Organization Behavior: Decision Making - Assignment Example

Organization Behavior: Decision Making Organization Behavior: Decision Making Organization behavior is the study of the nature of an organization, groups, and a person dynamics. Ray (2011) points out that organization behavior aims at studying all the factors that arise when individuals interact with an organization. People from different cultures and backgrounds have to work together in organizations setting and still become effective and achieve the desired results. Understanding an individual personality is the key to achieving success in an organization. Kepner and Tregoe (2005) continue to say that the character of a person is the skills and competencies a person possess with other traits like attitudes and grooming. Decision-making in an individuals life is based on perception. Perception in human beings is a process by which an individual interprets their sensory impressions so as to give meaning to their surrounding. Organizations face problems that need an individual employee or the entire top management to make a decision on what option to undertake. According to Ehrgott (2011), decisions in an organization lies in a situation like what marketing strategy to employ, what suppliers to adopt, who to hire and what new investments to make. Decisions are made all the way from the top management to the general staff of the organization. Decisions can be done as an individual or as a group of people, Ehrgott (2011). Modern technologies are changing how decisions are being made in organizations. Grant (2011) says the despite the involvement of technology in decision making in an organization, and the human being always makes the final decision after considering the options presented by decision support systems. The current decision-making trends in 21st-century organizations are RAPID and rational decision-making. Rational decision-making is widely used in many global organizations since it uses facts and statistics to come up with the next decision to choose, Grant (2011). Grant (2011) continues to say that facts for decision-making are reliable due to the highly sophisticated statistical software they use to generate them. Rational decision-making is an analytical process that makes fact-based decisions. The systematic process of decision making in most organizations nowadays is done through the decision support system. According to Stephen (2005), decision support systems are used for problems that are not well specified or less structured for mostly the upper-level managers. DSS incorporates knowledge-based systems that analyze organizational data to create a best case scenario for the managers to make a decision on it. Decision support systems are used by managers to make decisions with regards to comparing the sales figures, information on inventories and the projected revenues for the company, Ehrgott (2011). Rational Model The analytical models apply rational decision-making procedures to come up with the most appropriate decision in certain situations. The model uses six steps that have to be followed so as to come up with a decision. The steps are; Definition of the problem Kepner and Tregoe (2005) say that a global organization should have specific goals that it needs to achieve within certain periods. They continue to say that goals can be increase profit margins, reduce daily expenditure or even identifying new suppliers or acquiring raw material for a production firm. Identifying the goals is the basis for creating and defining a problem that needs to be solved. According to Kepner and Tregoe (2005), defining the problem that is the first step of the rational model is the most important step in decision-making. A good definition will positively affect the quality of the decision that will be arrived at in the end. A manager should also define the situation that led to the problem arising. Identifying the decision criteria. Identifying the decision criteria involves choosing variables that will in the end determine the outcome of the decision. The rules to follow is dependent on the organization top managements beliefs and values and the statistics generated by other technologies like DSS. The criteria might be analyzing what effects certain rules will have on employees, how it will affect production or the quality of the services or the products the company is offering, Erghott (2011). Allocating weights to the criteria When the several rules have been formulated, the people making the decisions should rank the criteria in order of importance. According to Kepner and Tregoe (2005), the most important criteria are the one that will have the most weight in making the decision. When an approach has been identified as the most important, the other criteria are awarded weight equally. developing alternatives The step involves listing the various viable alternatives the management will consider. Ehrgott (2011) says that an organization is more likely to conduct a lengthy and thorough search of alternatives when the problem being solved affects more people. Evaluating alternatives Evaluating alternatives requires the management making the decision to answer the following three fundamental question: “Is the said alternative feasible?”, “is the alternative satisfactory?” and “what effects will the alternative have on the people, shareholders or employees of the company?”, Grant (2011). Grant (2011) points out that answering the questions will give the management a critical insight if the job can be done. The management will know the extent to which the solution solves the underlying problem and what are the effects the solution will have on all the involved parties and stakeholders. Choosing the best alternative. Choosing the best alternative is done after narrowing down to a few alternatives in the evaluation step. The basis of choosing the best option should be on how close the outcomes from the chosen alternative come to achieving the desired goals. The management should select from at list two choices that can be implemented when the first option fails or is not entirely functional, Stephen (2005). Implementing the Decision The management now applies the alternative they have chosen by either investing most of their resources or time in the alternative. Evaluating decision effectiveness A decision might still fail to produce the required results, and a solution should, therefore, be evaluated (Stephen, 2005). The solution might fail because of incorrect problem definition, inadequate evaluation of alternatives or poor implementation of the suggested solution. Evaluation is, therefore, critical since decision-making is a continuous process. Reference Ehrgott, M. (2011). Trends in multiple criteria decision analysis. New York, NY: Springer. Grant, R. (2011). Contemporary strategy analysis. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Kepner, C. H., & Tregoe, B. B. (2005). The new rational manager (rev. ed.). New York. Kepner-Tregoe. Ray French, & Charlotte Rayner (2011). Organizational Behavior. New York. John Wiley & Sons. Stephen P. Robbins (2005). Perception and Individual Decision Making. 11Th Ed. Prentice Hall Inc. New York. Read More