Raiffa (emeritus, managerial economics, Harvard Business School) attempts a synthesis of four approaches to decision making: decision analysis, behavioral decision making, game theory, and negotiation analysis. His work is aimed primarily at prescriptively helping negotiators analyze their tasks in organizational group decision-making settings. Belknap Press is an imprint of Harvard U. Press. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) This masterly book substantially extends Howard Raiffas earlier classic, The Art and Science of Negotiation. It does so by incorporating three additional supporting strands of inquiry: individual decision analysis, judgmental decision making, and game theory. Each strand is introduced and used in analyzing negotiations. The book starts by considering how analytically minded parties can generate joint gains and distribute them equitably by negotiating with full, open, truthful exchanges. The book then examines models that disengage step by step from that ideal. It also shows how a neutral outsider (intervenor) can help all negotiators by providing joint, neutral analysis of their problem.Although analytical in its approach--building from simple hypothetical examples--the book can be understood by those with only a high school background in mathematics. It therefore will have a broad relevance for both the theory and practice of negotiation analysis as it is applied to disputes that range from those between family members, business partners, and business competitors to those involving labor and management, environmentalists and developers, and nations.
