Crisis Management Plan
Crisis refers to a sequence of unwanted events leading to major disturbances and uncertainty at the workplace. Crisis is an unexpected event which not only causes harm to the organization but also triggers a feeling of fear and insecurity amongst the individuals. Organizations must be prepared well to face inevitable threats and come out of […]
Interpersonal Relationship Development – Meaning and its Models
A strong association between individuals with similar interests and mindsets is called as interpersonal relationship. No one on this earth can ever stay alone and it is really important for people to have trustworthy friends around. Interpersonal Relationship Development Every relationship needs time to grow. One needs time to come really close to someone and […]
Exponential Change and What it means for Businesses and Workers
Who Remembers these Companies ? Businesses, workers, and governments worldwide are feeling the effects of dizzying change wherein trends that are apparent at the moment are no longer the same in the future even when the future one is talking about is a few years ahead or even a year or so. Consider for example […]
Importance of Audit in Public Sector Organizations
Audit is an instrument, a tool of financial control, which is employed by the public or private sector or an individual to safeguard itself against fraud, extravagance and more importantly to bring credibility to the audited. According to International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions audit is defined as “Evaluation or examination of systems, operations and […]
Negotiation Skills – How to Negotiate Effectively
What is negotiation ? Negotiation is defined as a discussion among individuals, each one trying to present his best idea to come to a conclusion benefiting all. An individual gains nothing out of conflict and misunderstanding; instead it leads to stress and anxiety. It is always advisable to compromise to the best extent possible and […]
Decision making is part of everyone’s life and all of us have to make decisions every moment. Right from choosing what to wear to what to eat to where we live and work and extending to whom we marry, decisions are an integral part of our lives.
In an organizational context, it is worthwhile to note that decision making needs the right kind of information, the complete information and the ability to synthesize and make sense of the information. While the first two attributes depend on external sources, the ability to make informed decisions is a personality trait. Hence, successful CEO’s are those who can take into account the different viewpoints and divergent perspectives and arrive at the right decision.
The business landscape of the current times is littered with examples of companies that have made strategic errors and these are mostly to do with lack of proper decisions taken by the CEO’s and managers in these firms. For instance, the failure of Chrysler and Ford (the automobile majors in the United States) to meet the challenge of competition from Japanese auto majors like Toyota was mostly due to the lack of imaginative decisions that would have responded to the threat in a coherent manner. Of course, it is another matter that these companies (Chrysler in particular) under the stewardship of Lee Iacocca were able to successfully meet the competition by the Japanese because of firm decisions taken by him.
The other aspect that relates to decision making in an organizational context is that there must be complete and accurate information made available to the decision maker. In Economics, there is a term called “asymmetries of information” that indicates how incomplete and insufficient information leads to poor decisions and wrong choices. What this concept means is that having partial information or faulty information often leads to “analysis paralysis” which is another term for poor decision making abilities. Finally, even with reliable and accurate information, the decision maker ought to have good problem solving skills and astute decision making abilities to arrive at sound judgments regarding the everyday problems and issues.
The overriding rule in decision making is that the decision maker ought to have legitimacy and authority over the people who he or she is deciding upon.
In other words, decision makers succeed only when their decisions are honored and followed by the people or groups that the decision impacts. The reason for mentioning this towards the end is that in many cases, the fragmented nature of the organizations with different interests represented by factions often undermines the decision making capabilities of the decision maker. Hence, it is worth mentioning that such authority must be vested with the decision maker.
Hence, it is clear that the topic of decision making encompasses several elements (some of which have been briefly discussed in this article). We hope to cover more of these elements in detail in the subsequent articles and this article is thought of as setting the tone for the rest of the module on decision making.
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