The Art of Judgment: A Study of Policy Making

by Geoffrey Vickers

This classic book by Sir Geoffrey Vickers first published 30 years ago speaks to both the student//academic and the practitioner interested in understanding decision-making in organizational settings. As the biographical essay elucidates, Vickers′ ideas arose from his rich and multifaceted career as a practitioner. His work provides for the integration of theory and practice that is without parallel anywhere in the literature. Written in a lively and accessible style The Art of Judgment continues to be a seminal work for scholars seeking to develop an interpretive and critical account of management and organization. This work is a study which transcends both a narrow and scientific view of administrative behaviour an

Genres: Politics

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

Reviews

[BlackOxford · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Aesthetics of Bossiness

Geoffrey Vickers was one of the great thinkers about management in the 20th century. Having left Oxford without a degree in order to enlist, he received the Victoria Cross in WWI, played a key organisational role during WWII, was a senior British civil servant and an advisor to business in Europe and North America,

I met Vickers in 1978 when he spent some time with the Social Systems Science Center at the Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania. He had developed, quite independent of any academic affiliation, a remarkable theory of decision-making which is presented in the Art of Judgement.

The essential concept of this theory is that of ‘appreciation’, by which he means the ability to understand the real intent, the purpose, of those with whom one works or negotiates. These intentions are more frequently than not unstated. They may even be unconscious on the part of the people involved. Nevertheless such intentions can be discerned and, as it were, brought to the surface to be discussed, and possibly altered.

For Vickers, there are two sorts of managerial decisions: operational decisions that cover the routine tasks, emergencies, and foul-ups that occur in any organisation; and policy decisions which are those that concern the criteria set for operational decision-making. It is these latter decisions in which appreciation is of critical importance.

Vickers recognises, and makes his recognition explicit in the title, that appreciation is an aesthetic activity. That is, it has to do with the choice of the standard by which success, improvement, in short, value is to be measured. Once this criterion is established within a business in its various components, most operational decisions are obvious. When such a criterion is absent, chaos tends to reign.

Establishing a unified criterion of value is not an easy task. I can certainly attest to the almost pathological drive in corporate boardrooms to avoid the articulation much less the discussion of what such criteria might be. Mission statements, strategies, action plans, all tend to become irrelevant when an accountant, or financial theorist establishes some arbitrary criterion by fiat - especially when people then get paid on the basis of it. Enron is the classic example of a company run into the ground by unchallenged measures of value.

Having said that, the world of business and governmental organisation is still catching up with Vickers’s thought. Since he wasn’t an academic he left no ‘school’ to publicise and develop his ideas. Since he was never the chief executive of a large company, he carried little weight with the big publishers of business wisdom. And, I suspect, since he was English, he was too reserved and self-effacing to promote his work. Some of us however remember his genius. Others can discover it still in the Art of Judgment.

[Barbara Schmidt-abbey]

This is the 1995 re-edition of Sir Geoffrey Vickers' classic book "The art of Judgement - a study of policy making", originally published in 1965. As the foreword summarizes, Vickers was ahead of his time; and can be regarded as one of the 20th century "premier theorists in the field of management and decision making, along such figures as Chester Barnard and Herbert Simon." It is claimed (and I would tend to agree) that "to date, there is no better treatise on the nature of judgment in policy making and none better suited to the emerging demands of the 21st century.".
Well, there is perhaps hope that some catching up has taken place recently with recognition of complexity and systems in policymaking - and Vickers is highly recommended classic reading and still very much on the leading edge - a book whose time may finally have come?
To sharpen our appreciative settings, this is highly recommended reading.