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Decision Making
Choosing a career
Choosing good friends
Changing a job
In every situation you have to
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MEANING
• The thought process of selecting a logical choice
from the available options.
When trying to make a good decision, a person must
weight the positives and negatives of each option,
and consider all the alternatives. For effective
decision making, a person must be able to forecast
the outcome of each option as well, and based on all
these items, determine which option is the best for
that particular situation.
DEFINITION
• The term decision making means - the process of
deciding about something important, especially in a
group of people or in an organization.
• PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
• PROBLEM ANALYSIS
• DEVELOPING ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS
• EVALUATING EACH ALTERNATIVE
• SELECTING AN ALTERNATIVE – MAKING A DECISION
• PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION:
This one of the most important steps in
decision making as all other steps in the
process depend on the nature of problem. It is
a complicated step as it may happen that what
seems to be problem is not really a problem
but its symptom.
For example: high blood pressure found in
patient is not a problem but the symptom of
other problem.
Thus, in defining the problem, the manager
should apply diagnostic mind. Once the real
problem has been identified, the manager
enhances the chances of solving it to a large
extent.
“A problem defined is a problem half solved”
proves true in such situations.
• PROBLEM ANALYSIS
The most important aspect of this step is to find the
“limiting factor” or the “critical factor”. This factor
has to be changed or removed so that the decision
can be taken and the desired goal is accomplished.
The ability of manager to locate this limiting factor in
the problem is crucial to his success in finding the
optimal solution of the problem.
For example, if a machine stops working due to non-
availability of screw, screw is the limiting factor in this
case
• DEVELOPING ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS
After defining and analysing the problem, the next
step is to develop alternative solutions. The main aim
of developing alternative solutions is to have the best
possible decision out of the available alternative
courses of action. In developing alternative solutions
the manager comes across creative or original
solutions to the problems.
In modern times, the techniques of operations
research and computer applications are immensely
helpful in the development of alternative courses of
action
• EVALUATING EACH ALTERNATIVE
This step involves comparison of each alternative
solution with one another in terms of predetermined
objective so that the best alternative can be chosen
and implemented.
This step requires Convergent thinking which means that:
There should be objective criteria through which alternatives
can be evaluated.
Unnecessary risk taking should be avoided.
decision maker should apply intuition to choose the future
course of action.
• SELECTING AN ALTERNATIVE-MAKING A
DECISION
This is the final step of decision making. All the
alternatives, except the one chosen are cut off. The
chosen alternative is implemented implying that
decision taken is put into action.
It also includes conveying the decision to the persons
who will be affected by it and getting their
commitment to it.
FAQS
• What is decision making?
• What do you meant by operation decision
making?
• Differentiate between programmed and non
programmed decision making.
• What are the steps involved in decision
making process?
REFERENCES
• Fundamentals of entrepreneurship and small
business – Renu Arora and S.K. Sood
• www.google.com