Work Simplification: Creative Thinking about Work Problems by Robert N. LehrerReview by: Robert H. RoyOperations Research, Vol. 7, No. 3 (May - Jun., 1959), p. 409Published by: INFORMSStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/166858 .

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The Analysts' Bookshelf 409

well-rounded, straightforward, logical presentation. The reader shares the authors' many years of experience in this field.

ROBERT S. WEINBERG

IBM Corporation

ROBERT N. LEHRER, Work Simplification: Creative Thinking about Work Problems, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1957,

394 pages, $9.25

T HIS IS by no means a book for the sophisticated operations analyst but it should serve well in organizations where management is seeking to motivate

supervisors and rank and file workers to look critically and constructively at their own jobs. While there is no specific statement that this is the audience to which the book is directed, there is at least implication that this is the case; exposition throughout not only is kept at a very simple and understandable level but the tone is exhortative rather than analytical.

The reader is told, for example, that there are "Seven Magic Steps to Better Work Methods" and each of these begins with initial letters forming the word "Improve." Other chapters instruct the reader to "Get the Facts," to "Analyze the Facts," to "Check and Evaluate," to "Validate Improvements." Such good advice is more likely to inform and inspire workers than scientists and scholars in operations research. The copious illustrations throughout the book have this same quality-to make it as easy as possible for the reader to comprehend.

One attribute of the book is important and desirable: The author evinces a thorough understanding and appreciation of the importance of human values in the dynamics of work situations, an area often neglected in more analytical treat- ments of this same subject.

Executives seeking suitable means for spreading the gospel of work simplification throughout their organizations will find this a useful book.

ROBERT H. ROY The Johns Hopkins University

PAUL WASSERMAN with FRED S. SILANDER, Decision-Making: An Anno- tated Bibliography, Graduate School of Business and Public Administra-

tion, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 1958, 111 pages, $3.50

T HIIS excellent bibliography contains references to 420 books and articles; it thus ". . . clearly falls short of completeness. Instead it provides details

for only those materials considered to be the most relevant. Abstracts are de- scriptive rather than critical; criticism is exercised only by virtue of inclusion or exclusion. Material published through September 1957 has been included. For the most part, material published since 1945 has been selected" (p. v).

The bibliography itself is divided into eight main sections, two of which are further subdivided, as follows:

I. The decision-making process-general and theoretical material (74 items) II. Values and ethical considerations in decision-making (35 items)

III. Leadership as a factor in decision-making (62 items)

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