The glue between efficient productivity and profitability is great decision-making. I do not think that a farmer has ever sown rice and harvested corn. In computers, the most common language is GIGO, meaning garbage in, garbage out. Usually, the decisions we make are our personalities, and yet very few people accept responsibility for their actions, their failures in business, or in any endeavor in which they have failed. They desire to blame others without remembering GIGO. I have articulated the mystery that surrounds the lone decision-maker or the CEO who enjoys lonely decision-making and blaming his or her failures on the engineer or the accountant in his company. The new name for decision-making is participative decision-making. In this, the senior officers take part, but separately—the engineers, accountants, supervisors, workers and maintenance people form another group. Both platforms must have a dialogue format; there must be a writer or clerk, a vote taken on each discussion for its authenticity or viability, and in the end, the senior officers must compare their notes with the second group so that amendments can be made where necessary. The final product is now ready to be presented before the board of directors as a formal decision for the company. In a smaller company, this activity stops with the owner, but the owner must understand that two heads are usually better than one. The CEO and his group must not be taken over by egos; the only time for pride in business is when business is doing well financially. Even then, business needs a lot of careful activity because “pride goes before a fall.” It is good to entrust the CEO with the decision-making responsibility, but it is the biggest risk a business can take because business is a collection of ideas. Therefore, it a discipline of collective learning and inquiry. Any student, manager, or business owner who wants to use participative decision-making skills in his or her business or as a consultant in participative decision-making should attend a workshop at least twice and read about participative decision-making thoroughly and practice it from case studies.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

It is clear that our society must become a more sustainable one. To that end, we must change both our production and our consumption patterns. Some argue that this implies the abolition of democratic processes, and thus of citizens' participation in environmental policy. Others argue the opposite: the only way to avoid impending environmental disaster is by engaging in common deliberation and contemplation. Is participation, then, a negative force or not? This volume is one of the first coordinated attempts to study the relationship between democratic, participatory forms of decision making and the quality of environmental decisions. The central question is how can the normatively desirable practice of participatory decision making be combined with an effective approach to environmental issues? Guided by a theoretical introduction by the editors, the 15 chapters deal with topics ranging from the scale of environmental problems, local agenda 21, infrastructural decisions, strategic planning, to environmental policy in developing countries. Three chapters are devoted to each of these broad themes. Each presents either a theoretical or an empirical argument about the central research question, shedding light on such issues as the measurement of decision quality, participation techniques, and the link between participation and decision quality, drawing on experience gained in Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Africa. The introductions to the individual parts of the book have been collectively written by the contributors, who represent a range of professional disciplines, including political science, public policy and planning.

Reviews Government defense subcontracting and procurement procedures impact on small business firms. Also considers S. 500, to amend the Small Business Act to establish competitive negotiations procedures in lieu of advertising for defense contracts.

This book introduces the idea of policy space as an innovative way to reframe recent developments in global governance. It brings together a wide ranging group of leading experts in international law, trade, human rights, political economy, international relations, and public policy who have been asked to reflect on this important development in globalization.

This volume has two goals. First, it intends to attract a representative sample of the most significant empirical and theoretical developments in the field of cognition and strategy. Second, it intends to take stock of these developments by proposing a preliminary synthesis of the disparate advances in this field.

Encouraging individuals to adapt and businesses to reshape their resources, capabilities and everyday practices, this book grounds the contemporary workplace in an EDI mindset that looks beyond temporary pressures and trends to a strong, inclusive future.

Regional Project “Civil Participation in Decision Making in the Eastern Partnership Countries” AIMS ♦ Promote effective interaction between civil society and public authorities; ♦ Stimulate the participation of civil society actors in the democratic decision making process; ♦ Strengthen civil society in the region. ACTIVITIES ♦ Working group meetings, awareness-raising actions, workshops; ♦ Preparing two regional studies on strategic and immediate priority issues; ♦ Multilateral regional conferences on relevant issues, notably those covered by the studies; ♦ Drafting a regional strategy for promoting civil participation in decision-making.

Employee participation encompasses the range of mechanisms used to involve the workforce in decisions at all levels of the organization - whether direct or indirect - conducted with employees or through their representatives. In its various guises, the topic of employee participation has been a recurring theme in industrial relations and human resource management. One of the problems in trying to develop any analysis of participation is that there is potentially limited overlap between these different disciplinary traditions, and scholars from diverse traditions may know relatively little of the research that has been done elsewhere. Accordingly in this book, a number of the more significant disciplinary areas are analysed in greater depth in order to ensure that readers gain a better appreciation of what participation means from these quite different contextual perspectives. Not only is there a range of different traditions contributing to the research and literature on the subject, there is also an extremely diverse sets of practices that congregate under the banner of participation. The handbook discusses various arguments and schools of thought about employee participation, analyzes the range of forms that participation can take in practice, and examines the way in which it meets objectives that are set for it, either by employers, trade unions, individual workers, or, indeed, the state. In doing so, the Handbook brings together leading scholars from around the world who present and discuss fundamental theories and approaches to participation in organization as well as their connection to broader political forces. These selections address the changing contexts of employee participation, different cultural/ institutional models, old/'new' economy models, shifting social and political patterns, and the correspondence between industrial and political democracy and participation.