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Decision Making: the Essence of the Manager’s Job

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DECISION MAKING

• choices from two or more alternative courses of action
• all organizational members make decisions
• involves gathering what information is known, identifying the options and assessing the risk and making the best decisions with the information available in a timely matter
• Decision-Making Process a comprehensive, 8-step process
Developing Alternatives
Developing Alternatives
Allocating Weights to the Criteria
Allocating Weights to the Criteria
Identifying Decision Criteria
Identifying Decision Criteria
Problem Identification
Problem Identification

Evaluating Decision Effectiveness
Evaluating Decision Effectiveness
Implementing the alternative
Implementing the alternative
Selecting an alternative
Selecting an alternative
Analyzing alternative
Analyzing alternative

Step 1 - Identifying a Problem
• must be such that it exerts pressure to act
• manager is unlikely to characterize a situation as a problem unless s/he has resources necessary to act

Step 2 - Identifying Decision Criteria
Decision criteria - what’s relevant in making a decision. What factors are relevant in making a decision

Step 3 - Allocating Weights to the Criteria
Must weight the criteria to give them appropriate priority in the decision. Not all criteria are equally important.

Step 4 - Developing Alternatives
List the viable alternatives that could resolve the problem without evaluating them

Step 5 - Analyzing Alternatives
Each alternative is evaluated against the criteria. Each alternative is evaluated by appraising it against the criteria established in step 2.

Step 6 - Selecting an Alternative
Choosing the best alternative from among those considered

Step 7 - Implementing the Alternative
Implementation - conveying the decision to those affected by it and getting their commitment to it participation in decision-making process

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