Decision Making Structure

For our toy making company, we have considered two important decisions that have to be
taken by the manager. For making changes to the existing model due to a fall in sales, we
follow The Rational Model, and for designing a new product, we use The Unstructured
Model of Decision Making.

For making changes in existing model - The Rational Model:

Generate alternative
Identify and define Select solution and
solutions to the
the problem implement it
problem

In the rational model, decision-making is a three-stage process, with the first step being to
identify and define the problem that needs to be solved. Then the manager in the organisation
gives his input to the design engineers and, based on that, they generate alternative solutions
to the problems. At the final stage, the manager selects a solution that is best for the
organisation and implements it.

 Based on the feedback from the retailers and customers and sales reports, the
managers identify problems that need to be resolved and analyse them based on
the information available.
 In the next stage, the manager makes a decision whether to continue with the
product post modifications or to scrap it. If they decide to continue the product
with some modifications, then, based on his/her decision, our design engineers
make alternate designs to solve the problem they have identified.
 Then the manager compares all the available designs and decides which course of
action offers the best solution for the organization.

For designing a new product - The Unstructured Model:

While designing a new product, the environment is unknown to the organization. Hence, the
decisions made by the managers will be constantly interrupted due to this uncertainty in the
environment. In that situation, they have to find alternate solutions to the problems they
identified and go back to the initial stage to rectify the problem. The process continues in the
same manner.

 Managers/Decision-makers have to keep things like safety requirements, government

forces, new competitors, new markets, etc. in their conscience while making a
decision to introduce a new product into the market.
 While designing and manufacturing they may encounter roadblocks like issues in
safety standards, procurement of raw materials etc., they again have to go back and
rethink the alternatives.
 The process is repeated till they introduce the product to the market. Thus, decision-
making is not a linear, sequential process but a process that evolves unpredictably in
an unstructured way.