Decision Makers at Fox Sports, a unit of 21st Century Fox, paid $200 million for the U.S. English-language rights to broadcast the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Moscow. Over a four-and-a-half week span, this was to be, by far, the biggest production undertaken in Fox Sports history . . . more than 350 hours of programming across multiple networks and digital platforms.1 Everything seemed to be proceeding as planned until the U.S. team lost to Trinidad and Tobago—a loss that meant the U.S. team would not participate in the sport’s premier tournament. Without the U.S. team, the network faced possible lower viewership, meaning a tougher time selling advertising (the major source of revenue for the network) and not being able to meet the “guarantees” on audience exposure. For Fox Sports, significant revenue was at stake. Was this, then, a bad decision? Our debunked myth suggests that if the initial process used by the decision makers at Fox Sports was thorough and reasonable, then no, it was not a bad decision. A real-world factor—the unexpected U.S. team loss—outside the company’s control affected the outcome. Despite this, decision makers at Fox Sports adapted to the new circumstances and decided to put greater effort into storytelling and marketing. After all, many World Cup advertisers were global companies that still wanted to get out the message about their brands to large global audiences.

Managers at all organizational levels and in all areas make a lot of decisions—routine and nonroutine; minor and major. The overall quality of those decisions goes a long way in determining an organization’s success or failure. To be a successful manager—and to be a valued employee—you need to know about decision making. In this chapter, we’ll look at types of decisions and how decisions should be made. But we’ll also consider some common biases and errors that can undermine the quality of decisions and discuss contemporary issues facing managerial decision makers.