Decision-making constitutes a crucial aspect of modern life in its individual, collective and corporate aspects. Nowadays individuals are claimed to face with personal decisions to a degree that their predecessors would have found hard to imagine (Ranyard, Crozier & Svenson, 2002, p.2). From a practical viewpoint, good decisions are the ones that help an individual or a collective to reach a positive outcome, while the bad ones lead to negative outcomes (Mandelberg, 2015, p.1).
However, if one refers to the theory of decision-making, determining whether a decision is good or bad depends not only on the outcomes of the decision. In this regard, the factors, taken into account in terms of the decision-making process and their interpretation also tend to matter. Thus, from the standpoint of theoretical decision-making, a good decision can lead to negative outcomes, while a bad decision can cause good outcomes. Let me illustrate the above situations with my personal experience.
A good decision that led to the negative consequences was as follows. When I finished high school and applied to college, I sent applications to three different colleges. While all the options were generally okay for me, the curriculum in one of the colleges was especially appealing to me. Soon I received a confirmation from a college that I did not like so much, and a rejection from another one I ranked the same. The college that sent me a confirmation required that I sign a letter of acceptance in several days and pay respective fees. Otherwise, I would have lost the opportunity to study there.
At the same time, the college of my dream was silent, despite the deadline for informing successful candidates had already expired. The administration also did not answer my letters and pick up the phone.
Combining maximin and realist approaches to decision-making and understanding that waiting could have meant losing all the opportunities, I decided not to risk, waiting for the reply from the “dream college”. In several weeks I received a letter of acceptance from the college I really wanted to go to. However, I was already enrolled into another one and had to reject the invitation. Thus, a well-constructed decision, based on the in-detail analysis of all the alternatives and payoffs led to negative consequences.
Another way round, a bad decision can lead to good consequences. The example from my life is as follows. When I already studied at college, I was offered an opportunity to do volunteer work abroad for a year. However, taking this chance implied that it will be very hard for me to pass final exams. In turn, that could mean that I would have to study a year longer. There was also an option of volunteering for half a year. That option could not prevent me from passing final exams. If I had adhered to realist approach, I would have selected this option. However, I took a maximax path (slide 11) and decided that I will do my best to go abroad for a year and still pass my exams. This highly positive attitude, adopted, despite knowing people, who did not manage to pass exams after going abroad, evidently represents a bad practice of decision-making. Nevertheless, I still managed to combing my volunteer work and studying, and passed exams successfully. Thus, a bad decision that I made led to good consequences.
References
Mandelberg, L. (2015) Good decisions, bad decisions. Retrieved 20 January 2015 from
http://www.evancarmichael.com/library/larry-mandelberg/Good-Decisions-Bad-Decisions.html
Ranyard, R., Crozier, R., Svenson, O. (2002). Decision-making. Cognitive models and
explanations. London: Routledge
