Decision Making Paper

Decision-Making Paper

It is not uncommon for people to have to make a decision on a daily basis, and this includes within the workplace. This paper will discuss the group decision-making process and then I will identify one successful as well as one unsuccessful experience that involved group decision making. After these examples I will then discuss the factors that affected the group's overall effectiveness, drawing from concepts from the text.

When making decision it is not like there is not things involved for one to draw to their decision, one might not realize that this is a process, and that it is done every day; several times a day. According to the text the definition of decision making "is the process of choosing a course of action to deal with a problem or opportunity". This is used among teams or groups, as well as individuals and the process includes five steps; this is also known as the "rational decision model". Teamwork is important for all work environments in order to be successful. When a group works together to make a decision it's likely to not be a successful experience every time, but lessons can be learned from every decision made.

Group decision-making process

The first step in the decision making process would be to define the problem. During this stage information is gathered and the guidelines are put into place as to identify specifically what the group needs to accomplish out of the problem or opportunity being resolved. It is important for the group to make sure that the problem is understood completely and that all members of the group are informed the same and on the same level.

The second step is to analyze alternatives forms of action; during this stage the group must know what other alternatives might be available for the problem or opportunity and what the forecasted consequences for the benefits and costs. The group must be clear as to what they need to know and what they actually do know. The third step is when the group or team will make the choice of what type of action they want to pursue. Factors that might be used when contemplating the course of action include: deadlines, cost and benefits, ethical integrity, the after-effects to stakeholders. This stage should also include who will make the decision and agree among the group or team, before moving on to the next step in the process.

The fourth step would be to take action to start exercising the plan of action. This stage may face challenges if the team or group didn't include all the "important channels" needed to implement the course of action into utilization. The text states "teams that use participation and involvement well gain not only inputs and insights, they also gain commitments to support implementation of the decision". Therefore, it would benefit the team or group to have everyone available to be involved in the decision making process for a problem or decision.

The last step in the decision-making process would be to check the results and follow up as necessary. This stage is typically ignored by teams which results in goal not being met. The team must take time to give the course of action that was taken time to work smoothly and how the team first contemplated.

Successful group decision-making experience

The successful group decision-making experience I would like to identify would be when the department at work was given the project of coordinating the yearly operations meeting for the organization that I was working. We had to plan events for a week, and this included making hotel accommodations for key stockholders and the installer crews. In the beginning the team of 3 sat down and wrote down everything we needed to do for the week, then we broke everything down day by day, scheduling in lunches and breaks. We even had to make itineraries for the meetings for the week. The team knew everything that had to be completed, assigned appropriate task, completed checklists, and had quick meetings often to communicate progress. Using the decision making process the team was able to meet the goal of a successful meeting and experience. Key stockholders were impressed with our performance

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