Decision Making Model

4 Pages 989 Words

Making decisions is a major portion of the manager's responsibilities. It is not an aspect that cannot be taken lightly nor can it be done in a hasty manner. Hasty, careless decisions can have devastating results on the manager's department or even for the entire company. Decisions that are made with deliberation using different kinds of processes, however, can lead the department or company to better and/or more profitable operations.
When decisions are indeed made in this manner, the manager should feel confident that he or she has made an appropriate decision and is the best option given the information available at the time. This does not mean to say that the manager will always make the correct decision; lack of information or situational changes can lead to faulty analysis. However, if the manager uses critical thinking and proven successful decision-making strategies, he or she can and should be confident in whatever action they have decided is appropriate. Their own confidence level will, in fact, affect the outcome of their action.
To make an effective and ethical decision, a manager could utilize a decision making model that consists of several, relatively simple steps. The first step in this model would be to gather all of the pertinent facts. By doing this, a manager will ensure that he or she has all of their bases covered. Secondly, a manager will need to create a list of all the stakeholders involved. They would need to ask these simple questions: Who is involved? How will it affect them? What could happen if chose an alternative? Then, utilizing the last question asked, imagine the alternatives that could be taken and then discard those that are clearly wrong. Through this technique, a manager will be able to, figuratively speaking, “weed” out the wrong from the right decisions. Lastly, picture each remaining alternative in terms of some relevant questions and then choose correctly. These questions includ...