Management Theory

Decision Making Process

MGT/230 » Management Theory and Practice

May 26, 2014

Decision making is a very vital part of life; it is necessary for survival whether the circumstances are major or minor. People sometimes make good or bad decision based on their level of judgment. In business there are six stages in the decision making process. The steps in the decision making process are: identify and diagnose the problem, generate alternative solutions, evaluate alternatives, make the choice, implement the decision, and evaluate the decision. I had to make a very difficult decision to drop out of college or work two jobs and attempt to send myself though school at 19 years old. This decision was not made overnight but I concluded after many intense thoughts and some going back and forth. During my decision making process I used all the steps of the decision making process. I may not have used them correctly or in order but I used each of them at least once during my decision (Bateman & Snell, 2011).

After identifying that I had a problem I was at the point in the decision making process where I had to think about the alternatives. I came up with taking out a student loan, working fulltime to save money for school or joining the Army. These were all logical decisions and they all supported my goal, which was to get a college education. I was running out of time so I had to evaluate my decisions. I made a list of the pros and cons of all three choices. Taking out a student loan is a quick fix but long term it would cost me much more than I was willing to pay. I thought maybe this is not such a good idea. Working fulltime to save up for school was a good idea but I would be spending way more time not going to school than I anticipated. I did not want to be caught up in the working world and be so comfortable that I never give myself the opportunity to finish school. Joining the Army was a great idea because they pay for school and I would be employed but it...