You’re the Vice President of a large firm. Your newly hired manager comes to you

Question

You’re the Vice President of a large firm. Your newly hired manager comes to you seeking advice on how to make a major decision for her team. Describe to her, using your own words, how she should use the Eight Step to Better Decision Making. Explain each step to her and how each step works.

Step 1: Identify the problem.

Step 2: Establish the decision criteria.

Step 3: Allocate weights to decision criteria.

Step 4: List alternatives.

Step 5: Analyze alternatives.

Step 6: Choose an alternative.

Step 7: Implement the decision.

Step 8: Evaluate the decision.

Explanation / Answer

Step 1- Identify the problem- Before making a decision, it is pertinent to analyze the situation or the problem. This is to ensure that we understand the whole situation so that the decisions are not biased.

Step 2- Establish the decision criteria – Once the problem has been analyzed, the next step is to establish the decision criteria. Decision criteria are the variables or the characteristics that are essential for the organization in making the decisions. Decision criteria should be measurable. Example of decision criteria are- eases of implementation, cost, employee morale, risk level, etc. Decision criteria help to evaluate alternatives. For example, a software installation should be user friendly which is a very important decision criterion.

Step 3 - Allocate weights to decision criteria- This refers to allocating rating or ranking the decision criteria as to which decision criteria is most important for the decision making process.

Step 4 - List alternatives- once the ranking of decision criteria is complete, the next step is to list all possible alternatives for the solution.

Step 5- Analyze alternatives- The listed alternatives are analyzed based on the weights. The weights of the decision criteria are calculated to arrive at a total weight.

Step 6- Choose an alternative- The alternative with the highest total weight is considered very important for the decision making. The best alternative solution is chosen.

Step 7- Implement the decision- Once the best alternative has been chosen, the next step is implementing it. The alternative is put in action so that the problem is resolved.

Step 8 – Evaluate the decision- After implementing the alternative, the decision needs to be evaluated to measure the effectiveness of the decision. If there is any areas of improvement, then it would be addressed further.

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