This collection of cases provides social work students with opportunities to practice thinking like social work professionals. These accounts, referred... to as decision cases, depict actual situations encountered by BSW-level generalist social workers across a variety of practice settings in their work with individuals, families, groups, organizations, or communities. Sure to stimulate in-depth class discussions, these detailed, open-ended cases urge students to decide on the central problem and recommend a course of action. The resulting case analyses and class discussions help students develop important problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, internalize social work values and ethics, and apply theory to practice. Through the "decision case" approach, students adopt attitudes and skills that are considered essential for effective social work practice, yet difficult to teach in the traditional curriculum. As they discuss their perspectives on these cases, students learn to articulate and defend their positions, to listen more effectively, and to develop skills in, and appreciation for, collaborative problem-solving.

Includes a complete copy of the Constitution.Fifty-five men met in Philadelphia in 1787 to write a document that would create a country and change a... world. Here is a remarkable rendering of that fateful time, told with humanity and humor. "The best popular history of the Constitutional Convention available."--Library JournalFrom the Paperback edition.

With its light touch and easy-to-follow style, this book can be used for training classes, as a reference for the practicing manager, or as a supplement... to college-level supervision or principles of management courses. The book begins with a careful conceptual look at how decisions are made and problems are solved. Using a very practical focus, the first seven chapters introduce and support such topics as how to tap into your creativity to develop more options in problem solving, how to better analyze those alternatives, and how decision making is influenced by organizational, group and individual factors. There s also a chapter to help you design proposals to get your decisions implemented. The last four chapters provide over two dozen easy to use tools with specific, step-by-step directions and examples. Decision Making and Problem Solving in Management will become a well used addition to your desktop reference library.

Every decision healthcare executives make must at least enable the organization to meet its mission and to maintain its financial viability. As simple... as those criteria sound, the traditional decision-making process is oftentimes inadequate for the fast-paced world of healthcare management. In the upcoming book, authors Ken Mack, Mary Ann Crawford, and Mary Reed provide healthcare leaders with a seven-step approach to improve decision making. Included in each chapter are: Hands-on material Tools Worksheets Checklists The final chapter features a real-life example of the use of the seven-step decision-making approach by a hospital and its physicians.

This book is about how to make decisions using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. The basics of the theory are described in a clear, non-technical manner... with many examples. It is suitable for business leaders and also is probably the best book for introducing the AHP to students at the college and graduate level. In this fifth printing of the book the reader will find a new appendix containing real-life applications that validate the use of the fundamental scale of the AHP.

This text is designed to help readers break away from the constraints of the technologist's "analytical/scientific" viewpoint and employ broader... organizational and personal perspectives that strengthen their decision-making ability and leadership skills. The text shows the reader how to utilize this multiple perspective approach to problem-solving and systems development in real-world, outside the laboratory, situtations. Readers learn how this three-dimensional approach has been applied successfully to a wide spectrum of complex systems tasks, from system forecasting to technology assessment, from industrial catastrophes to facility sitting decisions, from corporate strategy to acquisition. Through case studies, the book explores improving technology and risk assessment, forecasting, and crisis management. It also looks at complex sociotechnical systems, technological risk management and planning.

Decision making in health care means navigating through a complex and tangled web of diagnostic and therapeutic uncertainties, patient preferences and... values, and costs. In addition, medical therapies may include side effects, surgery may lead to undesirable complications, and diagnostic technologies may produce inconclusive results. In many clinical and health policy decisions it is necessary to counterbalance benefits and risks, and to trade off competing objectives such as maximizing life expectancy vs optimizing quality of life vs minimizing the required resources. This textbook plots a clear course through these complex and conflicting variables. It clearly explains and illustrates tools for integrating quantitative evidence-based data and subjective outcome values in making clinical and health policy decisions. An accompanying CD-ROM features solutions to the exercises, PowerPoint® presentations of the illustrations, and sample models and tables.

Decision-Making in Nursing explores the contributions of a variety of decision-making approaches that add to the ways of knowing and the evidence that... enables nursing students and professionals to be reflective, critical, flexible, and comfortable with the many daily decisions they make. In today's complex health care arena, nurses looking at patient, family, or community needs to adjust their decision-making to a multi-dimensional care environment. This book helps guide students and professionals through this process and shows them how current evidence, along with historical, legal, spiritual, and political factors affect their decision-making.

Based on Bransford and Stein's IDEAL model for problem-solving and decision-making, this comprehensive text explicitly illustrates the thought processes... of successful teachers as they plan, implement, and evaluate instruction. Decision-Making in Planning and Teaching invites dialogue, application, and critical examination of thought processes by section and in chapters through real-world scenarios, current research studies, and practice-teaching sessions.

Decision Making in Systems Engineering and Management is a  comprehensive textbook that provides a logical process and analytical techniques for... fact-based decision making for the most challenging systems problems. Grounded in systems thinking and based on sound systems engineering principles, the systems decisions process (SDP) leverages multiple objective decision analysis, multiple attribute value theory, and value-focused thinking to define the problem, measure stakeholder value, design creative solutions, explore the decision trade off space in the presence of uncertainty, and structure successful solution implementation. In addition to classical systems engineering problems, this approach has been successfully applied to a wide range of challenges including personnel recruiting, retention, and management; strategic policy analysis; facilities design and management; resource allocation; information assurance; security systems design; and other settings whose structure can be conceptualized as a system. 

This groundbreaking book analyzes the decisions made by the United States circuit courts over the past half century. These courts have a profound impact... on the law—they issue many more decisions in many more areas of law than the Supreme Court. Cross demonstrates that while the courts' judges are influenced by ideology and by the appointing president, legal requirements exercise a much stronger influence on their decisions. He also shows that these courts are independent of the other branches of government and free from undue influence of various parties. The book further introduces new research on the precedent-setting power of decisions.

Dr. Sam Savage, who's recognized as a leading innovator in management science education, provides the most hands-on , practical introduction to methods... of decision making. This book and accompanying suite of Excel add-ins for quantitative analysis covers Monte Carlo simulation, decision trees, queuing simulations, optimization, Markov chains, and forecasting. The Insight add-ins have been developed over several years by the author.

"A very rich book sprinkled with real-life examples as well as battle-tested advice.”—Pierre Haren, VP ILOG, IBM "James does a thorough job of... explaining Decision Management Systems as enablersof a formidable business transformation.”—Deepak Advani, Vice President, Business Analytics Products and SPSS, IBM Build Systems That Work Actively to Help You Maximize Growth and Profits Most companies rely on operational systems that are largely passive. But what if you could make your systems active participants in optimizing your business? What if your systems could act intelligently on their own? Learn, not just report? Empower users to take action instead of simply escalating their problems? Evolve without massive IT investments? Decision Management Systems can do all that and more. In this book, the field’s leading expert demonstrates how to use them to drive unprecedented levels of business value. James Taylor shows how to integrate operational and analytic technologies to create systems that are more agile, more analytic, and more adaptive. Through actual case studies, you’ll learn how to combine technologies such as predictive analytics, optimization, and business rules—improving customer service, reducing fraud, managing risk, increasing agility, and driving growth. Both a practical how-to guide and a framework for planning, Decision Management Systems focuses on mainstream business challenges. Coverage includes Understanding how Decision Management Systems can transform your business Planning your systems “with the decision in mind” Identifying, modeling, and prioritizing the decisions you need to optimize Designing and implementing robust decision services Monitoring your ongoing decision-making and learning how to improve it Proven enablers of effective Decision Management Systems: people, process, and technology Identifying and overcoming obstacles that can derail your Decision Management Systems initiative

Decision Methods for Forest Resource Management focuses on decision making for forests that are managed for both ecological and economic objectives. The... essential modern decision methods used in the scientific management of forests are described using basic algebra, computer spreadsheets, and numerous examples and applications. Balanced treatment is given throughout the book to the ecological and economic impacts of alternative management decisions in both even-aged and uneven-aged forests. * In-depth coverage of both ecological and economic issues* Hands-on examples with Excel spreadsheets; electronic versions available on the authors' website* Many related exercises with solutions* Instructor's Manual available upon request