Professor George Wright, BSc, PhD

Professor of Management
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 45427
Fax: +44 (0) 191 33 45201
Room number: 117

Contact (email at george.wright@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

George previously held academic positions at Leeds University Business School, London Business School, and Strathclyde Graduate Business School, where he was Deputy Director. George has undertaken a wide range of consultancy and workshop-based assignments in scenario thinking and decision analysis. He has also designed and delivered management development workshops on decision making, scenario thinking, and strategic analysis, for a variety of public and private sector organizations across the world. George’s books include “Decision Analysis for Management Judgment” (4th Edition, Wiley, 2009, co-authored), “Strategic Decision making: A best practice blueprint” (Wiley, 2001), and The Sixth Sense: Accelerating Organizational Learning with Scenarios” (Wiley, 2002, co-authored).

Research Interests

George researches into the role and quality of management judgment in decision making and in anticipating the future. Are such judgments well-made or are there pitfalls and flaws? In fact, sometimes judgment is flawed and decision aiding techniques - such as scenario thinking and decision analysis can be utilised to improve judgment. George is the Founding Editor of Journal of Behavioral Decision Making and Associate Editor of two forecasting Journals: International Journal of Forecasting and Journal of Forecasting. He is also an Associate Editor of Decision Support Systems. His publications have appeared in a range of US-based management journals - including Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Management Science, and the Strategic Management Journal. In 2001, he was asked, by the Royal Swedish Academy of Social Sciences, to nominate for the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. The eventual winner, Daniel Kahneman, published several of his research papers on behavioral decision making - the interface between economics and psychology in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making.

Research Groups

Selected Publications

Books: authored

  • GOODWIN, P. & WRIGHT, G. 2004. Decision Analysis for Management Judgment. Chichester and New York: John Wiley and Sons.
  • VAN der HEIJDEN, K., BRADFIELD, B., BURT, G., CAIRNS, G. & WRIGHT, G. 2002. The Sixth Sense Accelerating Organizational Learning through Scenarios. Chichester and New York: John Wiley and Sons.
  • Wright, G. 2001. Strategic Decision Making; A Best Practice Blueprint. Chichester and New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Journal papers: academic

  • Wright, G. & Goodwin, P. 2009. Decision making and planning under low levels of predictability: enhancing the scenario method. International Journal of Forecasting 25(4): 813-825. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • O’Keefe, M. & Wright, G. (in press). 2009. Non-receptive organizational contexts and scenario planning interventions: A demonstration of inertia in the strategic decision-making of a CEO despite strong pressure for a change. Futures forthcoming.
  • Wright, G., Cairns, G. & Goodwin, P. 2009. Teaching scenario planning: lessons from practice in academe and business. European Journal of Operational Research 194(1): 323-335. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • Goodwin, P. & Wright, G. 2009. The limits of forecasting methods in anticipating rare events. Technological Forecasting and Social Change forthcoming.
  • Wright, G., Fletcher, K., Donaldson, B. & Lee, J.H. 2008. Sales force automation systems: an analysis of factors underpinning the sophistication of deployed systems in the UK financial services industry. Industrial Marketing Management 37(8): 992-1004. (View publication online)
  • Wright, G., Van der Heijden, K., Burt, G., Bradfield, R, & Cairns, G. 2008. Scenario planning interventions in organizations: an analysis of the causes of success and failure. Futures 40(3): 218-236. (View publication online)
  • Hodgkinson, G.P. & Wright, G. 2006. Neither completing the practice turn, nor enriching the process tradition: Secondary misinterpretations of a case analysis reconsidered. Organization Studies 27: 1895-1901.
  • Wright, G., Bolger, F. & Rowe, G. 2002. An empirical test of the relative validity of expert and lay judgments of risk. Risk Analysis 22: 1107-1122.
  • Hodgkinson, G.P. & Wright, G. 2002. Confronting strategic inertia in a top management team Learning from failure. Organization Studies 23(6): 949-977. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • Wright, G. & Goodwin, P. 2002. Eliminating a framing bias by using simple instructions to 'think harder' and respondents with managerial experience: comment on breaking the frame. Strategic Management Journal 23(11): 1059-1067. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • Rowe, G. & Wright, G. 2001. Differences in expert and lay judgements of risk: myth or reality? Risk Analysis 21(2): 341-356. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • Goodwin, P. & Wright, G. 2001. Enhancing strategy evaluation in scenario planning A role for decision analysis. Journal of Management Studies 38(1): 1-16. (Additional information) (View publication online)

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Supervises