Management decision making

Résumé du document

One of the main qualities employers look for, when they hire us as managers and leaders,, is our ability to make decisions. The decision making skill is not a quality found to equal measure among people, and the manner of deciding things varies depending on the personality and personal experience of each individual. Decision making is the result of a mental process which leads to the selection of a course of action among several alternatives, with the final purpose of producing a choice or establishing an opinion. (Wikipédia, 2008) Decision making is made possible through 5 steps:
1. Problem definition
2. Potential problem causes
3. Identification of the alternatives,
4. Approaches selection to solve the problem
5. Choice and implementation of the best alternative
Through this paper, I will follow the decision making process to formulate my opinion about the best way to increase the output quality of a decision making process, based on my observations of the class projects and the cognitive element acquired within the class.

Extraits

[...] Among the criteria asked to fulfill, directives had been mentioned on the board (how to develop the presentation), and the evaluation criteria was also distributed, (how to obtain a good grade and the best ranking) with notable differences of purpose. As a jury member, and in order to learn from people, I decided to observe the groups' decision making style while they were building up this presentation, analysis not only their thinking process, their use of leadership, the place of communication in each group, but also the conflict resolution form used. It would allow me later to understand how each team will product the output, but also to deduce the impact of such processes on the output's quality. [...]

[...] In one team, the tension was so high that a time out had to occur when the team leader received personal attacks.The closure was a difficult stage that people generally did not lived well. To avoid conflicts, some groups with a low personal investment from team members simply rushed to the end. Withdrawal from the debate generally occurred during the “brainstorming” when it happened. The direct result was a presentation poor on the content and a team not convinced by its own presentation. In groups where the involvement was higher and the closure occurred too early, oppositions were not always welcomed because they were seen by the group as time waste. [...]

[...] o The selective search for evidence: in certain groups, the teammates were trying to assemble facts which were supporting their point of view while excluding others defending other conclusions. o Most of the group adopted their usual thinking process, without willing to make it evolve, leading to inertia of the ideas and of the acts. o To finish, perception of the facts/ situations had been biased because of the selecting perception, by screening out of non salient information they could not take advantage of, and by optimism bias, believing that all the incoming ideas where appropriate and that things would occur by themselves. [...]

[...] o Often, rejection of ideas was based on either or not the person was like or recognized as competent. This bias type is called source of credibility bias. Occasionally, other kind of biases occurred, such as: o The need of role fulfillment: leaders were unable to make the point and validate the ideas. They simply tried to conform to what was expecting from him/ her as a team leader. They did not try either to go further or proceed to extensive questioning to validate the argument's eligibility. [...]

[...] So it is important to have a leader figure able to structure the debate to obtain the best results in the quickest way by: Being open to new ideas , let all opinion express and reward it by encouragements to submit ideas Giving a genuine and fair opportunity to participate Considering people, not only the results Enhancing active listening Those tips can lead to concrete involvement in the decision making process. Phase 2 Subject development: difficulty to avoid being biased At this stage, new issues occurred: the leadership style and the thinking process gave more of less efficiency to the decision making and reasoning development. Tensions occurred and either involvement remained either it failed into pieces. [...]