Decision Making

Jessica Ware

October 16, 2011

Management Cluster

Decision Making

Whether at work or in class, working in a team setting, individual uniqueness plays a role in decision making. Being able to agree and disagree is all a part of working in a group with different individuals. Reaching an agreement within a group involves a process in order to come to a decision. Decision making is “the process of identifying and choosing alternative courses of action” (Kinicki 202). There are different kinds of decision making and several advantages, as well as, disadvantages in running a business ethically.

After a few class meetings we were able to propose different businesses and fundraisers and after using our decision making skills, we were able to decide upon one. Rational and non-rational decisions had to be made. Rational decision making assumes “managers will make logical decisions that will be the optimum in furthering the organization’s best interest” (205). Within rational decision making there are different stages before the final decision can be implemented. For example, we initially decide to have a fundraiser to benefit a child within the Make a Wish Foundation. The problem that we ran across was being able to raise enough money to fulfill that child’s wish according to the foundation’s guidelines. With that being a major problem, we started to consider other alternatives in which we could give back to the local community. After thinking of local charities, we decided it would be in our best interest to pick local food pantries in the area to donate to for the upcoming holidays. In order for this to be implemented, we selected one member of our group to contact local area pantries to get further information on how we would be able to make this a success. Non-rational decision making explains “how managers actually make decisions rather than how they should” (209). Instead of trying to gain further information from Make a Wish foundation, we decided their...