Decision-making Process
One decision I had to face was when I received a job offer with a very attractive compensation package. At the time, I already had a job, which I enjoyed. However, to reject the job offer would be quite foolish, especially with the present economic crisis.
After identifying the problem, the next step was to identify the advantages and disadvantages of both options. I figured that if I stayed at my current job, I would be happy as I would be among friends and would continue to do interesting work. However, my salary at the current job was increasing very slowly that it would take at least three years before I got the salary being offered by the new company.
On the other hand, if I moved to the new job then I would enjoy the higher salary and the improved benefits. This would help me with my financial obligations. On the other hand, it would mean having to adjust to new people, a new corporate culture, and a new work environment. There was no guarantee that I’d get along well with my new colleagues. In addition, I knew that the nature of the work wouldn’t be as interesting or challenging as my current job.
On the other hand, the problem with staying with the current job was the lower pay. It seemed this was harder to remedy. Although I had opportunities for freelancing, the fast-paced environment and the hectic schedule at the current job would not allow me to take on additional work.
As such, I decided to accept the job offer.
My decision-making process was similar to the process discussed by Web Su-kat (2009), which consisted of identifying the organizational problem; generating alternative solutions; and implementing and monitoring the selected solution.
My decision-making process also resembled that which was discussed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2008). Their process also included problem definition and the consideration of alternatives, consequences, tradeoffs, uncertainty; and risk tolerance.
However, unlike my decision-making process, the decision-making process described by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service included a step for defining the objectives. When I was trying to make the decision, it wasn’t explicitly clear what my objective was -- whether I wanted a higher paying job or a challenging one. In addition, I wasn’t also able to monitor the selected option as discussed by Web-Sukat. It should be considered, though, that in my case, monitoring of the solution would have had little use as I could not have reverted my decision, that is, returning to my old job wasn’t really a viable option if the new job didn’t turn out well. Moreover, I didn’t have other options aside from the two that I had.
Given the additional knowledge acquired from the researched materials, I would still have made the same decision, as my decision-making process was very similar to that which was used in organizational decision-making processes. As well, my need for making a decision was very simple compared to the complex decisions made in organizations. As such, any intricate details involved in organizational decision-making processes would not be necessarily applicable for personal decision-making.
References
Bateman, T., & Snell, Scott. (2008). Management: Leading & Collaborating in the Competitive
World. McGraw-Hill/Irwin
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. (2008, October). Structured decision making fact sheet. SDM
Fact Sheet. Retrieved from http://www.fws.gov/science/doc/
structured_decision_making_factsheet.pdf
Web-Sukat. (2009). The decision making process. Retrieved from
http://www.websukat.com/pdf-files/principles-and-practices-of-management/Decision-
making-process.pdf
