Tackling Strategic Problems : The Role of Group Decision Support

This innovative book brings together an international team of leading academics and practitioners in organization and management science. Drawing on their experiences as consultants within a wide variety of organizational settings, the authors explore key issues in the provision of effective decision support to groups tackling complex, strategic problems.

The authors discuss the use of the techniques and methods they have developed for group decision support, including developments in `mixed methods'. They consider the organizational and inter-organizational contexts for strategic decision-making and the approaches to group decision support. The crucial significance of the relationship between particular methods and the personal styles and `theories-in-action' of both consultants and client groups is addressed. The contributors also argue for attending to the often neglected `trivialities' of the physical environments for group problem-solving.

Threading through all the chapters is a concern with the interaction between analytic help with the complex content of strategic problems and the management of process as the key to successful group decision support.

Tackling Strategic Problems will be essential reading for all those concerned with processes and methods for improving strategic problem-solving.