Making Decisions

The eight steps in the decision-making process (P-45)

Decision - A choice among two or more Alternatives

 Step 1: Identify a Problem (P-46)

Problem - An obstacle that makes it difficult to achieve a desired goal or purpose
 Step 2: Identify Decision Criteria (P-47)
Decision criteria - Criteria that define what’s important or relevant to resolving a problem
 Step 3: Allocate Weights to the Criteria (P-48)
 Step 4: Develop Alternatives (P-48)
 Step 5: Analyze Alternatives (P-48)
 Step 6: Select an Alternative (P-49)
 Step 7: Implement the Alternative (P-49)
 Step 8: Evaluate Decision Effectiveness (P-49)

The four ways managers make decisions (P-50)

Approaches to Decision Making (P-50)

 Rationality (P-50)
 Rational decision making-Describes choices that are logical and consistent and maximize value

 Bounded Rationality (P-51)

 Bounded rationality - Decision making that’s rational, but limited (bounded) by an individual’s
ability to process information
 Satisfice - Accept solutions that are “good enough”
 Escalation of commitment - An increased commitment to a previous decision despite evidence
it may have been wrong

 Intuition (P-51)

 Subconscious mental processing

 Values or ethics based decisions
 Experience-based Decisions
 Affect-initiated Decisions
 Cognitive-based decisions
  Evidence-Based Management (P-52)

 Evidence-based management (EBMgt)

The systematic use of the best available evidence to improve management practice

The four essential elements of EBMgt are:

(1) The decision maker’s expertise and judgment

(2) External evidence that’s been evaluated by the decision maker
(3) Opinions, preferences, and values of those who have a stake in the decision; and
(4) Relevant organizational (internal) factors such as context, circumstances, and organizational
members.

Decisions and decision-making conditions (P-53)

Types of Decisions (P-53)

1. Structured Problems And Programmed Decisions (P-54)

 Structured problems - Straightforward, familiar, and easily defined problems

 Programmed decision - A repetitive decision that can be handled by a routine approach

 Procedure - A series of sequential steps used to respond to a well-structured problem

 Rule - An explicit statement that tells managers what can or cannot be done
 Policy - A guideline for making decisions

2. UNSTRUCTURED PROBLEMS AND NONPROGRAMMED DECISIONS (P-54)

 Unstructured problems - Problems that are new or unusual and for which information is
ambiguous or incomplete

 Non programmed decisions - Unique and nonrecurring decisions that require a custom-made
solution

Decision-Making Conditions (P-55)

1. Certainty- A situation in which a manager can make accurate decisions because all outcomes are
known

2. Risk-A situation in which the decision maker is able to estimate the likelihood of certain
outcomes
 3. Uncertainty- A situation in which a decision maker has neither certainty nor reasonable
probability estimates available

How biases affect decision making (P-58)

Heuristics - Rules of thumb that managers use to simplify decision making

Common Decision Making Biases (P-59)

1. Overconfidence - When decision makers tend to think they know more than they do or hold
unrealistically positive views of themselves and their performance, they’re exhibiting the
overconfidence bias.
2. Immediate Gratification- tend to want immediate rewards and to avoid immediate costs
3. Anchoring Effect- how decision makers fixate on initial information as a starting point and then,
once set, fail to adequately adjust for subsequent information
4. Selective Perception-When decision makers selectively organize and interpret events based on
their biased perceptions
5. Confirmation- Decision makers who seek out information that reaffirms their past choices and
discounts information that contradicts past judgments
6. Framing-when decision makers select and highlight certain aspects of a situation while excluding
others
7. Availability- when decision makers tend to remember events that are the most recent and vivid
in their memory
8. Representation - When decision makers assess the likelihood of an event based on how closely
it resembles other events or sets of events
9. Randomness- the actions of decision makers who try to create meaning out of random events.
10. Sunk Costs- when decision makers forget that current choices can’t correct the past
11. Self-serving- Decision makers who are quick to take credit for their successes and to blame
failure on outside factors
12. Hindsight- The tendency for decision makers to falsely believe that they would have accurately
predicted the outcome of an event once that outcome is actually known

Effective decision-making techniques (P-62)

Guidelines for Effective Decision Making (P-62)

 Understand cultural differences

 Create standards for good decision making
 Know when it’s time to call it quits
 Use an effective decision-making process
 Develop your ability to think clearly
Design Thinking and Decision Making (P-63)

Design thinking- Approaching management problems as designers approach design problems.

For instance, A traditional manager (educated in a business school, of course) would take the options
that have been presented and analyze them based on deductive reasoning and then select the one with
the highest net present value. However, using design thinking, a manager would say, ‘what is something
completely new that would be lovely if it existed but doesn’t now?’

Design thinking means opening up your perspective and gaining insights by using observation and
inquiry skills and not relying simply on rational analysis.

Big Data and Decision Making (P-64)

 Big data-The vast amount of quantifiable information that can be analyzed by highly
sophisticated data processing
 Big data, no matter how comprehensive or well analyzed, needs to be tempered by good
judgment