Decision Making : An Essential Skill Of A Productive And Successful Manager

Managers within organizations are faced with the challenges daily of making excellent decisions. In everyday life we are challenged in making sound decision, decision that will last for a life time. Folk often wonder after making a decision if it was the right choice, will it affect the people around me, was this a good choice for my family, and will the decision affect them. In order to be an effective manager you have to possess the skill of outstanding decision making skills. In order for one to be successful within their personal life they may also need to possess an understanding of effective decision making. The decision- making process should be one that makes a positive change. Can the decision making process work

This paper looks at the main issues faced by decision makers, analyses them, presents alternatives and makes recommendations based on the analysis.

People should make decisions every day, some of those decisions are easy to make, while others are quite difficult to implement. An appropriately combined and organized decision-making process will help to control this issue and bring a positive outcome for those involved. The decision-making process may become challenging for people due to “the lack of structure and entail risk, uncertainly and conflict” (Bateman and Snell, 2012, p. 86). That is why people trying to make important personal or professional decisions should have an appropriate model to follow in order to avoid these challenges. Bateman and Snell identified six steps or stages of decision-making process

Rational decision is a state of being agreeable to reasons. The correct decision is not just reasoned but it is also optimal for solving a problem. Mr Weekes, the operation manager, employed series of analytical steps to review possible outcomes for problems by discussing it with managers to come up withdevise particular courses of action.

The first step in the decision making process is to gather information about the problem. The best method to acquire this information is from the users through

Decision-making is the act of choosing one alternative from among the set of alternatives. The decision-making process is recognising and defining the nature of decision situation, identifying alternatives, choosing the best alternative, and putting it into practice. (Griffin R, 2012). Decision making process also helps businesses allocate scarce resources by individuals or groups to achieve goals under conditions of uncertainty and risk. Sometimes, groups choose better decisions than individuals. It is important to realise that effectiveness of decision is different than ease of decision. Once goal has been established, managers could adopt the classical model or the rational decision making model. There is also a risk of uncertainty which states that the manager does not know all the possible alternatives and their possible consequences. In this issue, rational decision making is used.

The decision making process includes cognitive processes that eventually lead to a choice in action while taking into consideration the alternative possibilities (Allen, Dorozenko, & Roberts, 2016). Not all choices have to lead to an action. The values and preferences of the person making the choice also comes into play when making the final decision. Problem-solving to obtain a certain goal or satisfactory by a solution is the main reason people go through the decision making process (Stefaniak, & Tracey, 2014). This process has many factors that end with one final result or solution. The decisions made can be rational or irrational and can be determined by explicit or tacit knowledge (Qingyao, Dongyu, & Weihua, 2016). Since the decision making process can be very difficult at time, psychologists have viewed the process in different perspectives to get a better understanding (Rossi, Picchi, Di Stefano, Marongiu, & Scarsini, 2015). The different perspectives include; psychological, cognitive, and normative or communicative rationality.

As stated by Prasad (2008), the managers should identify the different choices available in order to get most acceptable outcome of a decision. From searching different alternatives the managers can evade blocks in operations as choices are suitable if a particular idea goes wrong. Khanka (2000) expresses the view that selections can developed from in many ways such as can get from sources like experience, do training other organizations, and take others ideas and suggestions related in problems. Furthermore to improve alternatives solution the managers may investigation the signs of a problem for clues or fall back on intuition or result that stated by Griffin and Moorhead (2010). For an example in marketing department a non-programmed decision is compulsory the manager have to produce alternatives for raise market share. As McShane and Von Glinow (2000) pointed out that in a programmed decision is a standard operations is not to generate choice but can take out from the documented that already saved. Next an organizer should search the mission of a decision. In other words they need to define what is to be accomplished by it (Quick & Nelson, 2013). The decision criteria are important as mentioned by Dubrin (2002). The several criteria are consumers must aware of varies in quality of products, there not happen inflation, workers must consider the quality of improvements and lastly job satisfaction should not be reduce.

The concept of ‘rationality’ has been talked through the centuries. According to Grey (2013), rationality is a big question because of this proposition which has the meaning and difficulties seem to be defining of a whole set of issues which have resonated through both organisation theory and practice ever since. And rationality is the basis of a decision, rational decision makers are objective and logical, they reach the goal that maximises the value. Not only rationality is important to organisations, and also it can be identified in various kinds of management theories. This essay will introduce the different aspects of the concept of ‘rationality’ and make explanations that how these are recognised in different management theories.

Thinking critically and making decisions are important parts of today’s business environment. It is important to understand how the decision making process works and the steps involved. The nine steps of the decision making process are: identifying the problem, defining criteria, setting goals and objectives, evaluating the effect of the problem, identifying the causes of the problem, framing alternatives, evaluating impacts of the alternatives, making the decision, implementing the decision, and measuring the impacts. (Decision, 2007.) By using various methods and tools to assist in making important business decisions an individual can ensure the decisions they make will be as successful as possible. In this paper it

The decision making process can also be divided into seven steps, where the first step will basically involve defining the problem. These steps allow for the main issue to be identified, and therefore the manager should make sure that it has been done correctly. After the problem identification stage, we can move forward and identify the limiting factors, and in this the manager should make use of all resources available to do it the best way. Some of the resources include information, time, personnel, equipment and supplies. Using this, managers can be able to identify the factors that might hinder them from achieving their goals.

2) Decision about the organizational policy which is strongly related to organizational complexity and not on the degree of formalization.

Inadequate information, data, and knowledge. For rational decision-making to be accurate, reliable, and complete, information about various aspects of the problem under investigation is necessary. Possible future trends can be estimated with the help of such information. This facilitates rational decision-making. However, adequate and reliable information may not be available at the time of decision-making. As a result, the decisions may become defective or irrational or may prove faulty in the course of time. This is how decisions become irrational.

‘Decision-making is often referred to as the heart of the management process’ (Mann, cited in Hussien Ahmad Al-Tarawneh 2011, p. 3). It is no doubt to say that. With the fast moving pace of today’s global and high competitive market, many organizations have incorporated decision-making as part of their organizational operations in order to lead them to a successful organization. Just like how Kinicki & Kreitner have defined decision-making as ‘identifying and choosing solutions that lead to a desired end result’ (2009, p. 248). Tan and Shen (2000) also noted that for a successful strategic planning, decision-making is essential. As such, many would agree that decision-making becomes a process of selecting the best option that one can benefit from the different available options.

Decision analysis provides powerful techniques to structure complex problems, identify optimal choices, and facilitate communication between the decision analyzer and the person makes the decision. One of the most important values of these techniques is that they enable decision making to be rational rather than intuitive or holistic. They provide a framework for rational decision making in an uncertain environment.