Decision-Making

From a Manager’s Perspective

The decision-making process is an increasingly complicated sector especially with overlapping legislative requirements, distinctive decision-makers, conflicting interests, and unequally distributed resources alongside uncertainties of what the future holds in a rapidly evolving world. Certainly, this is the situation for many industries all over the world, in particular with the new pressure about the production of clean energy. Decision-makers face increased levels of uncertainty, complexity, and conflicting interests. In such contexts, the decision to abide by the global concerns of producing clean energy and the huge costs involved to implement the plan becomes a major challenge. Thus, in order to ensure the sustainable development and implementation of clean energy production, there is an increasingly and recognized need to develop improved approaches to help in organizational decision-making regarding the issue. Driven by a global demand in developing countries on the expansion of carbon-free renewable power plants, it becomes extremely hard for industries not to abide by the global wave. In light of this demand, we consider that one of the most pressing needs is to develop and implement the installation of renewable for improved production of clean energy.

Aiding in Decision-Making

In such a case, decision-making focuses on following a systematic process, where the decision analyst or the manager with the steering group applies various methodological aids to structure and exchange views to come up with the most informed decision. As it is, the decision-making process starts when the manager identifies the problem and outlines the opportunities presented by solving the problem (Hammond, Keeney & Raiffa, 2015). It is important to analyze whether there is an urgency to address the problem and the risks involved in case the problem is not solved. When making such important decisions, managers need to have ideal resources such as enough information, time, equipment, supplies, and personnel, as well as knowledge about any limiting factors. In reality, managers mostly have to put up with an environment that does not have enough resources. For instance, in this case, the organization may lack the proper budget to implement the installation of renewables, a factor that may be limiting for the manager to make the best decision. However, in the case of organizations shifting to clean energy, managers may not have any alternatives. This leaves the manager with limited options, as is the case with the decision-making process. Nonetheless, the manager could still brainstorm for alternatives on ways to reduce the budget as well as convincing the organization to commit funds for the implementation of the plan. Ideally, the assumption behind brainstorming is that the manager stimulates thinking and generates ideas from the group members. The session is contagious as suggestions flow in and at this point, it is important to stick to solving the problem at hand and avoid wandering off. Thus, the next step is to weigh all the evidence tabled and chose the alternative that best solves the problem. Sometimes, the manager may settle for a combination of options, as they get ready to take action. The final step requires the manager to consider and evaluate the consequences of their decision before implementing the plan.

Role of Intuition in Decision-Making

When it comes to the process of making decisions, there are usually varieties of factors, which influence our decisions, and most of them are not rational. Some of these factors are an intuitive approach. In the context of decision-making, intuition is defined as a non-sequential mode where information is processed by the subconscious mind to formulate or rationalize results. Intuition is often adopted when management requires a rush decision-making or when making judgments under pressure (Tonetto & Tamminen, 2015). Every day, managers generate solutions to solve issues, which lead to decisions that cannot always be rationally understood. 

Why Managers Make Wrong Decisions

Essentially, managers often face situations where they are required to make rushed or intuitive decisions. Unfortunately, the sad reality is that some of these important decisions made by managers are sometimes hopelessly flawed, which is a risk to the organization. Nevertheless, the ultimate question remains, why managers make wrong decisions. According to Daft & Marcic (2016), most managers rely on past experiences that they think are useful to make decisions, but sometimes lead to dangerously flawed decisions. Other factors that influence bad decisions include attempts to justify past decisions, perpetuating the status quo, overconfidence in their abilities, and emotional influence among others.

References

Daft, R. L., & Marcic, D. (2016). Understanding management. Australia; Brazil: Cengage Learning.

Tonetto, L. M., & Tamminen, P. (2015). Understanding the role of intuition in decision-making when designing for experiences: contributions from cognitive psychology. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 16(6), pp. 631-642.

Hammond, J. S., Keeney, R. L., & Raiffa, H. (2015). Smart choices: A practical guide to making better decisions. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School Press.