Curious Observation – First Step in Decision Making Process
February 12, 2025
Reinforcement theory of motivation was proposed by BF Skinner and his associates. It states that individual’s behaviour is a function of its consequences. It is based on “law of effect”, i.e, individual’s behaviour with positive consequences tends to be repeated, but individual’s behaviour with negative consequences tends not to be repeated. Reinforcement theory of motivation […]
It is important for any team to make an assessment of their current strengths. This will provide the basis for a plan in order to increase the effectiveness of the team in order to achieve the organizational goals. Team contracts are meant to outline the ground rules for the team. It is important for the […]
Whether it is a job interview or a follow-up interview with selected respondents who filled a survey questionnaire, it is essential that right questions are asked. However, asking a right question is just not it… There is more to conducting effective interviews. Read on to know how an interview conversation can be made effective… Avoid […]
The MeToo movement has caused ripples across the entire world. The fact that some of the most prominent and powerful men in the world are harassing their female colleagues has been a shocking revelation to many. It has also opened the potential for many lawsuits. Companies that continue to keep accused on their payroll are […]
The critical role of public administration as defined by John Rohr (a leading scholar of the US Constitution and its relation to public administration and civil servants) is governing the society. The authors have also argued that a government can exist without a legislature, even without a judiciary but never without administration. The government will […]
Decision-making is an integral part of modern management. Essentially, Rational or sound decision making is taken as primary function of management. Every manager takes hundreds and hundreds of decisions subconsciously or consciously making it as the key component in the role of a manager.
Decisions play important roles as they determine both organizational and managerial activities.
A decision can be defined as a course of action purposely chosen from a set of alternatives to achieve organizational or managerial objectives or goals. Decision making process is continuous and indispensable component of managing any organization or business activities.
Decisions are made to sustain the activities of all business activities and organizational functioning.
Decisions are made at every level of management to ensure organizational or business goals are achieved. Further, the decisions make up one of core functional values that every organization adopts and implements to ensure optimum growth and drivability in terms of services and or products offered.
As such, decision making process can be further exemplified in the backdrop of the following definitions.
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary the term decision making means - the process of deciding about something important, especially in a group of people or in an organization.
Trewatha & Newport defines decision making process as follows:, “Decision-making involves the selection of a course of action from among two or more possible alternatives in order to arrive at a solution for a given problem”.
As evidenced by the foregone definitions, decision making process is a consultative affair done by a comity of professionals to drive better functioning of any organization. Thereby, it is a continuous and dynamic activity that pervades all other activities pertaining to the organization.
Since it is an ongoing activity, decision making process plays vital importance in the functioning of an organization. Since intellectual minds are involved in the process of decision making, it requires solid scientific knowledge coupled with skills and experience in addition to mental maturity.
Further, decision making process can be regarded as check and balance system that keeps the organisation growing both in vertical and linear directions. It means that decision making process seeks a goal.
The goals are pre-set business objectives, company missions and its vision. To achieve these goals, company may face lot of obstacles in administrative, operational, marketing wings and operational domains. Such problems are sorted out through comprehensive decision making process.
No decision comes as end in itself, since it may evolve new problems to solve. When one problem is solved another arises and so on, such that decision making process, as said earlier, is a continuous and dynamic.
A lot of time is consumed while decisions are taken. In a management setting, decision cannot be taken abruptly. It should follow the steps such as
Since decision making process follows the above sequential steps, a lot of time is spent in this process. This is the case with every decision taken to solve management and administrative problems in a business setting. Though the whole process is time consuming, the result of such process in a professional organization is magnanimous.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *