to Janet’s boss with the intent
of explaining her feelings about the way this was handled and to figure out how
to get Willy reinstated.
Dossier: The specific artifacts included in the DVD are:

1. Excerpts from Kushings’ computer/telephone usage report
2. Excerpts from Coucharas’ computer/telephone usage report
3. Company Policy on use of company property
IV. Discussion Questions:
The References and related Discussion Questions may be found in PowerPoint slides
4-1 to 4-10.
Learning Objective #1: To assess students’ understanding of issues with company

property use and the appropriate disciplinary process when company policies are
violated.
1. Lynn is shocked by the action taken by HR and does not feel the violation of
company policy warranted the punitive action that was taken. In the long-term,
what actions does the company need to take to prevent this situation from
occurring in the future (see PPT 4-3 to 4-6)?
Training employees to ensure that they understand the company’s policies

and the penalty for violating them is imperative. Simply signing the
employee handbook is not enough to ensure that company resources are
not wasted on non-business-related matters.
1. Lynn’s key concern should be:

A. HR Protocol
B. Workflow
C. Willy’s wrongdoing
Lynn’s key concern seems to be workflow because she continually

mentions how important Willy is to her department. Therefore, her focus is
to reinstate Willy so that the workflow is not disrupted further. She is
interested in Willy’s wrongdoing to understand why such drastic measures
were taken without her input and to attempt to refute the action on the
basis that it was not warranted.
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2. The ePolicy Do’s and Don’ts suggest that some personal email and internet use
may be tolerated by U.S. companies. What are the pro’s and con’s of this
approach?
Pro’s – don’t have to worry about invasion of privacy when monitoring

electronic systems, less risk of viruses, less use of the system’s resources
because fewer emails and attachments to handle
Con’s – employees who are expected to work long hours do not get the
chance to communicate with friends and family or do occasional “errands”
on-line. This can cause them stress and potential dissatisfaction with the
organization. Employee privacy becomes a concern when monitoring the
system.
2. The concern over phone [and internet] use is:

A. Budgetary
B. Performance related
C. Misuse of property
Janet’s concern over the phone use seems to be that it is in violation of

the policy on the appropriate use of company property. She did not
present any data on the budgetary or performance impact of Willy’s
actions.
3. How do the stipulations provided in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of

1986 (see PPT 4-8) affect your view of personal email and internet use at work?
If companies allow the use of the internet and email for personal reasons,
then the company will likely monitor those communications to prevent
viruses and to detect excessive use or draining of bandwidth, etc.
Therefore, privacy becomes a key concern. However, if companies don’t
allow any personal use of email or the internet, then privacy becomes less
of a concern when monitoring the system, but satisfaction of employees
may suffer.
4. Companies create disciplinary processes to meet their business needs. What is

your reaction to the disciplinary process that occurred in this scenario?
Typically, organizations have a disciplinary process that is gradual and

calls for progressively increasing punitive action unless there is an
extremely grievous act (e.g., possession of a weapon, embezzlement,
etc.). In this case, Willy’s records were being monitored but no action was
taken until his usage of company property “reached a threshold”.
Counseling and warning the employee (the typical first steps in a
progressive discipline process) were skipped. Once the threshold was
passed, serious punitive action was taken. Allowing the employee to
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explain his situation and being sure that he/she understands the
consequences of their actions serves to prevent misuse and retain
valuable employees.
3. What justifies Janet’s decision?

A. Existence of policy
B. Fair warning given
C. Nothing
Technically, the existence of the policy justifies Janet’s decision. In reality,

however, her action not only caused harm to a valuable employee, it also
damaged the relationship with line management whom HR is there to
serve.
Learning Objective #2: To analyze the role of HR in enforcing company policies.
1. Evaluate the actions taken by the HR director in this scenario. What was done
well, poorly?
Janet apologized to Lynn for her actions, but beyond that the HR
Director’s actions did not take into consideration the big picture or the
organization’s business needs. While violating the company policy may
impact the organization’s bottom line, putting the employee on leave
without a fair warning will likely be perceived as unfair to the employee
and cause him to be disgruntled. HR’s role should be to provide advice
and guidance to line management on disciplinary actions – not take them
themselves. Thus, not including Lynn in the decision was a mistake and
will damage Janet’s relationship with Lynn.
4. Why does Janet bring up Lynn’s records?

A. To warn Lynn
B. Enforce the policy
C. Intimidation
Bringing up Lynn’s records was inappropriate in this context. If

there was a valid concern, then Lynn should be counseled about
this issue and given fair warning. Bringing this up to prevent Lynn
from going over Janet’s head is a form of intimidation. This
behavior indicates to Lynn that Janet’s interests are not aligned
with achieving the organization’s goals, but rather are more self-
interested. Janet’s actions will not effectively support line
management in achieving the organization’s goals.
5. Lynn’s next step should be:

A. Meet VP of HR
B. Reinstate Willy herself
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C. Meet Janet again
From the interaction in the scenario, it doesn’t appear that Janet is

willing to work with Lynn to reinstate Willy. Also, the disciplinary
process that was taken and its impact on line management should
probably be communicated to the VP of HR. However, going over
the HR Director’s head may not be appropriate depending on the
organization’s culture. Perhaps Lynn could wait a day and try to
work with Janet again before approaching the VP of HR.
Reinstating Willy herself would make the organization appear
fragmented and to be “stepping on each other’s toes”.
PUBLISHER VIDEOS
The following videos are sponsored by McGraw-Hill Education and can be found on
either the Principles of Management/Organizational Behavior DVD (Volume 1), or at the
Instructor Resources tab on Connect:
Decisions, Decisions
Time: 7:27
Key people and companies
Sheena Iyengar
Jonah Lehrer
Jennifer Lerner
Harvard Decision Science Laboratory
Overview
People have always said the best way to make a decision is to think about it rationally.
However, recent evidence shows the rational brain is incapable of taking in large bits of
information at a time. Instead, it sputters and short circuits, making it difficult to process
and make hard decisions. Science writer Jonah Lehrer says instead of being rational,
use your emotional brain and be spontaneous.
Because the emotional brain has the capability to process lots of information at once
and then wrap it all up into a feeling, it is better to trust your gut. Emotions are
processed in the frontal lobes of the brain. Any damage to those areas can have a
catastrophic impact on a person’s ability to process and make decisions. Without the
emotions, it is impossible to make a decision; however, too much emotion, any emotion,
can also cloud judgement.
Psychologist Jennifer Lerner of the Harvard Decision Science Laboratory has done
extensive research showing that when emotions are in play, it is impossible to make the
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Make Things Happen
rational decisions we think we are making. Her research has shown that based on the
mood of a person she can correctly predict the decisions the person will make. For
example, if a person is angry or even happy, they tend to feel more certain about risky
decisions. Unfortunately, Lerner has been unable to train people to recognize how their
emotions are impacting their decisions in the moment.
Choices further cloud the decision-making process, according Columbia University
professor Sheena Iyengar. She states that we do not have the resources to process a
lot of choices, and we become overwhelmed. Through her research, she has found that
although people tend to flock to more choices, they are 10 times more likely to choose
when there are only a few. Her research shows that when people are bombarded with
decisions, the impact can be so strong that they can get very tired, and their immune
systems can even suffer.
Preparing students before the video:
Ask students if they have ever made a very important decision and what process they
used to make it.
Major issues in the case
● Decision Making
● Reason vs. Emotion
Discussion questions and answers
1. Would you agree with the video that it is easier to choose among just a few
options rather than exploring many?
Answers will vary. Most students will agree that a few choices are best because
too many can overwhelm and end up frustrating the decision maker.
2. Do you think that the theory on using your “gut instincts” is valid? Why or why
not?
Answers will vary. Students may find some validity in the points discussed
regarding the amount of information included in emotional decisions. Most will
agree that emotions can also cloud decisions because they bring in outside
information that may not be relevant to the decision.
3. In business, are there ever times when managers must make very quick
decisions that may not allow for much option analysis? If so, would you suggest
they take the time to do analysis or use their “gut instincts”?
Answers will vary. Yes, there are times when quick decisions must be made. In
these scenarios managers may need to go with their “gut instincts,” which will
hopefully have been formed by previous successful choices.
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Make Things Happen
JCPenney Fires CEO Ron Johnston

Time: 3:05
Key people and companies
JCPenney
Ron Johnson – CEO of JCPenney for previous 17 months
Mike Ullman – CEO of JCPenney before and after Ron Johnson
Overview
In November 2011, Ron Johnson was named CEO of JCPenney following the seven-
year tenure of Mike Ullman. He was brought in with a mandate for change to bring new
life and new customers to the brand. He had been successful with similar efforts at both
Target and Apple; however, he had not been a part of a turnaround before.
Johnson made his decisions based on instinct rather than research. He also made
many changes very quickly, which alienated his established customer base. This
caused the iconic American brand’s stock to drop 50 percent during his tenure.
In April of 2013, after only being on the job for 17 months, he was fired as the CEO of
JCPenney and replaced by his predecessor, Mike Ullman.
The video demonstrates that leaders must consider business environmental factors and
customer needs before making strategic decisions.
Preparing students before the video
Ask students what they know about JCPenney and if they have shopped there. Ask
students to discuss their impression of the company and its image.
Major issues in the case
● Leadership styles
● Business environment
● Strategic decision making
Other discussion questions and answers
1. What could the JCPenney Board have done differently in the selection process of a
new CEO?
Students should realize from the video that Johnson had not experienced a
turnaround effort before coming to JCPenney. If the board had asked more in-depth
questions, perhaps they would have discovered some weak points to Johnson’s
résumé. However, hindsight is always clearer and with the reputation Johnson had
developed at Target and Apple, even outsiders thought he was a great fit for
JCPenney.
2. Why do you think customers rejected JCPenney's new format?
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Students should understand that loyal customers were used to “the sale.” When
Johnson changed to a no sale/lower price policy, customers did not see the same
value in their purchase. Many stores, like Apple, have a set price for their goods.
This was what Johnson had been used to. He didn’t understand that, to the
JCPenney customer, part of the reason they shopped there was the feeling of
getting something for a discounted price.
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Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
He laughed slightly, and then offered his hand in a very friendly
manner. She took it with a reluctance she was rather ashamed of
showing. He was so kind, so agreeable, so anxious to be of use that
there seemed no warrant for the subtle complexity of feeling he had
aroused in her.
XXII
June’s way home to New Cross Street was beset with anxieties.
Much would depend on what she did now. She felt that her whole
life was about to turn on the decision she had to take in a very
difficult matter.
There was no one to guide her, not a soul on whose advice she
might lean. But before she had returned to the threshold of S. Gedge
Antiques she had made a resolve to get immediate possession of
the picture, and to let this Mr. Keller have a look at it. She did not
altogether like him, it was true. But the feeling was irrational; she
must be sensible enough not to let it set her against him without due
cause. For he was a friend whom Providence had unmistakably
thrown in her way, and there was no other to whom she might turn.
William was a broken reed. With all his perception and talent, he
was likely to prove hopeless now that Uncle Si was setting his wits to
work to obtain the picture for himself. William’s devotion to his
master’s interest would be simply fatal to her scheme. For the sake
of them both, June felt she must take a full advantage of the heaven-
sent opportunity provided by this Mr. Keller.
Other decisions, too, would have to be made. As soon as Uncle
Si knew the picture was hers, he would almost certainly carry out his
threat of putting her in the street; at least she was no judge of
character if the event proved otherwise. A means of livelihood must
be sought at once. That afternoon’s experience of Oxford Street had
opened up new vistas, which, however, might lead nowhere. But
even if she could not get employment in a shop Mr. Keller’s offer of
work as an artist’s model at five shillings an hour must not be lightly
put aside.
The first thing to be done, however, was to clinch William’s gift of
the picture once and for all. She made up her mind that it should be
fully consummated before the return of Uncle Si from Newbury.
As soon as William had been given his tea she broached the
subject. But when she asked for possession, there and then, his
crest fell.
“I was still hoping, Miss June,” the simpleton owned, “that you’d
let the dear old master have this lovely thing. It has come to mean so
much to him, you see. I will get another one for you.”
“Not another Van Roon,” said June, sharply.
“No, I’m afraid I couldn’t promise a Van Roon.” A cloud passed
over William’s face. “But I might be able to pick up something quite
good, which perhaps you would come to like as much.”
June shook a disconsolate head.
“I don’t think,” she said, in a slow voice, as she fixed her eyes on
the wall in front of her, “there is another picture in the world I should
value so much as that one. I simply love that picture.”
William was troubled.
“The old master loves it, too.”
“But you gave it me, you know.” June was painfully conscious of
a swift deepening of colour.
The plain fact was not denied.
“You mustn’t think me very hard and grasping if I hold you to the
bargain.”
“No, Miss June. If you insist, of course the picture is yours.”
“To do with just as I like.”
“Why yes, certainly.”
June proceeded to take the bull by the horns. “Very well,” she
said. “After supper, I shall ask you to hand it over to me, and I will put
it in a place of safety.”
William sighed heavily. He seemed almost upon the verge of
tears. June simply loathed the part she was playing. The only
consolation was that she was acting quite as much in his interest as
in her own.
Uncle Si came in shortly before eight. He sat down to supper in
quite a good humour. For once the old man was in high
conversational feather.
It was clear that his mind was still full of the picture. Without
subscribing for one moment to William’s preposterous theory that the
thing was a genuine Van Roon, he had had a further talk on the
matter with his friend, Mr. Thornton, with whom he had travelled
down to Newbury; and, he had arranged with that gentleman to bring
his friend, Monsieur Duponnet, the famous Paris expert who was
now in London, to come and look at it on Thursday afternoon.
Monsieur Duponnet who knew more about Van Roon than anybody
living, and had had several pass through his hands in the last ten
years, would be able to say positively whether William was wrong,
and S. Gedge Antiques was right, or with a devout gesture for which
June longed to pull his ugly nose, vice versâ.
The time had now come for June to show her hand. Very quietly
indeed her bolt was launched. William had given the picture to her.
The old man simply stared at her.
It was clear, however, that his thoughts were running so hard
upon M. Duponnet and the higher potentialities that just at first he
was not able to grasp the significance of June’s bald statement.
So that there should be no doubt about the position June
modestly repeated it.
“Given it to you!” said the old man, a light beginning to break.
“How do you mean—given it to you?”
Calmly, patiently June threw a little more light on the subject. And
while she did so her eyes were fixed with veiled defiance upon the
face of Uncle Si. The thought uppermost in her mind was that he
took it far better than could have been expected. “Given it to you,” he
kept on saying to himself softly. There was no explosion. “Given it to
you,” he kept on. He grew a little green about the gills and that was
all.
At last he turned to William: “Boy, what’s this? Is the girl daft?”
The mildness of tone was astonishing.
William explained as well as he could. It was a lame and halting
performance, and at that moment June was not proud of him. But
she was even less proud of herself. The part she was playing, gloss
it over as one might, was ignoble. And William’s embarrassment was
rather painful to witness. He stammered a good deal, he grew red
and nervous; and all the while the voice of his kind and good master
became more deeply reproachful, and melted finally in a note of real
pathos. “How could you do such a thing?” he said. “Why you know
as well as I do, my boy, that I would have given you anything in
reason for that picture—anything in reason.” And there he sat at his
supper, the very image of outraged benevolence and enthusiasm, a
Christian with a halo!
“Old Serpent” said the fierce eyes that June fixed upon his face.
For a moment it looked as if the old wretch was going to shed tears.
But no, he was content with a mild snuffle and that was all.
XXIII
Bymind
bedtime, when June went to her attic, she had fully made up her
that there must be no half measures now. She feared Uncle
Si more than ever. There was something in that snuffle at the supper
table, in that whine of outraged feeling, in that down-gazing eye
which was far more formidable than any mere outburst of violence.
Here was such a depth of hypocrisy that she had got to look out.
A light was showing under the studio door. June’s knock met with
a prompt invitation to enter. William was affectionately lingering over
a few final touches, which should prove beyond a doubt the
authenticity of this masterpiece.
“Have you got it really clean at last?” said June, trying to speak
lightly, yet not succeeding. Emotional strain could not be so easily
concealed; and—uncomfortable thought—her acting was not so
finished as that of Uncle Si.
“Yes,” said William, with a little thrill of rapture. “And how
wonderful it is!”
June agreed. “Yes, wonderful!” Also with a little thrill of rapture,
yet loathing herself because her tone was so vibrant—Uncle Si was
not to have a walk over after all! “And now if you don’t mind I’ll put it
in a place of safety.”
He flashed one swift glance at her. “But, Miss June, isn’t it quite
safe here?”
“I should just think it wasn’t!” leapt to the tip of her tongue. But
Uncle Si’s masterly snuffle recalled to her mind the value of meiosis.
Thus she had recourse to a gentle “I think I’ll sleep better if I take
care of it myself,” which sounded quite disarming.
With one of his deep sighs which made her feel a perfect beast,
William handed over the picture. “If you only knew, if you could only
guess what pleasure this exquisite thing would give the dear old
master——”
Overcome by a kind of nausea, June fled headlong to the room
next door. She groped for her candle, found and lit it; and then she
proceeded to bury the treasure at the bottom of her trunk. Heaping
and pressing down as many things upon the picture as the trunk
would hold, she locked it carefully, and put the key in her purse.
Then she undressed, knelt and said her prayers; she then blew out
the candle and crept into bed with a stifling sense of disgust,
tempered by grim satisfaction.
XXIV
Next morning
developments.
at the breakfast table, June looked for
To her surprise, however, things went their
accustomed way, except that if anything Uncle Si was a little more
amiable than usual. He made no reference to the Van Roon; but it
was referred to in his manner, inasmuch that he bore bacon and
coffee to his lips with the air of a known good man deeply wounded
in his private feelings. Not a feather of this by-play was lost upon his
niece; and no doubt what was of more importance, it was not lost
upon William. But its impact was very different in the two cases.
While June simply longed to hit the Old Crocodile upon his long and
wicked nose, William seemed hard set to refrain from tears.
About midday, however, while June was in the back kitchen
preparing a meal, Uncle Si came to her.
“Niece,” he said, in the new voice, whose softness June found so
formidable, “you remember the other day I told you to look for a job?”
June nodded.
“Have you got one?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Well, Mrs. R. is coming back on Monday, so the sooner you get
fixed up the better. Your best plan, I think, is to go this afternoon and
have your name put down at a registry office as a cook-general.
Cook-generals earn good money, and they live all found. Your
cooking won’t be the Carlton or the Ritz, of course”—a gleam of
frosty humour played upon that subtle face—“but you seem strong
and willing, and you know how to boil a potato, and no doubt you’ll
improve with experience.”
June was inclined to curtsey. The old wretch plainly felt that he
was giving her a handsome testimonial. But at the back of her mind
was anger and contempt, and it was as much as she could do to
prevent their peeping out.
After dinner, as soon as the table was clear, and the pots
washed, she proceeded to take Uncle Si at his word. She decided to
go out at once and look for a place which, however, except as a last
resort, should not be domestic service. To begin with, she would try
the shops, or perhaps the dressmakers, as her mother always said
she was handy with her needle; or, failing these, she might consider
the exciting proposal of becoming an artist’s model.
Fixing her hat before the crazy looking glass the thought of Mr.
Keller recurred to her mind. Had the day only been Thursday she
could have taken the picture to him there and then, and had his
opinion upon it. Not that such a course would have been altogether
wise. She knew nothing about this new and rather mysterious
acquaintance, beyond the fact that if speech and manner meant
anything he was a gentleman. Certainly, to talk to he was most
agreeable.
Before setting out on her pilgrimage, she had to make up her
mind as to whether it would not be advisable to take the Van Roon
with her, and put it in a place of safety. So long as it remained under
that roof it was in jeopardy. Uncle Si was not to be trusted an inch.
The fact, however, that she had nowhere to take the treasure
decided her finally to let it stay where it was until the next day.
Anyway, it was under lock and key. That was something to be
thankful for; yet as she came downstairs and passed through the
shop into New Cross Street, drawing on her neat black gloves with a
sinking heart, instinct told her that she was taking a grave risk in
leaving the picture behind.
No, S. Gedge Antiques was not to be trusted for a moment. Of
that she was quite sure. By the time she had gone twenty yards
along the street this feeling of insecurity took such a hold upon her
that she stopped abruptly, and faced about. To go back? Or not to go
back? Indecision was unlike her, but never was it so hard to make up
her mind. Could it be that Uncle Si was as wicked as she thought?
Perhaps she had now become the prey of her own guilty conscience.
In any case, she knew of nowhere just then in which to place the
precious thing; and this fact it was that turned the scale and finally
settled the question.
She went down to the Strand, and took a bus to Oxford Circus.
That Mecca, alas, did not prove nearly so stimulating as the previous
afternoon. As soon as she came really to grips with that most
daunting of all tasks, “the looking for a job,” her hopes and her
courage were woefully dashed. Real pluck was needed to enter such
a palace as David Jones Limited, to go up without faltering to some
haughty overseer in a frock coat and spats and ask if an assistant
was wanted.
Three times, in various shops, she screwed herself to the heroic
pitch of asking that difficult question. Three times she met with a
chilling response. And the only gleam of hope was on the last
occasion.
“There is one vacancy, I believe,” said Olympian Zeus. “But all
applicants must apply by letter for a personal interview with the
manager.”
Sooner than renew the attempt just then, June felt she would
prefer to die. A girl from the provinces, new to London and its ways,
without credentials or friends, or knowledge of “the ropes” must not
expect to be taken on, at any rate in Oxford Street.
Much cast down she returned to her teashop of yesterday.
Seated at the same table, her mind went back to the fascinating
acquaintance she had made there. Was it possible that a career had
been offered her? Or was the suggestion of this new friend merely
the outcome of a keen interest in the picture?
It could not be so entirely, because she clearly remembered that
Mr. Keller had proposed her sitting to him as a model before she had
mentioned the picture at all.
She went back to New Cross Street in a state of gloom; her mind
was dominated by a sense of being “up against it.” And this unhappy
feeling was not softened by the discovery she made as soon as she
entered that cold and uninviting garret. In her absence the lock of her
trunk had been forced and the picture taken away.
The tragedy was exactly what she had foreseen. But faced by the
bitter fact she was swept by a tempest of rage. It could only be the
work of one person. Her fear and dislike of Uncle Si rose to hatred
now.
In a surge of anger she went downstairs and in the presence of
William charged Uncle Si.
“You’ve been at my box,” she stormed.
He looked at her with a kind of calm pensiveness over the top of
his spectacles.
“If you lock away things, my girl, that don’t belong to you, I’m
afraid you’ll have to stand the racket.” So lofty, so severe was the old
man’s tone that for the moment June was staggered.
“It’s stealing,” she cried, returning hectic to the attack.
Uncle Si waggled a magisterial finger in her face. “Niece,” he
said, with a quietude which put her at a disadvantage, “I must ask
you not to make an exhibition of yourself. Have the goodness to hold
your tongue.”
June maintained the charge. “The picture’s mine. William gave it
me. You’ve broken open my box and stolen it.”
S. Gedge Antiques, after a mild side glance in the direction of
William, proceeded to fix a glacial eye upon his niece. “What I have
to say is this.” His tone was more magisterial than ever. “At present,
my girl, you are under age, and as long as you live with me the law
regards me as your guardian. And, as I have told William already, in
my opinion you are not a fit and proper person to have the care of a
thing so valuable as this picture may prove to be. Mind you,”—the
old fox gave William a meaningful look—“I don’t go so far as to say
that it is valuable, but I say that it might be. And, in that case, I can’t
allow a mere ignorant girl from the country who, in a manner of
speaking, doesn’t know the letter A from a pig’s foot to accept it from
you, my boy. It’s very generous of you, and I hope she’s thanked you
properly, but if I allow her to take it, some unscrupulous dealer is
sure to bamboozle her out of it. That’s assuming it’s valuable, which,
of course, I don’t go so far as to say that it is.”
“Thief!” stormed June. “Wicked thief!”
However, she knew well enough that it was a real pity to let her
feelings get the better of her; it enabled the Old Crocodile to shine so
much by comparison. He addressed himself to William in his most
sanctimonious manner. For the good of all concerned, such a bee-
yew-ti-ful thing—it sickened June to see the old humbug lift his eyes
to heaven—must be cared for by him personally. An uneducated
mawkin could not hope to appreciate a work of art of that quality, and
if anything happened to it, as in such hands something inevitably
must, William’s master would never be able to forgive himself, he
wouldn’t really!
The old man spoke so gently and so plausibly and hovered at
times so near to tears, that William would have been less than
human not to have been moved by his words. Uncle Si had not the
least difficulty in making clear to his assistant that he was swayed by
the highest motives. His own private regard for the picture, which, of
course, William must know was intense, did not enter into the case
at all; but wisdom and experience declared that until Monsieur
Duponnet of Paris had seen the picture it must remain in responsible
hands.
“But I tell you the picture’s mine, mine, mine!” cried June.
No, the picture was William’s. That outstanding fact was
emphasized again in his master’s kindly voice. Was he not William’s
guardian also in the eyes of the law? Not for a moment could he
think of allowing the young man in a fit of weak generosity to give
away a thing that might prove to be a real work of art.
June was a little disappointed by William’s attitude in the matter.
The way in which he submitted to Uncle Si did him no credit. Surely
the picture was his to do with as he chose; yet to judge by Uncle Si’s
handling of the affair the young man had no right to dispose of it.
June deplored this lack of spirit. He should have fought for his own.
At the same time, her mind was tormented by the unpleasant
thought that he really wanted to revoke his gift.
The more she considered the position, the less she liked it. She
could not rid herself of a feeling that she was playing an unworthy
part. It was all very well to regard her actions as strictly in William’s
interest. But were they? She was haunted by a sense of having
descended perilously near to the level of Uncle Si himself.
Anyhow, she had tried her best to outwit S. Gedge Antiques. And
he had outwitted her. There was no disguising it. Both were playing
the same game, the same crooked game, and it seemed that Uncle
Si, as was only to be expected, was able to play it much better than
could she. The artful old fox had bested her with her own weapons.
Were they not equally unscrupulous? Was not William the toy of
both?
XXV
Inwiththehiscourse of the next morning, June was informed by Uncle Si,
most sanctimonious air that “he could not pass over her
impudence, and that she had better pack her box and go.” Moreover,
that force might be lent to this ukase, he sternly summoned William
from the lumber room, and ordered the young man to help her down
with her box as soon as it was ready; and then he must fetch her a
cab.
This was more than June had bargained for. She was expecting
to be kicked out; but she had not looked for the process to be quite
so summary. It did not suit her plans at all.
“Get a room for yourself in a decent neighbourhood,” said the old
man. “Mrs. Runciman will know of one, no doubt. You’ve money
enough to keep you while you look for work.”
June’s swift mind, however, saw instant disadvantages. Secretly,
she cherished the hope, a slender one, no doubt, of being able to
discover where the picture was hid. Once, however, she left the
house that hope would vanish. And it was painfully clear that it was
Uncle Si’s recognition of this fact which now made him so
determined to be quit of her.
The old serpent was fully alive to what lay at the back of her
mind. He knew that so long as she slept under his roof the picture
could never be safe.
She was shrewd enough to size up the position at once. Reading
the purpose in the heart of Uncle Si she told him plainly that much as
she disliked her present address she did not propose to change it
until her lawful property had been restored to her.
“You are going to leave this place within an hour, my girl, for good
and all.”
“I shall not,” said June flatly. “Until you give me the picture, I don’t
intend to stir.”
“The picture is not yours. You are not a fit person to have it. And if
you don’t go quietly your box will be put into the street.”
“Dare to touch my box again, and I shall go straight to the police.”
Uncle Si didn’t care a straw for the police. She had not the
slightest claim upon him; in fact she was living on his charity. As for
the picture, it had nothing whatever to do with the matter.
At this point it was that William came out in his true colours. He
had been standing by, unwilling witness of these passages.
Anxiously concerned, he could no longer keep silent.
“Beg your pardon, sir,” he said, stammering painfully, and flushing
deeply, “but if Miss June leaves the house, I’m afraid I’ll have to go
as well.”
This was a thunderbolt. S. Gedge Antiques opened his mouth in
wide astonishment. He gasped like a carp. The atmospheric
displacement was terrific. Slowly the old man took off his “selling”
spectacles, and replaced them with his “buying” ones. Certainly the
effect was to make him look a shade less truculent, but at the
moment there was no other result. “Boy, don’t talk like a fool,” was all
he could say.
William, however, was not to be moved. He never found it easy to
make up his mind; for him to reach a decision in things that mattered
was a slow and trying process. But the task achieved it was for good
or ill. His stammers and blushes were a little ludicrous, he seemed
near to tears, but the open hostility of his master could not turn him
an inch.
“Never in my born days did I hear the like.” S. Gedge Antiques
seethed like a vipers’ nest. “Boy, you ought to be bled for the simples
to let a paltry hussy get round you in this way.”
“Give me the picture, Uncle Si,” cried the paltry hussy, with a
force that made him blink, “and I’ll take precious good care you don’t
see me again.”
The old man whinnied with rage. But he had not the least
intention of giving up the picture; nor had he the least intention of
giving up that which was almost as valuable, the services of his right-
hand man. William was irreplaceable. And the instant his master
realised that this odd fellow was very much in earnest, he saw that
there was only one line to take. He must temporize. With all the tact
he could muster, and on occasion the old man could muster a good
deal, the Old Crocodile proceeded to do so.
The “firing” of his niece should stand in abeyance for the time
being. He gave solemn warning, however, that she must get a job
right away, as his mind was quite made up that he was not going to
find house room for the likes of her an hour longer than he could
help. As for the boy, of whom he had always held such a high
opinion ever since the day he had first picked him out of the gutter
and upon whom he had lavished a father’s kindness, he was really
quite at a loss—with a snuffle of heart-melting pathos—to know how
to put his deeply wounded feelings into words.
For June, all the same, the upshot was victory. The inevitable
packing of her box could be postponed to her own good time. But
well she knew that the reprieve was due to William and to him alone.
It was his splendidly timed intervention that had enabled her to win
the day.
The previous evening harsh thoughts of the Sawney had crept
into her heart. After giving her the picture, surely it was his duty to
take a stronger line upon the rape of it. But that phase of weakness
was forgotten now. He had come out nobly. At a most critical
moment he had fought her battle; and he had fought it with magical
effect.
All was forgiven. He was O. K.
XXVI
June was dominated now by a single thought. By hook or by crook
she must get back the picture before she left that house. If she
failed to do so, she would never see it again, and there would be an
end of all her hopes. Exactly what these hopes were she did not
venture to ask herself; in any case, they would not have been easy
to put into words. But she felt in a vague way that William’s future
and her own were bound up in them.
It was clear that the picture was concealed somewhere upon the
premises, because Mr. Thornton and his friend, M. Duponnet, were
coming there the next day to look at it. June was quick to realize that
this fact offered a measure of opportunity which, slender as it was,
must certainly be used. No other was in the least likely to come her
way.
Three o’clock on Thursday afternoon she had learned already
was the hour of the appointment. It was now the afternoon of
Wednesday. No matter what the penalty, if flesh and blood could
contrive it, she must be present at this interview, and see what
happened to the treasure.
Despair heavy upon her, she lay awake the best part of the night
searching her mind for a plan of action. But the quest seemed
hopeless. Uncle Si could so easily thwart any scheme she might
evolve. And he would not have a scruple. She must outwit him
somehow, but to outwit one of such cunning was a task for a brain
far stronger and nimbler than hers.
Lying up there in her comfortless bed, wild thoughts flocking
round her pillow like so many evil spirits, the whole sorry affair was
as haunting as a bad dream. And, interwoven with it, in the most
fantastic way, was the shop below, and more particularly the
Hoodoo, the presiding genius, which now stood forth in June’s mind
as the replica of Uncle Si himself. He was surely possessed by a
devil, and this heathen joss as surely embodied it.
On Thursday morning June rose early. She was in a mood of
desperation. Little sleep had come to her in the long and dreary night
hours. But, in spite of feeling quite worn out, her determination to
“best” Uncle Si and regain her own property had not grown less. No
ray was to be seen anywhere, yet defiant of fate as she still was, the
time had not yet come to admit even to herself that all was lost.
As dustpan and brush in hand she began the day’s work, more
than one reckless expedient crossed her mind. In the last resort she
might put the matter in the hands of the police. If she could have
counted on William’s support, she would have been tempted to do
this, but the rub was, he could not be depended on at all. Nobly as
he had fought her recent battle, it was clear that so far as the picture
itself was concerned, his sympathies were wholly with Uncle Si.
Even if he did not deny that the picture was her lawful property he
had certainly done his best to revoke his gift.
No, she would gain nothing by calling in the police. She must find
some other way. During the night a wild plan had entered her mind.
And if in the course of the morning no scheme more hopeful
occurred to her, she was now resolved to act upon it.
To this end, she began at once to throw dust in the eyes of Uncle
Si. At the breakfast table he was told that she meant to spend the
afternoon looking for a job if, with a modest eye on her plate, “he had
no objection.”
The Old Crocodile had not the least objection. With gusto he
assured her that it was quite the best thing she could do. Privately he
assured himself that he didn’t want her hanging around the place
while he was transacting business of great importance with Mr.
Thornton and Monsieur Duponnet. Ever in the forefront of his mind
was the fact that these gentlemen were coming to see him at three
o’clock.
About an hour before the time appointed the old fox sent William
on an errand which would keep him away most of the afternoon. And
further to ensure that the coast should be quite clear, S. Gedge
Antiques said sharply to his niece, “Go and put on your hat, my girl,
and make yourself scarce. Get after that job you spoke about. I won’t
have you hanging around while these gentlemen are here.”
June, however, had other views. And these, whatever they were,
she was at great pains not to disclose. First she watched William go
innocently forth on a long bus ride to Richmond. Next she made sure
that Uncle Si was composing himself in his armchair for his usual
“forty winks” after dinner. And then she proceeded boldly to develop
her audacious design.
To start with, she crept into the front shop and surveyed the
Hoodoo. The quaintly hideous vase was fully six feet tall, its body
huge, its mouth wide. Was it possible to get inside? There was little
doubt that if she was able to do so, this curious monster was quite
large enough to conceal her.
She saw at once that the task before her was no light one. But by
the side of the Hoodoo, inscrutable Providence had placed a
genuine antique in the shape of a gate-legged table, £4.19.6—a
great bargain. The sight of this was encouraging. She climbed onto
it. And then wedging the Hoodoo most cunningly between the table
and the wall, and artfully disposing her own weight, so that the
monster might not tip over, she lowered herself with the caution and
agility of a cat into the roomy interior.
It was almost a feat for an acrobat, but she managed it somehow.
Keeping tight hold of the rim as she swung both legs over, her feet
touched bottom with the vase still maintaining the perpendicular. The
space inside was ample, and without even the need to bend, the top
of her head was invisible. Near the top of the vase, moreover, was
the monster’s open mouth, a narrow slit studded with teeth, which
not only afforded a means of ventilation, but also through which, to
June’s devout joy, she was able to peer.
For such a crowning boon on the part of Providence she had
every reason to feel grateful. So far everything was miraculously
right. Her daring had met with more success than could have been
hoped for. One problem remained, however, which at that moment
she did not venture to look in the face. To get into the vase was one
thing; to get out of it would be quite another.
No friendly table could avail her now. In ascending that sheer and
slippery face of painted metal-work, she must not expect help from
outside when the time came to escape from her prison. Besides one
incautious movement might cause the whole thing to topple. And if
topple it did, the results would be dire.
This, however, was not the time to consider that aspect of the
case. Let her be thankful for a concealment so perfect which allowed
her to breathe and to see without being seen or her presence
suspected. For such material benefits she must lift up her heart; and
hope for the best when the time came to get out. With a sense of
grim satisfaction she set herself “to lie doggo,” and await the next
turn in a game that was full of peril.
It was not long before Uncle Si shambled into the shop. June
could see him quite clearly, as he came in with that furtive air which
she had learned to know so well. First he took off his spectacles and
applied to them vigorously a red bandanna handkerchief. Then he
peered cautiously round to make sure that he was alone.
June had not dared to hope that the picture was concealed in the
shop; and yet it offered every facility. There were many nooks and
crannies, and the whole place was crammed with old pieces of
furniture, bric-à-brac, curios. But June had felt that S. Gedge
Antiques was not likely to run the risk of hiding his treasure in the
midst of these. She thought that his bedroom, under lock and key,
was the most likely place of all.
Howbeit, with a sharp thrill, half torment, half delight, she saw
that this was not the case. Within a few feet of the Hoodoo itself was
an old oak chest which Uncle Si cautiously drew aside. The very
spot whereon it had rested contained a loose board. He took a small
chisel from a drawer in the counter, prised up the board and from
beneath it took forth the buried treasure.
Long and lovingly the old man looked at it, hugging it to his breast
more than once in the process, and as he did so June was reminded

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Management A Practical Introduction

8th edition Kinicki Solutions Manual

Management A Practical Introduction 6th Edition Kinicki

Management A Practical Introduction 7th Edition Kinicki

Management A Practical Introduction 7th Edition Kinicki

Management A Practical Introduction 6th Edition Kinicki

Organizational Behavior A Practical Problem Solving

Management 8th Edition Kinicki Test Bank

Organizational Behavior A Practical Problem Solving

Organizational Behavior A Practical Problem Solving

Individual and Group Decision

Teaching Resource Manual: A Guide to Implementation ii

Teaching Resource Manual: A Guide to Implementation

 Addressing the inability to measure student comprehension prior to major assignments

So What Assets Can I Chose From?

Assigning SmartBook and Connect Application Exercises

Some recommendations include:

So When Do I Assign Each Type of Teaching Resource?

A reading assignment—typically a chapter from the product in use—is a student’s initial

Resources Across Teaching Touch Points Matrix

Type of Asset Before-Class/Lecture During-Class/Lecture After-Class/Lecture

Before Class (before Wednesday)

During Class (on Wednesday)

After Class (after Wednesday)

7.1 How do people know when they’re being logical or illogical?

Section Title Resource Type

SC Johnson’s CEO on Doing Harvard Business

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How Decision-Making Is Online Article

Make Better Decisions Harvard Business

Assessing Your Problem- Self-Assessment

Boeing Ramps Up Push Into Online Article

When Data Goes Beyond Web Video

Assessing Your Level of Self-Assessment

Trying to Solve an “Electric” Group Exercise

Hindrances to Decision Making Connect Click and

Family Business Decision Connect Case Analysis

7.2: Making Ethical

When Tragedy Strikes the Harvard Business

Ethical Decision Making Group Exercise

The Business of Data: Web Video

Forget Stars—Companies Do Online Article

Using Algorithms to Build a Online Article

Researchers Caused an Online Article

7.4: Four General

Knowing How You Decide Is as Online Article

How You Make Decisions Says Online Article with Self-

What Is Your Decision-Making Self-Assessment

Your Preferred Decision- Group Exercise

Decision-Making Styles Connect Click and

7.5: How to Overcome

Challenge the Middleman Harvard Business

Mohawk Fine Papers Up and Online Article

Decision Making Biases Connect Click and

7.6: Group Decision

One Frame of Reference Isn't Web Video

Assessing Groupthink Self-Assessment

Assessing Participation in Self-Assessment

How to Make Better Decisions Web Video