Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Managing Information and Decision Making (Week 6) (POLC, information and…
Managing Information and Decision Making (Week 6)
Group Decision Making
Disadvantages
Responsibility may no be clearly defined & thereby people are unsure as to what they can & will contribute
Time consuming to cover all aspects of the decision in the group
There is pressure to conform as the group may disagree with you thus you do not have majority opinion
Advantages
There is an increase of acceptance in a solution as the group deciphers all aspects of decisions
Ability to process more complex & critical information
There is a wider pool of knowledge therefore a better understanding of alternatives
Small groups may outweigh larger groups as clear roles can be defined
How do managers arrive at destinations
Rationality
Managerial decisions are assumed to be rational
Characteristics of rational decisions
They are consistent
They are value-maximising
They maximise economic benefit for the organisations
Bounded Rationality
Decisions made within the parameters of a simplified model that captures the essential features of a problem :
Bounded by the limitations and constraints mangers attempt to behave rationally
"Good enough" decisions
Intuition
Is a product of:
'Gut-feeling'
Previous Experience
Accumulated Judgement
Davenport suggests decisions are arrived at by:
Identification
making a list of the most important issues to tackle and decisions to make
Inventory
Identifying which factors contribute to the decision
Intervention
Designs the structures and processes that you will need to make the decisions
Institutionalisation
Managers and needed to be able to continually undergo the process of decision making and executing
Decision making conditions, styles and errors
Conditions
Certainty - a manager can make accurate decisions because the outcome is known
Risk - a manager can make reasonable estimates to the outcome of decisions
Uncertainty - a manager has no certainty nor reasonable probability of the outcome of decisions
Styles
Linear
Detail orientated
Step-by-step processing of decisions must know start, end and every process in between
Preference for using external data and facts
Rational and logical thinking
Non-linear
Over arching context of the decision
Relies more heavily upon intuition or a gut feeling to come to a decision
Not focused on detail but better at seeing the "bigger" picture
Preferences for internal sources of information
Errors and biases
Hindsight
Overconfidence
Self-serving
Sunk costs
- current choices cannot correct past errors or decisions wasting time and money rather than focusing on the future
Randomness
Representation
- assessing the likelihood of events based upon similarities to previous events
Availability
- remembering most vivid and recent events
Framing
- highlighting only certain aspects of a project and ignoring others
Immediate gratification
Anchoring effect
- too focused on starting point and fail to adjust once decision making is underway
Selective perception
Confirmation bias
- seeking out information that only justifies past decisions rather than contradictory information
Escalation of commitment
- increasing commitment to complex projects that have failed or continue to approach failure (staying on a sinking ship). The project may succeed way over budget and extended time frame or could fail miserably but both projects see an escalation of commitment to the project.
Types of problems and decisions
Well structured problems and programmed decisions
Easily defined and planned for issues
Require a routine approach to resolve previously established in rules, procedure or policy for example
E.g. A restaurant deciding how to go about resolving a customer complaining about their food
Unstructured problems and non programmed decisions
New and unique issues that may not have been found before
Require a tailored response to the situation at hand
E.g. A school deciding how to go about resolving an issue where a student is intending on hurting other students or teachers
POLC, information and desicion-making
Decision-making influenced by sources, quality, and reliability of information
Ability to engage in critical thinking, analyse, and reflection determines how well one makes decisions based on avaliable infromation
The execution of the managerial functions of POLC result in decision-making, often daily
Big Data and its associated analytics changing contemporary debates and argument around decision-making
As organizational decisions increasingly become more data driven, managers need to consider inclusiveness of data (i.e. who uses it) in addition to the use of data for productive purposes