Bad Decision Makers Contrasting Good

¶ … Bad Decision Makers

Contrasting Good and Bad Decision Makers -- the Rational Decision Making Model

Does being a good decision-maker imply that it is always best for a leader to be perfectly rational, all of the time? Not necessarily. As noted in Organizational Behavior (2006) by Stephen Robbins and Timothy Judge, a leader cannot ignore the emotions and impulses that exist within the hearts of the employees and the consumers within and without of his or her organization. A leader is dealing with a complex network of human beings, all of whom have distinct personal needs and preferences. Sometimes it is necessary, when someone needs motivation based on an emotional as well as a logical level, to use motivational strategies beyond the purely practical. After all, even Jesus, when leading his disciples, lauded a common woman from the streets who anointed Him with oil, noting that she had done a beautiful thing -- He did not rebuke her for refusing to practically spend that money on the poor, instead.

Consider the application of the rational decision making model. The rational decision making model calls upon the person to define the organizational problem, identify the decision criteria, allocate weights to the criteria, develop the alternatives, evaluate the alternatives, and elect the best alternatives. This model still holds sway in the business world, as reflected in the article from CFO: Chief Financial Officer Magazine entitled: "Finance must excel now, more than ever: with continuous business volatility now a fact of life, the CFO must have a finance organization that can help to drive adaptive decision-making and overall company performance." This 2002 article stresses that "by integrating the planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, reporting, measurement, and analysis processes through the use of measurement frameworks, linked inputs/outputs, and the latest technologies, finance organizations will be better positioned to focus on the value-added aspects of the processes." ("Finance," 2002, p.1) But note the underlying assumption that perfect information automatically yields good decision-making, which is not always the case. Rationally, one might assume that an increase in gas prices and a decline in income will result in a less profitable Christmas season, ergo the best decision would be to produce less -- however, irrational considerations like sudden toy 'fads' can throw a wrench into such starkly rational analysis. Consumers, being human, have whims that cannot be assessed with financial data, or even predicted by the best of marketing departments.