The Six Steps to Organizational Decision Making

Organizational Decision Making

            Organizational decision-making is a process that occurs daily in organization, which employees go throughout their work experiences. No matter the importance that a particular decision being made possess, it will influence negatively or positively on the organization and its customers (Daft & Marcic, 2010). The paper will analyze and interpret the six steps of the organizational decision making, as well as giving the significance of each step.

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The Six Steps to Organizational Decision Making

According to (Daft, Kndrick, Vershinina, & Kendrick, 2010, 2010, p. 322), six major steps are necessary for an effective decision to be made. The authors point that the first step in the managerial decision making process is the definition of the problem. The requirement to make a decision may result due to a problem or an opportunity. This step involves the analysis of the internal and external environment, seeking of opinions and gathering of information. This initial step is similar to the military intelligence gathering. The process of defining the problem in the decision making process is important in developing an understanding of the problem or the opportunity, its potential impacts and possible solutions.

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The second step of organizational decision-making is the diagnosis and analysis of the defined problem or opportunity. (Daft, Kndrick, Vershinina, & Kendrick, 2010) asserts that diagnosis is the process where the organization manager analyses the factors that underlie the situation identified in the first step. The step helps the managers to specify the event that happened and the reasons behind its occurrence.

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The diagnosis is followed by the generation of the possible alternatives that will help in response to the situation and aid in correcting its causes (Daft, Kndrick, Vershinina, & Kendrick, 2010). According to the authors, the generation of alternatives is easier if the decisions are programmed. Otherwise, the decision makers may be forced to make custom-made decisions, which involve the evaluation of the possible alternatives that conform to the organization needs. This step is important as it provides the possible solutions to an identified problem. Moreover, it provides an opportunity for the managers to incorporate alternatives, which the organization might not have envisaged had the problem not occurred.

After generating the alternatives, the next step is to select the appropriate alternatives from the set of alternatives arrived in step third step (Daft & Marcic, 2010). The best choice is the one whose solution offers the best fit to the organization goals and values and achieves the required results with the use of the least resources. This step offers the opportunity for the managers to gauge the prospects of success with the chosen option.  Since this step yields more than one alternative (Lunenburg, 2010), the choice of particular alternative is dependent on the manager’s personality and his/her willingness to take risk. The fifth step is the implementation of the chosen alternative. According to (Daft, Kndrick, Vershinina, & Kendrick, 2010, p. 326) the successful implementation of the chosen alternative involves the use of administrative, managerial and persuasion abilities. This step is important as it ensures the chosen alternative is put into practice. However, after successful implementation, there is need for reviews and evaluations to determine success and areas that need corrective. The review and feedback done after implementation constitutes the last step in the decision-making process. In this step, the information regarding implementation are gathered to determination the decision implementation and whether it was effective. This step provides an opportunity for feedback for the development of new decision cycles.

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