Information AboutDecision Making |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT DECISION MAKING | |
| decision theory | |
| group processes | |
| unsolved problems in neuroscience | |
| cognitive neuroscience | |
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Decision making is the Cognitive Process of selecting a course of action from among multiple alternatives. Every decision-making process produces a final Choice . It can be an action or an opinion. It begins when we need to do something but we do not know what. Therefore decision-making is a reasoning process which can be rational or irrational, and can be based on explicit Assumption s or Tacit Assumptions . Common examples include Shopping , deciding what to Eat , and deciding whom or what to Vote for in an Election or Referendum . Decision making is said to be a psychological construct. This means that although we can never "see" a decision, we can infer from observable behaviour that a decision has been made. Therefore we conclude that a psychological event that we call "decision making" has occurred. It is a construction that imputes commitment to action. That is, based on observable actions, we assume that people have made a commitment to effect the action. Structured rational decision making is an important part of all science-based professions, where specialists apply their Knowledge in a given area to making informed decisions. For example, medical decision making often involves making a Diagnosis and selecting an appropriate Treatment . Some research using Naturalistic Methods shows, however, that in situations with higher time pressure, higher stakes, or increased ambiguities, experts use intuitive decision making rather than structured approaches, following a Recognition Primed Decision approach to fit a set of indicators into the expert's experience and immediately arrive at a satisfactory course of action without weighing alternatives. Due to the large number of considerations involved in many decisions, Decision Support System s have been developed to assist decision makers in considering the implications of various courses of action. They can help reduce the Risk of human Error s. The systems which try to realize some human/cognitive decision making functions are called Intelligent Decision Support Systems (IDSS), see for ex. "An Approach to the Intelligent Decision Advisor (IDA) for Emergency Managers, 1999" . DECISION MAKING STYLE According to behavioralist Isabel Briggs Myers (1962), a person's decision making process depends to a significant degree on their cognitive style. Starting from the work of Carl Jung , Myers Developed A Set of four bi-polar dimensions. The terminal points on these dimensions are: thinking and feeling; extroversion and introversion; judgement and perception; and sensing and intuition. She claimed that a person's decision making style is based largely on how they score on these four dimensions. For example, someone that scored near the thinking, extroversion, sensing, and judgement ends of the dimensions would tend to have a logical, analytical, objective, critical, and empirical decision making style. COGNITIVE AND PERSONAL BIASES IN DECISION MAKING It is generally agreed that Bias es can creep into our decision making processes, calling into question the correctness of a decision. Below is a list of some of the more common cognitive biases.
For an explanation of the logical processes behind some of these biases, see Logical Fallacy . COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE OF DECISION MAKING The or following directions from someone else. DECISION MAKING IN GROUPS Decision making in groups is sometimes examined separately as process and outcome. Process refers to the interactions among individuals that lead to the choice of a particular course of action. An outcome is the consequence of that choice. Separating process and outcome is convenient because it helps explain that a good decision making processes does not guarantee a good outcome, and that a good outcome does not presuppose a good process. Thus, for example, managers interested in good decision making are encouraged to put good decision making processes in place. Although these good decision making processes do not guarantee good outcomes, they can tip the balance of chance in favor of good outcomes. A critical aspect for decision making groups is the ability to converge on a choice. Politics is one approach to making decisions in groups. This process revolves around the relative power or ability to influence of the individuals in the group. Some relevant ideas include coalitions among participants as well as influence and persuasion. The use of politics is often judged negatively, but it is a useful way to approach problems when preferences among actors are in conflict, when dependencies exist that cannot be avoided, when there are no super-ordinate authorities, and when the technical or scientific merit of the options is ambiguous. In addition to the different processes involved in making decisions, groups can also have different decision rules. A decision rule is the approach used by a group to mark the choice that is made.
Less desirable group decision rules are:
Plurality and dictatorship are less desirable as decision rules because they do not require the involvement of the broader group to determine a choice. Thus, they do not engender commitment to the course of action chosen. An absence of commitment from individuals in the group can be problematic during the implementation phase of a decision. There are no perfect decision making rules. Depending on how the rules are implemented in practice and the situation, all of these can lead to situations where either no decision is made, or to situations where decisions made are inconsistent with one another over time. Principles The ethical principles of decision making vary considerably. Some common choices of principles and the methods which seem to match them include:
There are many grades of decision making which have an element of participation. A common example is that of institutions making decisions which affect those they are charged to provide for. In such cases an understanding of what Participation is, is crucial to understand the process and the power structures at play. DECISION MAKING IN ONE'S PERSONAL LIFE Some of the decision making techniques that we use in everyday life include:
An alternative may be to apply one of the processes described below, in particular in the Business and Management section. DECISION MAKING IN HEALTHCARE In the Health Care field, the steps of making a decision may be remembered with the mnemonic ''BRAND'', which includes
PATH DEPENDENCY ''Main article: Path Dependency '' It is perhaps pertinent to note that the cost of making no decision at all itself is a factor, and that the benefit of making some decision, even a random choice, can be beneficial in the longer term. Thus the reversibility of an action may be a good way to judge whether or not an action or Process is beneficial. A Resource can also be viewed as something expendable, or bearing a Cost , rather than the implication of selecting something irrevocably. Even life and death decisions have been priced this way, as in the Insurance industry. DECISION MAKING IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT In general, business and management systems should be set up to allow decision making at the lowest possible level. Several decision making models for Business include:
DECISION-MAKERS AND INFLUENCERS In the context of industrial goods marketing, there is much theory, and even more opinion, expressed about how the various `decision-makers' and `influencers' (those who can only influence, not decide, the final decision) interact. Decisions are frequently taken by groups, rather than individuals, and the official buyer often does not have authority to take the decision. Miller & Heiman, for example, offered a more complex view of industrial buying decisions (particularly in the area of `complex sales' of capital equipment). They see three levels of decision-making: 'economic buying influence' - the decision-maker who can authorize the necessary funds for purchase 'user buying influences' - the people in the buying company who will use the product and will specify what they want to purchase 'technical buying influence' - the `experts' (including, typically, the buying department) who can veto the purchase on technical grounds Webster and Wind,in a similar vein, identify six roles within the `buying centre': 'users' - who will actually use the product or service 'influencers' - particularly technical personnel 'deciders' - the actual decision-makers 'approvers' - who formally authorize the decision 'buyers' - the department with formal authority 'gatekeepers' - those who have the power to stop the sellers reaching other members of the `buying centre' REFERENCES R. B. Miller and S. E. Heiman, 'Strategic Selling ' (Kogan Page, 1989) F. E. Webster and Y. Wind, 'Organizational Buying Behavior ' (Prentice-Hall, 1972) D. Mercer, ‘Marketing’ (Blackwell, 1996) SEE ALSO
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SOME IMPORTANT RESEARCH JOURNALS
Mintzberg, H., Raisinghani, D., & Theoret, A. (1976). The structure of “unstructured” decision processes. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21 (6), 246-275. http://www.jstor.org/view/00018392/di995453/99p0533g/0 |
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