Research and Analysis for Management MGMT 6272 Aug 25 – Nov 7, 2014 Dr. Dennis E. Clayson

1. Research and Analysis for Management MGMT 6272 Aug 25 – Nov 7, 2014 Dr. Dennis E. Clayson

2. The class can be found online at www.business.uni.edu/clayson/mba

3. A business manager must be able to make decisions

4. To make good decisions a manager must have information

5. To use information to make decisions, a manager must know what information is!

6. To use information to make decisions, a manager must know what information is And how information is created

7. To use information to make decisions, a manager must know what information is And how information is created And used

8. Mistake: Not knowing what information is!

9. Managers should not act like this………. Mistake: Not knowing what to do with information!

10. Or like this…. Mistake: Not seeking Information!

11. Much of the information that is utilized for management decisions comes from numbers…. OR is calculated from numbers, OR is explained by numbers….

12. Most people are, however, Inumerate…

13. Most people are, however, Inumerate… i.e. They are illiterate with numbers.

15. Numerical concepts to them are very confusing….

16. Some Americans were very impressed when the government promised to cut $100 million in spending from $2 trillion in spending.

17. Why? Because $100 is larger than $2.

18. They are not quite sure what to do with numbers when they get them……

19. How tall is the Sears Tower?

20. How tall is the International Finance Centre in Hong Kong? Never been there…. No problem….

21. How fast does your hair grow in MPH?

22. Logic and Research

23. For example: What does your experience tell you about this person?

24. What do statistics tell us about this person?

25. Would you change your mind if the statistics tell a different story than your impressions?

26. What is knowing?

27. What are we doing when we are knowing?

28. Everything we KNOW about the outside world comes from our own brains. There is no exception to this!

29. Everything we KNOW has to come from a perception formed by our own mind.

30. Descartes wrote: “Our inquires should be directed not to what others have thought, not to what we ourselves conjecture, but to what we can clearly and perspicuously behold and with certainty deduce; for knowledge is not won in any other way.” Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650)

31. Vico states: “The criterion and rule of the true is to have made it.” The principle states that truth is verified through creation or invention and not through observation. Giambattista Vico (1668 – 1744)

32. The difference: • Knowing something….

33. The difference: • Knowing something…. or 2. Knowing how to do something….

34. Knowing something: implies that we know facts. There are three bones in the inner ear. The equatorial radius of the earth is 6,378.14 meters. The value of pi is 3.14159….

35. 2. Knowing how to do something: Suppose a student “knew that” the value of pi was 3.14159…, does the student know what the circumference of a circle is which has a radius of 4.0 meters?

36. 2. Knowing how to do something: Suppose a student “knew that” the value of pi was 3.14159…, does the student know what the circumference of a circle is which has a radius of 4.0 meters? Not necessarily.

37. Vico made the argument that the student’s knowledge was incomplete until he or she could use that knowledge to create something.

38. In business, it could be argued that both types of knowledge are valuable. Emphasis on one without the other leads to problems when people get lazy.

39. In business, it could be argued that both types of knowledge are valuable. Emphasis on one without the other leads to problems when people get lazy. “Knowing something” tends to rely on ideology.

40. In business, it could be argued that both types of knowledge are valuable. Emphasis on one without the other leads to problems when people get lazy. “Knowing something” tends to rely on ideology. “Knowing how to do something” tends to put more trust in tradition.

41. For example, “How should people be paid?” “Knowing something” would encourage a company or government officer to insist that there be “equal pay for equal work.” This is ideology. It could guide or correct very little, because there are many things which determine salary including other ideologies.

42. For example: Should experienced workers make more than new workers? Should workers with better social skills be paid more? Should someone with a special need be paid more?

43. “How should people be paid?” “Knowing how to do something,” on the other hand, may predispose a company to pay workers in a traditional fashion that has worked well in the past, but which should be replaced by a better system.

44. Knowledge creates knowledge

45. Knowledge creates knowledge because proper knowing creates more knowing!

46. Logic and Research Opinion = Belief or Guess

47. Logic and Research Opinion = Belief or Guess Are all opinions equal?

48. What is this?

50. Knowledge creates knowledge because proper knowing creates more knowing!