Management Decision Models

Assignment 3: Moneyball

Moneyball, a book by Michael Lewis (2003), highlights how creativity, framing, and robust technical analysis all played a part in the development of a new approach to talent management in baseball. It also exhibited great examples of the biases and psychological pitfalls that plague decision makers.

Review the article “Who’s on First?” by Thaler & Sunstein (2003) from this module’s assigned readings. This article reviews the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis.

Write a critique of the article including the following points:

• Examine why sabermetric-based player evaluation is such a shock to other executives in baseball.
• Evaluate why Beane is much more effective in his success by constructing a matrix of pitfalls and heuristics that highlight the differences between Beane’s team and other executives.
• Moneyball highlights how people tend to overestimate the likelihood of success and end up facing financial loss—in this case, it meant forfeiting millions of dollars. Analyze a professional or personal decision (yours or otherwise) that highlights this predilection in spite of substantial losses.
• Explain how you would apply Moneyball’s management lessons in your own endeavors.

Write a 3–5-page paper in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources. Use the following file naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M1_A3.doc.

By Wednesday, January 8, 2014, deliver your assignment to the M1 Assignment 3 Dropbox.