The Impacts of Decision Content - Essay Example

?Literature Review According to Bozeman and Pandey (2004), the content of decision is something that has not been attended much despite it being an obvious trait of decision making. To investigate the impacts of decision content, people generally ask questions regarding the decisions of information technology and the cutback of budget. They tend to investigate the effect of content on the time needed to make the decision, the selection of participants, the quality of information and the criteria of decision. Bozeman and Pandey (2004) had hypothesized that lesser red tape is used for making the cutback decisions as compared to the information technology decisions. After a thorough review of primary and secondary sources, their investigation revealed a difference between the decisions of budget cutback and information technology. Cost effectiveness was found to be an important criterion for making the decisions of budget cutback. These decisions took lesser time to be made and were quite volatile in their nature i.e. may alter with time. Here, number of participants was not affected by the content of decision. Contrary to this, cost effectiveness was found unimportant in the decisions of information technology, time consumed in decision making was longer and once made, decisions were generally permanent. This tells that the content of decision can have a great impact on the significance of various criteria, time consumed in the decision making process and the stability of decision. This finding contradicts the conventional understanding that cultivates in the minds of people regarding the factors that affect the process of decision making. In the conventional understanding, the process of decision making is only controlled by the contingencies originating in the environment and the organization. 2. In his research, Nutt (2005) compared the decision making in the public sector with that in the private sector with the help of an experiment. To achieve this, decision making in a business company was compared with that in a governmental agency that was supported with tax. Practices and preferences of mid level managers were captured with the simulation in the public and private sectors. Managers involved in the study were required by simulation to estimate the risks and opportunities of acquiring budgets for the two sectors. In order to design the budget that would be sufficient for an organization functioning in a public and private sector, a cognitive culture was used which placed emphasis on the estimation and bargaining. A controversial and otherwise amount of budget was used for both the cases. Results of their research suggested that managers in public sector make use of networking and bargaining while those in the private sector make use of estimation and assumption. These results were consistent with the hypothesis that public sector managers prefer group decision making whereas private sector managers believe in individualistic capabilities. The research concluded that managers go for budgets that suit their individualistic cognitive style. The difference in the support of budget decisions in the public and private sector managers essentially speaks of the work culture that dwells in the two types of settings. Most works in public sector are done through networking and bargaining, whereas in the private sector, one has to rely on one’s ability and assessment to make the rational decisions. 3. In his research, Al Yahya (2008) studied an integrative multiple links model among three traits, namely the sharing of power-influence in making the decisions, work-related outcomes (WRO) and culture of Saudi Arabian organizations belonging to the public sector. These conceptual associations have not been explored much in the public sector organizations conventionally. Traits of competence as knowledge, ability and skill are used effectively in the participative practices as shown by the model of structural equation. This influences individuals’ thoughts about WRO that include but are not limited to information sharing, predictability and job satisfaction. Reviewing the work of a lot of researchers, Al Yahya (2008) states that conventionally, it is hypothesized that managers have to make independent decisions irrespective of the requirements of organizational culture As a result of his research, Al Yahya (2008) noticed an impact of organizational culture upon the perceived WRO as well as organizational decision making. This research concludes into a lot of lessons useful for the development of organizations and maturity of organizational leadership, specifically in the transiting companies. At different levels of capacity development, public organizations are obliged to modify the decision processes as per the need of the hour. In any organization, decisions are not entirely made as per the individualistic desire of a manager or the collective desire of a group of individuals. In fact, the organizational culture plays a decisive role in the strategic planning and all decisions have to be made in accordance with the organizational culture in order for them to be stable and practicable. 4. According to Carlo (2006), it is important to make innovative processes of public decision particularly in the field of environment management and planning so as to resolve their obdurate conflicts. There has been little to no stress upon inclusion of creativity in the conventional processes of decision making except for some negotiation and learning theories which have been employed in them. In his paper, Carlo (2006) proposed a new conceptualization of innovation in accordance with Winnicott’s psychoanalytical work which refers to psychological defenses in order to make the processes of public decision making more comprehendible without advising the parties. The research explained this conceptualization in the cultural contexts of France AND Quebec. Carlo (2006) realized unconscious side of behaviors and motivations in the participants. To make the decision making more creative and increase the agreeability of the participants, procedural changes were recommended along with a modification in the facilitators’ role. However, the research is limited by the lack of test of the changes thus proposed. The research limited its analysis to few processes of public decision making. Creativity is undoubtedly an important trait of effective decision making. Particularly, a leader should tend to be creative in his approach towards decision making because it helps minimize the oppression and maximize the consensus. Leaders should assess the possible response of participants to their decisions, and come up with innovative answers which the participants can not expect in general. This is one of the secrets of achieving dominance in the decision making. 5. The technology of carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS) has largely been considered as a good mitigation strategy towards the change of climate. However, the technology can not be considered to be viable unless public expresses agreement with the policy decisions made on CCS. In order to check whether interest groups usually acquire a chance to have their say in the process of decision making, Terwel et al. (2010) conducted three experiments in which some students were included. The researchers meant to check if the acceptance of public towards the policy decisions of CCS were affected by the group voice, if the effect was mediated by a trustworthy decision maker. In the first experiment, it was shown that when various interest groups are provided with an opportunity to have their say, they tend to place more confidence in the decision maker. This in turn reduces the oppression towards the leader’s decision. The second experiment meant to check the confidence in leader’s decision when one interest group got an increased opportunity to have its say that the other one. The third experiment displayed that a person’s perception of CCS has an influence on his/her motivation to have his/her say in the process. Terwel et al. (2010) found that people generally like to have their say in the decision making process even if they have no direct involvement in the process. In order to win public’s confidence and approval, it is imperative that leaders give them rationale for taking a certain decision and seek their opinion while making it. 6. In the literature about public administration, it has been emphasized by a lot of theorists that the performance of public sector and public’s confidence in it can be improved by the participation of citizens in the processes of administrative decision making (PDM). In their research, Mizrahi and Vigoda-Gadot (2009) have checked the universality of this perception by maintaining that the PDM processes can not have increased confidence and approval of the public unless the public is provided with routes to impact the outcomes of the policy. Mizrahi and Vigoda-Gadot (2009) have synthesized theoretical arguments that dwell on the social learning mechanism and have referred to Israel as the case study. Referring to the studies conducted by Berner, Irvin and Stansbury, Franklin and Ebdon, Simonsen and Robbins, and Orosz, Mizrahi and Vigoda-Gadot (2009) notify that most of these researchers hold mutual consensus that involvement of citizens in the processes of administrative decision making can enhance the performance of public sector. Thus, these researchers have identified ways to improve the participation of citizens in the administrative decision making. The study has found that social characters and culture are extremely important for planning the reforms of public administration. This does make sense because what public lacks in the administrative leadership is confidence. On national and international level, reforms are made without any consent or approval of the public. In fact leaders tend to keep their decisions secret which fundamentally concern the public. This can and has resulted into the state of anarchy in many countries in the past. 7. Adolescence is an age when children make many irrational decisions and indulge in activities that are full of risk. Many adolescents drink, smoke, drive recklessly, and display violent behavior. It is important to make them leave their bad behaviors for the well-being of themselves as well as that of the society. Programs developed to achieve this should be normative, descriptive as well as prescriptive. In order to design useful programs, an in-sight to the adolescent’s psychology is compulsory. It is obvious that adolescents are full of passion and immaturity. Most of them tend to look for short term goals. Although they do have the tendency to make rational decisions, yet they are way more receptive towards the external factors as compared to adults. Their friends can make them indulge into a certain behavior through peer pressure. They are enthusiastic, passionate and zealous. The zeal reflects in their decisions as well. To improve the adolescents’ decision making ability through interference, Reyna and Farley (2006) conducted an in-depth study of the traditional models in place, and suggested ways to make them more useful and fruitful for the adolescents. The programs designed to improve the adolescents’ behavior should aim at achieving the long term goals. Adults should make the adolescents realize the impact of their individualistic and collective activities on their own lives as well as on the society. Adolescents are full of emotions, so adults need to make use of emotional intelligence to make them think rationally and synthesize their ability to make rational decisions. 8. In the developing countries, scholars of policy studies have conventionally not paid the due attention to decision making. Many of these scholars consider the process of policy making to be driven by external factors particularly if decision has to be made about economy. In their research, Conteh and Ohemeng (2009) employed privatization in place of a case study to investigate the patterns of policy making in the two developing countries; Ghana and Bostwana. The researchers’ objective was to see the way public policy theorists have conventionally made privatization decisions particularly in Africa. The researchers also made an attempt to pick out flaws in their decision making. After conducting a thorough review of many primary and secondary sources, Conteh and Ohemeng (2009) concluded that in the process of decision making in context of the international community, every developing country can not be assumed as a policy hook. The researchers found that developing countries like Bostwana have sufficient administrative and political tendency and resources to make rational privatization decisions, though Ghana is not one of them because of its financial dependence upon IMF and World Bank. Thus, there are few developing countries that assume the tendency to formulate their own policies, though thus depends upon the very country’s dependency upon other countries. A country’s dependence on the external agencies often has a very negative impact on the rapport of government with the public because the government makes biased decisions which go more in favor of the external agencies than the public. 9. In the contemporary age, a lot of public agencies are coping with the pressure of coming up to the expectations of external accountability along with enhancing their performance internally. These are two entirely different sides of the story and both need to be taken care of simultaneously. This raises the question of a balance between the external demands and the employment of performance indicators (PIs) to improve the agency internally. Through his research, Taylor (2009) made an attempt to find an answer for this question by conducting an in-depth analysis of some Australian authorities of public agencies and public accountability. Taylor (2009) also investigated some of the primary factors which usually influence the utilization and effectiveness of PIs in the process of decision making. Australian government introduced the PIs into pubic sector with the view to enhancing its performance and accountability. This required both accountability authorities and the public agencies to mutually make the decisions. Taylor (2009) collected sufficient evidence to believe that PIs are usually used by agencies more for addressing the needs of external reporting than for enhancing the organization internally. He identified certain limitations of the utilization of PIs, many of which were technical issues, and some were issues pertaining to organization or politics. Results derived from using the PIs for the purposes of external accountability alone are not worth the cost incurred in developing and maintaining the performance data. Companies should use the data to improve the internal programs as well in order to get maximum benefit. 10. Campitelli and Gobet (2010) have made an attempt to investigate the cognitive processes used by experts in light of Herbert Simon’s approach towards decision making. Herbert Simon conducted the research to realize the processes that constitute decision making. Despite his valuable work, the results he derived did not affect the “decision making” community. He formulated the notion of bounded rationality by rejecting the concept of perfect rationality. In their research, Campitelli and Gobet (2010) analyzed the role of bounded rationality in critical tools of the processes of decision making presented by Simon in his research. Researchers have conventionally overlooked these tools. Campitelli and Gobet (2010) look for ways to integrate Simon’s approach into the state of the art decision making practices. They were optimistic that this would improve the link between cognitive system and environmental contingencies. Many research paradigms were initiated by Simon’s criticism on the economic models, though many of them developed independently. In psychology, Tversky and Kahneman’s approach controlled the program of decision making, which tested and verified Simon’s approach. Tversky and Kahneman concluded that humans make biased and irrational decisions. Experts who have conventionally not followed Simon have made biased and irrational decisions. Campitelli and Gobet (2010) favored the use of an expertise approach for the research of decision making so that the decision making would reflect generalizability, and link between cognition and environmental contingencies. References: Al-Yahya, K. O., (2008). Power-In?uence in Decision Making, Competence Utilization, and Organizational Culture in Public Organizations: The Arab World in Comparative Perspective. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. 19: 385–40 Bozeman, B., and Pandey, S. K. (2004). Public Management Decision Making: Effects of Decision Content. Public Administration Review. 64(4): 553-565. Campitelli, G., and Gobet, F. (2010). Herbert Simon’s Decision-Making Approach: Investigation of Cognitive Processes in Experts. Review of General Psychology. 14(4): 354-364. Carlo, L. D. (2006). Public Decision Processes, Creativity, and Psychoanalysis. Int. Studies of Mgt. & Org. 36(1): 44–62. Conteh, C., and Ohemen, F. L. K. (2009). The politics of decision making in developing countries: A comparative analysis of privatization decisions in Botswana and Ghana. Public Management Review. 11(1): 57-77. Mizrahi, S., and Vigoda-Gado, E. (2009). Citizens’ Learning, Involvement, and Participation in Decision-Making Under the Democratic Ethos: A Theoretical Framework and the Israeli Experience. Intl Journal of Public Administration. 32: 438–460. Nutt, P. C. (2005). Comparing Public and Private Sector Decision-Making Practices. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. 16: 289–31. Reyna, V. F., and Farley, F. (2006). Risk and Rationality in Adolescent Decision Making: Implications for Theory, Practice, and Public Policy. Association for Psychological Science. 7(1): 1-44. Taylor, J. (2009). Strengthening the link between performance measurement and decision making. Public Administration. 87(4): 853–871. Terwel, B. W., Harinck, F., Ellemers, N., and Daame, D. D. L. (2010). Voice in Political Decision-Making: The Effect of Group Voice on Perceived Trustworthiness of Decision Makers and Subsequent Acceptance of Decisions. Journal of Experimental Psychology. 16(2): 173–186. Read More