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Problem Formulation & Identification

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Problem Formulation and Identification
Every day people take decisions of varying importance. Studies have shown that most people have poorer decision-making skills than they think. Understanding what the decision-making process involves will help them make logical decisions. The first step needed in order to achieve this goal is gaining an understanding the decision-making process. Decision-making allows the identification of as many alternatives as possible for choosing the one that has the highest probability of success based on the values and preferences of the decision maker. Very few decisions are taken with absolute certainty because complete knowledge regarding all possible alternatives is unrealistic; therefore, the decision-making process helps people to reduce the uncertainty about alternatives and select the most logical and reasonable one (Harris, 2008). The most common decision-making styles are democratic, autocratic, collective-participative, and consensus. In the democratic style a decision maker gives up his or her control of a decision to a group. Autocratic style occurs when a decision maker maintains the ownership and control of a decision. Collective-participative style occurs when a decision maker encourages ideas and thoughts from others to make the best decision possible. Consensus style occurs when a decision maker gives up the ownership and control and allows the group to make the decision (Development Center Inc., 1997).
Most Favorable Aspects
The collective or participative decision making style is a very popular style; it allows issues to be resolved by using the brainpower of several individuals. The collective or participative style also has the advantage that issues may be examined from different perspectives and therefore, the group can likely reach the best possible decision. However, the collective or participative style

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