Business
Decision-making within an organization is a responsibility that has different intensities, depending on the level of command that one has. However, good decisions can be identified using several criteria that exist within the business community. The following are examples of criteria that can be used to determine whether the manager is making a good decision or not.
The purpose of the decision. Every decision is intended to serve a specific purpose. If the purpose of the decision matches with the decision that has been made, then the decision is a good one. Every decision is meant to achieve a good purpose. For this reason, every decision should be geared towards achieving a certain and specific purpose. The purpose of the decision should address the problem to be solved. Therefore, the outcome of the decision should reveal that the decision has been solved (Jonassen, 2012). This would constitute a good managerial decision.
Gathering information. Before any decision is made, it is crucial that all relevant information concerning the problem be gathered and used in the decision-making process. A good decision will contain all relevant information required in the decision-making process. This information will be used to facilitate the decision-making process. Also, the desired outcome of the decision will be dependent on the information used during the decision-making process.
Selection of the best alternative. While making decisions, there exist several alternatives that can all be used to solve the problem at hand. The decision made should be the best among all the existing alternative decisions or solutions. The chosen decision, when compared to other alternative decisions, should reveal to have the best solution among all of them. This should indicate that the chosen decision is the best decision a manager could make.
During any decision-making process, there are assumptions that are often made to facilitate the decision-making process. These assumptions are decisions that are accepted as true, but they do not have any proof to support them. However, assumptions in the workplace can be very dangerous and are highly discouraged within the business community. Human beings base all their assumptions on past experiences that they have gone through. In the current setting, there is the assumption that seniors are relatively slow when it comes to learning the advanced technological devices that exist in today’s world (Jonassen, 2012). However, this assumption has not been scientifically proven in any way whatsoever. Therefore, making decisions based on this assumption, for example, could result in poor decision-making practices. There are some seniors that more than capable of understanding current technology and how to use them. Another assumption that is often is that women are the weaker sex. This assumption does not have any scientific backing and be a poor basis for making a decision within the business environment. For example, a manager can make a decision not to include women in powerful positions within the company because of the assumption that women are the weaker sex (Martin & Parmar, 2012). However, currently, women have been known to hold powerful positions in the companies and even countries. This has contradicted the assumption that women are weaker than men. Another assumption that is often made is that young people are usually not interested in work. This is wrong because young people have been known to work hard in their respective places of work. Such assumptions have no proof and can be a poor basis for decision-making processes within the business.
The assumption that the demand of SUVs would rise because of a rise is the price of fuel is baseless and does not have any backing. To assess the credibility of this assumption, I would conduct a survey in the SUV market and analyse the feedback received from the consumers (Martin & Parmar, 2012). I would conduct a research exercise where I will ask the consumers to indicate whether they would consider buying an SUV because there is an increase in the price of fuel. However, after assessing this assumption, I would conclude it not to be true. SUVs are vehicles that are known to consume more fuel to run. Therefore, when the price of fuel increases, the cost of running the SUV will also increase because of a large amount of fuel it consumes. For this reason, I believe that the demand for SUVs would decrease with an increase in the price of fuel.
The assumption that there was a need for an airline that provided no amenities could be a true factor. However, to establish its authenticity, I would conduct a research survey to determine whether passengers are willing to go on-board planes without any amenities provided to them. Eliminating the provision of these amenities would result in the reduction of operational costs for the airlines. Therefore, this decision would be good on the part of the service provider. However, this would depend on the length of the distance travelled. For example, when travelling over short distances, amenities could be eliminated (Jonassen, 2012). On the other hand, long distance travelling would require that planes have amenities on-board the plane.
References
Jonassen, D. H.. (2012). Designing for decision making. Educational Technology Research and
Development, 60 (2), 341–359. Springer Press.
Martin, K., & Parmar, B.. (2012). Assumptions in Decision Making Scholarship: Implications for Business Ethics Research. Journal of Business Ethics, 105 (3), 289–306. Springer Press.
