Question

When managers make decisions they follow the decision-making steps as presented in this chapter? Which steps are apt to be overlooked or given inadequate attention? What can people do to make sure they do a more thorough job?

(NOTE - - - This discussion question is about the 6-step decision-making process, and whether or not you think managers generally follow that process when they make decisions. And if not, which steps do you think might get overlooked or given less attention. For clarification, the discussion question isn’t necessarily about the end results of the decision, but about the decision-making “process”. )

Answer 1

The 6 steps to be be followed while taking decisions are as follows:

1. Decide on what the problem is at hand. Gather all the necessary information to establish the objective for why this decision is made.
2. Identify all the available alternatives. This is the stage where different sides of the problem is looked into and as many alternative solutions are generated. The alternatives are not weighed at this stage. They are just identified based on different perspectives.
3. At this stage compare all the alternatives generated and evaluate each one of them. The alternatives must be evaluated for their feasibility, risk, impact,cost and benefit. The advantages and disadvantages of each of them can be listed and each one weighed with the other.
4. Decide on one of the best alternative. The problem has been analysed thoroughly from different perspectives and the impact of alternatives have been evaluated. Therefore now a decision can be made and that decision has enough reason to defend it.
5. Once the choice has been made the task at hand is to implement it. The infrastructure required to support the decision is needed and at this stage an idea that was on paper is going get into action.
6. After the implementation of the idea it has to be evaluated to check if it has addressed the problem at hand. This is a very important step as this step will show if the purpose has been met. If not then you have to go back to previous steps and re evaluate or choose other options.

This method of decision making process has been used extensively by organisations. However this is a time consuming process and decision makers are not always faced with the luxury of time. There is too much attention to detail in this process and leads to a delay in decision making. A lot of time, energy, effort and resources have to be put into this process. Markets and environments are very volatile and important decisions cannot be delayed. What is required is an effective option for the situation and not always the best option. The step of generating different alternatives can be perhaps overlooked as this the most time consuming one. The best way is to identify the most effective solution at the shortest possible time as this will have a higher impact. Wasting time in taking decisions will also result in lost opportunities, missed chances and wasted opportunities. Though this is widely accepted model, most of the time companies cannot afford to follow this step be step approach.

Given the lack of time does not mean that decisions have to made hastily. Still the aim is to make the right decision that is going to positively impact the problem at hand. Create a quantitative and qualitative mechanism to filter the decision making process so that effective decisions can be made ar shorter periods of time. Sometimes its important to follow the gut instinct which does not have any analytical support. Sometimes even with advanced analytical data available the gut instinct will be very valuable. Use your knowledge that has been refined and assimilated over the years that has probably been already validated. This could have a higher degree of accuracy because it has already been proved before. Thoroughness in decision making can be achieved by detailed research being done having a meticulous plan in solving the problem.