Hi,
I'm looking for a list of the books most commenly used at universities
as a result of professors finding them to be more suitable and
appropriate for their goal to help students understand their content
in the Decision Making area of management.
If you have more than ten, I'll cover you with a similar amount in the bonus tip.
Thank you.
-Mao |
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
11 Apr 2005 07:29 PDT
Hello again, Mao.
There are several sites that specialize in the sale of textbooks, and
that generally list the books in order of popularity -- that is, the
best-selling books appear highest on the list.
For instance, here's a link to one such site:
http://www.directtextbook.com/search.php?q=decision+making&Submit=search
The list shows the most popular textbooks for "decision making". Ten
books are listed on the first page, and you can see the rest of the
list by clicking on the "Next Results" link near the bottom of the
page.
Does this list meet your needs? If not, what additional information
would you like to have to make for a complete answer to your question?
pafalafa-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
6ra3-ga
on
11 Apr 2005 08:36 PDT
Hi Pafalafa,
The list is a good indication, but are there mutiple sources of
guidance as to the popularity of a textbook to distribute the risk of
the information being extremely biased when it comes from one source
if that's in fact the only way we can get this sort of information?
Are there organizations or boards where they support communicaties of
professors whom do delve into recommending books and mention
supporting bits to qualify books?
One source isn't comfy for me to take, but I'm sure you'll be able to
come up with ideas to further verify the information by lets say cross
referencing them with Amazon popularity ratings or other sites of
similar type? Used book sites can help.
Let me know your thoughts. :-)
-Mao
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
11 Apr 2005 18:04 PDT
Thanks for the feedback.
I'm not aware of a group of professors or others that review and rate
textbooks on decision-making.
There may well be such reviews and rankings for other academic areas,
such as for chemistry textbooks. But "decision making" is a fairly
loosely-defined topic, and I don't think there is well-recognized
"field" of decision-making that would tend to draw professionals
together to make such a ranking list.
As a matter of fact, the link below sort of emphasizes my point. The
link lists the best-selling textbooks at Barnes and Noble on the topic
of decision-making:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?TXT=Y&querylocation=7&userid=mHu1druzaP&TTL=&ATH=&WRD=%22decision+making%22&Search.x=23&Search.y=5
If you review the list, you'll see that it covers a lot of territory
-- decision-making in business, in church, in life, in medicine and so
on.
I like the Barnes and Noble list because it distinguishes books
marketed solely as textbooks -- these are identified as follows:
Format: Textbook Paperback
The other books also seem to be used as textbooks in some courses.
However, they are not sold strictly to students as textbooks, but are
also marketed to the general public.
Let me know if that sort of list helps, and what other information
you'd like to see at this point.
Thanks,
paf
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
11 Apr 2005 20:14 PDT
I couldn't resist one more source of information.
The WorldCat databases is a catalog of the holdings of a great many of
the world's libraries. It allows search results to be sorted more or
less by popularity -- the more libraries that have a book, the higher
up on the list it appears.
A search for books on "decision making" turns up these as the Top Ten:
=====
The commanders /
Author: Woodward, Bob.
Publication: New York : Simon & Schuster, 1991
Document: English : Book
Libraries Worldwide: 2615
The effective executive
Author: Drucker, Peter Ferdinand, 1909-
Publication: New York, Harper & Row 1967
Document: English : Book
Libraries Worldwide: 2355
Leadership /
Author: Giuliani, Rudolph W.; Kurson, Ken.
Publication: New York : Hyperion, 2002
Document: English : Book
Libraries Worldwide: 2218
Managing for results;
economic tasks and risk-taking decisions.
Author: Drucker, Peter Ferdinand, 1909-
Publication: New York, Harper & Row 1964
Document: English : Book
Libraries Worldwide: 2052
Managing for excellence :
the guide to developing high performance in contemporary organizations /
Author: Bradford, David L.; Cohen, Allan R.
Publication: New York : Wiley, 1984
Document: English : Book
Libraries Worldwide: 1752
Thinking in time :
the uses of history for decision-makers /
Author: Neustadt, Richard E.; May, Ernest R.
Publication: New York : Free Press ; London : Collier Macmillan, 1986
Document: English : Book
Libraries Worldwide: 1709
Deciding to forego life-sustaining treatment :
a report on the ethical, medical, and legal issues in treatment decisions.
Corp Author: United States., President's Commission for the Study of
Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research.
Publication: Washington, DC : President's Commission for the Study of
Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research :
For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 1983
Document: English : Book
Libraries Worldwide: 1614
Against the gods : the remarkable story of risk /
Author: Bernstein, Peter L. Publication: New York : John Wiley & Sons, 1996
Document: English : Book Internet Resource
Libraries Worldwide: 1598
Teaching students to think critically /
Author: Meyers, Chet, 1942-
Publication: San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, 1986
Document: English : Book
Libraries Worldwide: 1500
Bush at war /
Author: Woodward, Bob.
Publication: New York : Simon & Schuster, 2002
Document: English : Book
Libraries Worldwide: 1487
=====
Quite a different sort of list than the bookstores, who are
concentrating on the bestsellers of the day.
What do you think?
|
Clarification of Question by
6ra3-ga
on
12 Apr 2005 03:28 PDT
Hi Pafalafa,
We're progressing well. Allow me then to suggest what I had mentioned
earlier as one possible route. Lets build a table cross referencing
the different sources of information to qualify books. For example,
Amazon, B&N and the WorldCat database to come up with as close to
reality of a good guess of what are likely the qualified books to be
looked at and move on from there?
What are your thoughts on this and how do you see it being enriched?
Thank you.
-Mao
|
Clarification of Question by
6ra3-ga
on
15 Apr 2005 05:01 PDT
Hello Pafalafa,
I would like to hear feedback from you on how to progress? :-)
-Mao
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
15 Apr 2005 09:09 PDT
Hello Mao,
I'd be glad to cross-walk the lists I provided, to identify the books
in the "top ten" on each list that appear in other lists as well.
This will give you a sense of which books seem to have the broadest
appeal for students, professors and others buying the books.
However, I don't think the cross-walk will result in a list of ten
books. The lists from different sources are so different in
character, that only a few books, such as "Blink -- The Power of
Thinking Without Thinking" appear broadly across this lists.
If you want me to do the cross-walk, let me know, and I'll post the
results as the answer to your question.
Thanks,
paf
|
Clarification of Question by
6ra3-ga
on
15 Apr 2005 14:43 PDT
Hello Pafalafa,
I was merely suggesting a method, though you're more than welcome to
suggest alternatives that you feel would give better results. I'm
also not stuck on ten results, a few would be fine as well.
Do you see a better way?
-Mao
|
