Decision Making

Decision Making Styles

The decision making process is one of the most important skills of today's leading manager's. Forces and influences depending of the work environment and the type of organization influence this process. The ability to make wise decisions will also play an important function in your personal life as well. This process involves four (4) different of decision-making styles; the democratic style, the autocratic style, the collective - participative style, and the consensus style. The correct use of any of theses styles, can determined the success or failure of a manager and consequently the organization.

Thinking styles give you very powerful techniques to help you understand yourself and others. It is ideal for use in situations at work where strong relationships are critical for success. In at team environment, an understanding of the cognitive and linguistic behavioral dynamics that are operating within the can be very valuable in help yourself to work more successfully with your colleagues. (1997, Thinking Styles. www.consultingtools.com).

Cognitive dynamics involves the mental processing and thinking which takes place individually and with the team. Linguistic dynamics are the words and language patterns which people use, and behavioral dynamics of thinking styles are the those behaviors which occur as a result of the way in which a person think. (1997, Thinking Styles).

With the understanding of these dynamics and the knowledge of the concept of critical thinking, which involves the awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions, ability to ask and answer critical questions, and the desire to actively use the critical questions. (1990, Browne M., Kaplan R., Critical Thinking)

The decision making process involves; recognizing and defining problems, evaluate the effect of the problem, identifying the causes of the problem, frame the alternatives, evaluating impact, make the decision, evaluate the decision and measure results of the decision. With this information in mind you can make a sound decision.

Influences and forces can be have an effect on the decision making process. Many forces like gender, culture, ethnicity, religion, race economic status, ethics will make a difference in how a manager will make the decision.

Manager's stance toward information, the amount and type of information available, mental sets and perceptual filters, organizational structures and procedures, and power relationships among the players will influence on the way the manger make the decision. Managerial decisions have been and will continue to be a product of judgment and luck as well as expertise. (1990, Critical Thinking).

The decision making process have four different styles. The first style is known as democratic style, is when the leader gives up ownership and control of a decision and allows the group to vote. Majority vote will decide the action. This style has advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is that you can make the decision in a short period of time, and with a certain amount of group participation. The most important disadvantages is lack of responsibility, no one in the group have being assigned the responsibility of the decision. Although this style can be use in a organization for specific situations, the lack of responsibility can disqualify this style of decision making.

Autocratic style refers when a leader maintain full control of the decision making process and have ownership of the decision. The manager is completely responsible for the outcome of the decision, good or bad. The manager do ask for suggestions from outside sources or colleagues, it make the decision based on perception of the situation and his or her internal information of the problem. The advantage of this style is that you can reach the decision very fast and the manager hold full personal responsibility of the outcome. The disadvantage of

this style is that when the outcome is negative the people who were affected by the decision will feel that they could have provided other alternatives or solutions to the situation, and perhaps the results would have been different. Since the outcome is not always predictable you have to be careful when to use this style. They are best choice to use in case of emergencies, and a decision must be made immediately.

The collective - participative

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