Bounded Disciplines and Unbounded Problems
A Vision for Management Science
Published on 12. January 2025
192 pages
978-0-19-889393-6 (ISBN)
Description
People often face complex, novel, fateful, and wildly unbounded problems throughout their lives. In their work, disciplinary scientists hone their wisdom on the complexities of necessarily bounded problems. Bounded Disciplines and Unbounded Problems offers a vision for schools of management science to bring these worlds together, by doing more of what they do best, co-creating solutions in ways that serve the world and the disciplines.
Disciplinary wisdom is illustrated with studies eliciting beliefs and preferences. Collaboration is illustrated with a wide variety of applications, including climate, energy, health, security, technology, and natural disasters. The proposed strategy, for bonding bounded disciplines, offers a realistic path forward, at a time when the value of academia is sometimes questioned by the public, students, and even some of its members.
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02/2025
Oxford University Press
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Person
Baruch Fischhoff is Howard Heinz University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, where he has been since 1987. He has also held positions at Decision Research (Eugene, Oregon) and the Medical Research Council Applied Psychology Unit (Cambridge). He is an elected member of the (US) National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine, and he has been an advisor to many governmental and non-governmental organizations.
Content
- Cover
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication Page
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Contents
- 1 Bounding Complexity: The Wisdom of Conscious Blinders
- Confronting Complexity
- Coping with Complexity
- Sciences in Complexity
- Burrowing within Boundaries
- When Details Matter
- Boundary Disputes
- Conclusions
- 2 Sciences (in)Action: A Success and a Failure in Confronting Complexity
- Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccine
- The Complex Problem
- The Disciplines
- Management Science Tasks
- Lessons Learned
- Human Dimensions of Climate Change
- The Complex Problem
- The Disciplines
- Management Science Tasks
- Lessons Learned
- Conclusions
- 3 Decision Science: Boundedly Rational Study of Rationality
- Decision Science, Flourishing within Bounds
- Out-of-Bounds Observations
- Pushing Heuristic Bounds
- The Bias Heuristic
- Simple Models or Simple Processes
- Conclusions
- 4 Questions of Competence: Disciplined Empathy
- Avoiding a Rush to Judgment
- The Discipline of Decision Science
- Structured Empathy
- ``Literacy'' Tests
- Individual Differences
- Merchants of Bias?
- Scientists Are People, Too
- Conclusions
- 5 Slow Science (Beliefs)
- What Are We Asking? The Face Validity of Questions
- What Are They Telling Us? The Face Validity of Answers
- How Much Do People Think about the World?
- What Do Experts Believe?
- Conclusions
- 6 Slow Science (Preferences)
- Ostensibly Simple Tasks
- What Are We Asking: The Face Validity of Questions
- Defining Risks
- Defining Benefits
- What Are They Telling Us? The Face Validity of Answers
- If We Have Questions, Do They Have Answers?
- Might They Have Answers, If We Slowed Down?
- Conclusions
- 7 A Strategy for Bonding Bounded Disciplines
- Barriers to Bonding Bounded Disciplines
- A Strategy for Bonding Bounded Disciplines
- Staffing: Are the Right People Involved?
- Internal Consultation: Are Those People Talking to One Another?
- External Consultation: Are Those People Talking with Stakeholders?
- Conclusions
- 8 A Vision for Management Science
- Management Science as General Contractor
- Creating an Intellectual Commons
- Methods for Assessing Experts' Beliefs
- Methods for Assessing Nonexperts' Beliefs
- Creating Communities
- Methods for Creating Shared Ways of Thinking
- Methods for Creating Respectful Ways of Interacting
- Creating Incentives
- Boundary Organizations for Bonding Bounded Disciplines
- Conclusions
- 9 Change (in)Action
- COVID-19
- Vaccines
- Face Masks
- Movie Studios
- Climate Change
- Better Story Telling
- Better Stories
- Reflection
- Conclusions
- 10 Management Science as a Bonding Discipline
- Decision Science
- From a Multidisciplinary Field to an Interdisciplinary Platform
- An Interdisciplinary Platform in a Multidisciplinary World
- Psychology
- Economics
- Management Science
- Strategic Gambles
- Conclusions
- Index
