The Handbook of Behavioral Operations Management

Over the last decade there has been an explosion of academic interest in the study of Behavioral Operations (Behavioral Ops). Simultaneous concerns have emerged about the adequacy with which now established Behavioral Ops phenomena are dealt with in degree-granting programs and corporate training agendas. Concerns stem from two points: (1) Pedagogical lessons regarding human behavioral are largely cast in the perspectives and terminology of underlying social/psychological theories. This has traditionally made it difficult for teachers of operations management content to link such knowledge to OM teaching plans and materials. (2) Games are seen as a major contribution to Behavioral Operations education, but experiments as described in literature are usually used for scientific research, and often difficult to replicate in teaching settings due to the use of unique proprietary software or insufficient descriptions of methods and materials used. Prior to now, no comprehensive teaching-oriented overview of Behavioral Operations has been available. The Handbook of Behavioral Operations fills this gap, providing easy to access insights into why associated behavioral phenomena exist in specific production and service settings, ready-to-play games and activities that allow instructors to demonstrate the phenomena in class settings, and applicable prescriptions for practice. By design the text serves a dual role as a desk/training reference to those practitioners already in the field, and presents a comprehensive framework for viewing behavioral operations from a systems perspective. As an interdisciplinary book relating the dynamics of human behavior to operations management, the Handbook is an essential resource for practitioners seeking to develop greater system understanding among their workers, as well as for instructors interested in emphasizing the practical relevance of behavior in operational settings.