Decision making in organisations

Decision making in organisations

2006

INTRODUCTION

Decision making has been defined as a systematic process to select one option among competing alternatives . Decision making is a process that unfolds over a period of time and is reliant on the interplay of people 's values , politics and corporate history (What you don 't know about making decisions , 2005

Non commercial organisations belong to a business sector that is vast and diverse . This business sector includes organizations such as hospitals , churches , food banks , schools , social clubs , libraries chambers of commerce , museums

, low-income housing developers , legal services providers , disaster relief organizations and cemetery associations . These organisations have the collective mandate of influencing the quality of life and must make commercial decisions against a background of the greater social service mission (Lasprogata and Cotten , 2003

Effective decision making will result in team buy-in for a decision that can be expected to deliver good results . Effective decision making is facilitated by the approach to decision making and the decision making technique . We will be discussing the two broad decision making approaches and four decision making techniques

There are generally two broad approaches to decision making (Garvin and Roberto , 2001

Inquiry

Advocacy

Inquiry is a very open process that generates multiple alternatives and fosters a healthy exchange of ideas . This approach produces a well tested solution . The downside of the inquiry approach is that it does not come natural to people

Advocacy , on the other hand , is the approach most people default to . The process approach is that of a contest . Groups with well defined special interests will advocate for their position . The assumption is that a superior solution will result from the group with the stronger position Unfortunately , this is not the case because this results in the suppression of innovation . The participants settle for the dominant view to avoid conflict

The following are the most common decision making techniques

One Person

Subgroups

Voting

Consensus

One Person

This technique is best used when the person vested with making the decision is an expert in a specific area . The One Person technique is also used when a decision has to be made instantaneously . You don 't want to call a committee meeting on a battlefield

The significant disadvantages of allowing one person to make the decision for the group include

Lack of buy-in ' from other team members

Single point of failure syndrome - the decision maker may not be available when the decision is to be made

No checks on decision maker

Lack of cross functional perspective

Subgroups

This decision making technique is not as expeditious as a single person making the decision . If the leader chooses the subgroup members wisely the subgroup can provide more cross functional perspective and assist in getting buy-in from the larger group

Voting

Voting is relatively quick and allows all team members to have a voice in the decision making process . For voting to be truly effective , all team members have to be equally informed and qualified to make the decision...