Product Description

Anyone who watches the television news has seen images of firefighters rescuing people from burning buildings and paramedics treating bombing victims. How do these individuals make the split-second decisions that save lives? Most studies of decision making, based on artificial tasks assigned in laboratory settings, view people as biased and unskilled. Gary Klein is one of the developers of the naturalistic decision making approach, which views people as inherently skilled and experienced. This work documents human strengths and capabilities. Since 1985 Klein has conducted fieldwork to find out how people tackle challenges in difficult, nonroutine situations. This book is based on observations of humans acting under such real-life constraints as time pressure, high stakes, personal responsibility, and shifting conditions. The professionals studied include firefighters, critical care nurses, pilots, nuclear power plant operators, battle planners, and chess masters. Each chapter builds on key incidents and examples to make the description of the methodology and phenomena more vivid. In addition to providing information that can be used by professionals in management, psychology, engineering, and other fields, the book presents an overview of the research approach of naturalistic decision making and discusses the strengths people bring to difficult tasks.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60413 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 348 pages

Customer Reviews

Studies of expert decision making and when it goes wrong
A rather grandiose title, but I think the subtitle is more apt for what this book explains. This book looks at a wide variety of case studies from how tank commanders operate in combat situations to how expert fire fighters are effective. The book explores how experts learn and adapt to situations quicker than novices, the effect of pressure on people’s ability to make decisions and how they go about making those decisions, the best methods for learning and conveying knowledge and minimum information people need to effectively carry out orders.

A very readable book that talks to the reader
Although I am not a professional in this area, I have had many experiences that required me to learn how people make decisions. This book goes a long way toward explaining these processes and provides plenty of examples to learn from. Not only does Gary Klein present his results, he covers how the data were obtained, its analysis, his assumptions, and how the conclusions were reached. It provides great insight into one's own thinking and decision making process. I was truly amazed at how readable this book was and how thoroughly real life examples were analyzed. I would recommend it to anyone in any field.

Required reading for anyone interested in studying decisions
Gary Klein is something of a guru in the decision making research field but with this book, he makes his ideas available to a broader audience. My research is in the emergency decisions Fire Officers have to make and I have found operational command trainers find this book more useful than any other available at the moment. At the same time the interested observer will find the examples fascinating.