Business Decision Making Essays (Examples)

Business Decision-Making Process
Decision-making through Business Environmental Scanning

As a relatively new research agency in the market research industry, our firm has two main objectives for this year. The first objective is to increase profitability through increased number and/or higher research costs. The second objective, meanwhile, is to increase the firm's "visibility" in the market research industry, and be recognized as one of the major players in it. In order to achieve these objectives, our firm looked into the business environment of the market research industry, assessing its strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities. The following are the considerations the firm has discussed and taken into consideration in evaluating its performance for the year, using these decisions as the basis for next year's business plan.

Currently, the market research environment is technology-centric -- that is, market research agencies and firms mainly compete with each other through the technology they have. Technologies…

00 income if Mr. Pecos accepted the committed sale made by his Office Assistant Manager.
Prepare a contribution margin income statement for the month

ased on Mr. Peco's Decision

Recommended

Sales

286,500.00*

578,000.00**

Variable Cost

245 per unit)

925*245-226,625.00)

471,625.00)

Fixed Cost

Income

Computed as follows:

of units

Selling Price

Accepted Orders by Sam Smooth talk

Accepted Orders by Harry Hustler

Accepted Orders by Garry Giftofgab

Total Selling Price

286,500.00*

Computed as follows of units

Selling Price

Recommended orders to accept:

Total amount of accepted order

Total Selling Price

203000+286,500 578,000.00**

Assumption that $475,000 fixed cost is spread out evenly during the year, thus, fixed cost per month is at $39,583.33.

Take note that the fixed cost amount did not changed for the month. This is because fixed cost do not change as volume changes. It will be incurred in spite of how many number of units will be produced…

Behavioral Economics
Many academics advocate that markets are "efficient." They argue that all stock and business information is embedded in the current price of an asset. As new information enters the market, the asset price immediately adjusts to reflect the new market sentiment. As a result of these efficient markets, investors can only hope to achieve the market rate of return given the amount of risk taken. There is very little opportunity, according to the academics to achieve higher rates of return in regards to capital expenditures than the overall market warrants. It is my contention however that the markets are inefficient in both valuations and subsequent reappraisals of assets and capital projects. Behavior finance and the teachings embedded within its theories are proof of the inefficient market theory (Shleifer, 1999). In fact, behavioral economics has very profound implications on the overall business decisions of a company in regards to…

By knowing how to read visual presentations of data, the manager will be able to spot the central tendencies and distributions found in data in order to correctly asses whether a given decision is likely to reach the biggest part of the market or cut the highest percentage of inefficiency.
Second, the manager must understand what central tendency and variability mean. Specifically, these are simply measures showing where the data trends lie, and how spread out the data are.

Third, other descriptive statistics such as association and dispersion should be understood so that the basic relationships within data are understood. If customers who buy one product are more (or less) likely to also buy another product, the manager needs to know that in developing marketing around the two products.

Fourth, the manager should have a basic understanding of correlation and regression, including an understanding of how valid and reliable measures…

The watch was designed to allow the wearer to log onto the Web. It had microchips capable of doing anything a laptop could do. So out it came. Problem was that you need a keyboard and monitor big enough to see and use. The Web watch, amazingly, had neither. You had to hook it up to a PC to use it! Swatch introduced it too soon due to its enthusiasm over the technology. Perhaps they should have procrastinated (Matlack, 2000).
Chrysler and General Motors. Their procrastination, greed and laziness in sticking to the big, expensive, gas-guzzlers when the foreign car market was moving elsewhere -- into the U.S. And profitability -- and the resultant loss of business, cancellation of dealerships, and layoffs of tens thousands of workers, has to be the worst business decision in modern history.

ibliography

Matlack, C. (2000, September 11). ad timing for Swatch's web watch. Retrieved…

Decision Making
Barnes and Noble Inc. is one of the most successful bookstores in the world. The company operates throughout the United States and boasts roomy inviting stores. In addition to books, the company also sells DVDs and music. The company operates both brick and mortar stores and it is also the largest internet bookstore. Furthermore, Barnes & Noble, Inc. is a Fortune 500 company and the largest bookseller in the world. In addition, "The company is a leading content, commerce and technology company that provides customers easy and convenient access to books, magazines, newspapers and other content across its multi-channel distribution platform. As of January 29, 2011, the company operates 705 retail bookstores in regional shopping malls, major strip centers and freestanding locations in 50 states, and 636 college bookstores serving nearly 4 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States (For Investors)." The…

Asking for $2.5 million in loan to purchase and develop land and construct a 6,000-foot travel center.
Competitive issues -- Center will be located between Hwy 45 and 635; there is high visibility, good access, limited competition, good traffic potential.

Market segmentation -- Will offer gas, convenience store items, restrooms, showers, game rooms, trucker lounge, scales, parking -- meant to be a regular stop for truckers on busy U.S. route.

Staff -- Initially run by management team; with supplemental hourly wage staff for check out, cooking, dining, hotel maintenance, etc. Owners to take $50K each for salary, total payroll just under $500,000 per annum.

Silvera and Sons Coffee Export -- Prepares green Arabia coffee beans grown in Brazil for export to the U.S. (specialty roasters) and then sell to Brazilian wholesalers. Asking for investment to expand from 72,000 bags per year to 120-160 bags per year. Coffee differentiates because it…

Decision Making Model
Decision making is defined as the cognitive process of selecting a course of action from among multiple alternatives (Wikipedia, 2004). Effective decision making, however, is contingent on an individual or group's ability to select the course of action, which is most likely to result in goal or task accomplishment. In the business world, this is easier said than done since most decisions involve taking into consideration a myriad number of variables such as environmental factors, competitive activities, customer needs, internal goals and organizational constraints. Therefore, most organizations deem it advisable to use decision making support systems or models, which have been developed specifically to assist in the through analysis and evaluation of various alternative courses of action.

One such model is the Force Field Analysis. It is the objective of this paper to describe how the Force Field Analysis model helps weigh the pros and cons of…

In other words, throughout the transition period, Onetech would create efficiencies and would consolidate its position. In the future however, it is recommended that the company moved towards a strategy of diversification, as this would better satisfy customers' needs, attract them and as such create market power for the firm (Markides, 2007).

The decision making process at Onetech

The decision making process at Onetech is quite intricate, revealing both strengths, as well as weaknesses. Decisions are for instance made at the level of the board and are based on the expertise gathered by the various major players in the firm. Still, the decisions are made by the executives, with little emphasis on the input which could be provided by the employees.

In order to better assess the decision making process at Onetech, it is appropriate to analyze it through the lenses of the rational decision making model. This model consists…

Business Strategies and Decision-Making
Choosing a business structure can depend on a wide range of variables and it is thus essential for a manager to have a complex understanding of his company, the industry it is associated with, and business forecasts. The process of choosing a business structure needs to be considered before starting any businesses in spite of the fact that this respective process can take a significant amount of resources. Many business owners are inclined to either dedicate very little of their time to this process or even to bypass it completely. This can lead to serious issues later in the company's functioning, as business owners can come across a series of problems that they're not prepared to deal with.

Proprietorships are one of the most encountered types of business organizations, this being largely owed to the fact that they are easier to form and maintain and because…

he managers should also develop plans that refer to the human resources that must be included in their projects. his is because these projects usually require that certain experts are hired and involved in the project team. he effects of the projects must be carefully evaluated and presented to Childs.
3. hese projects are likely to provide important effects for the company, but they also require important resources. herefore, it is recommended that Childs takes these projects into consideration by allocating different levels of financial resources to their managers. However, the most important sum should be allocated to yler's project. his is because increasing the efficiency of the company's production flow is able to provide important effects on medium term and on long-term. his could help the company significantly improve its position on the market.

he project developed by Julie should also benefit from certain resources. his is because the…

Business Decision Analysis -- Cipla
Yusuf Hamied pioneered the Chemical, Industrial and Pharmaceutical Laboratories, which is more popularly known as Cipla, in India. The main function of Cipla was to reverse engineer some of the most demanded medications in the market and then reconfigure or re-synthesize them in a different manner (to avoid patent law suits) and sell them to the masses at affordable rates. The problem for Dr. Hamied, though, was a recent upgrade in patent laws that were meant to be applicable from 2005 in India. This new upgrade was being implemented on a global scale by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and was officially called Trade elated Aspects of Intellectual Property ights (TIPS) and it mainly required India to accept the patent laws with regards to pharmaceuticals and other intellectual inventions that had been standardized for over 2 decades. This would mean that a majority of the…

For each cell, decide which of the two options is more important. Write down the letter of the more important option in the cell, and score the difference in importance from 0 (no difference) to 3 (major difference).
5. Finally, consolidate and sum the results by adding up the total of all the values for each of the options; and then convert these values into a percentage of the total score.

As a simple example, a business is looking at several ways to expand its market share. In doing so, it comes with the following options as shown below:

1. Use electronic commerce for serving customers

Expand business in home markets

3. Improve customer satisfaction

4. Improve the quality of service

Firstly the manager draws up the Paired Comparison Analysis table in Figure 1:

Figure 1: Example Paired Comparison Analysis Table (not filled in):

Use electronic commerce (a)

Expand into…

Business Culture Decision Making
Every research is centered on the need to make a decision and the need to make a decision in any organization sprouts from a dilemma that the particular organization may be in. Some of these dilemmas may be in the form of complains within the organization, controversy over pay, competitors introduction of a new form of operation or technology, some looming major commitment of resources and more of such issues can effectively prompt a research in an organization.

The bottom line is that research draws its origins from decision making. There must be a dilemma that dominates the course of the research in pursuit of specific information to enable a manager to set objectives, define the tasks, and obtain the best strategy for completion of some tasks. It is at this time that it can be concluded that the research always comes 'just- in -- time'…

In the case of Kava island issue, we shall reach the decision in the following manner.
White Hat / Hat #1:

This is where a person needs to consider all the available data on the issue at hand. For example we know that Kava is a land of richness. It is a place with multiple possibilities because it has a sizeable young population, is rich in petroleum, coffee, sugar and other such important items. It has people from diverse backgrounds who add to the richness of its culture and almost 15 languages are spoken in this area. But at the same time, the country is plagued with numerous problems including ever-increasing cases of HIV.

Red Hat / Hat #2:

This is where a person needs to focus on intuition. Intuitively for example we can say that Kava can be seen as a great tourist destination if developed properly. Nik's firm…

decision making tool.
Forced Field Analysis: a decision making tool

In business applications, health care, or private life there arise many occasions when one is faced with making a major decision. Although many individuals face such instances with their wits alone, relying on his or her "gut feelings" to assist them in their quandary, many find that such an unscientific approach can lead them to the wrong action. Indeed, when one lacks a basic "tool" approach to decision making, the odds of coming to the correct or workable solution is significantly reduced in most circumstances. Having a method such as the "Forced Field Analysis" tool is extremely useful.

In simple terms, Forced Field Analysis involves identifying, compiling a list concerning, discussing and evaluating the possible "forces" in favor of as well as against a possible change or decision. In essence, the technique helps the decision maker see the true context…

Engage options in open discussion and debate

Use debate to identify the two most viable options in the dilemma

Hold a secret ballot vote to determine which of the two options resonates with the decision-making team

Construct a timetable marking off expectations according to projected dates

Use these dates as a feedback loop for evaluating the decision as its implications unfold

Establish a second level in the feedback loop creating proper procedures and illuminating avenues to whistelblowing

Encourage personnel to serve as whitleblowers when they witness abuses of the ethical policy

Consult and renew the ethical code once a year to ensure that it still comports with the needs to address any ethical dilemmas which might arise in the foreseeable future

Conclusion:

With many of the corporate scandals of the early millennium implicating the highest offices of some leading firms, today's corporate atmosphere is informed by an emphasis on ethically…

Decision Making
Decision-making

Scenario

Anderson Children's Hospital (ACH) is an internationally known and recognized pediatric hospital that provides the full range of services from primary to critical care units, located in San Francisco, CA with affiliated care centers throughout the Bay Area. The board of directors at ACH would like to create a mobile-crisis program to be piloted in the City of San Francisco and eventually grow to service the entire Bay Area. The following sections present the process through which the Board of Directors is trying to navigate towards its final decision.

Core question

At the core of the following proposal is this 2-part question: Should ACH create a mobile crisis program to be piloted in the City of San Francisco for (up to) one year with the intent of expanding its funding, personnel, and service area over the next 3-5 years throughout the entire Bay Area and if…

Business
eview of Making a Business Decision

Decision making is an unavoidable part of business. Smaller decisions where there is a lower perceived cost associated with making the wrong decision are psychologically easer compared to important decisions where a wrong choice could incur high costs. A recent example of a decision involved selecting an employee for an internal promotion. The position of team leader had become available for one of following the resignation of the incumbent team leader. The position was important for the team, and the department, as the team leader is key in managing the team from a practical perspective and ensuring that targets for the team would be met, as well as playing an important motivational role. The performance of the department was reliant on performance of each team, so the appointment was also important for the department I managed. The decision was important from the perspective…

" To that end, the Treasury Department would limit executive compensation for institutions receiving "exceptional assistance" (Geithner and Summers, 2009).
Troubles continued in the financial sector -- both Citigroup and the Bank of America needed second rounds of capital infusions, and federal guarantees against losses totaling tens of billions more -- while Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, warned that more capital injections might be needed to further stabilize the financial system. On Jan. 16, the Senate voted 52-42 to release the second round of funds (Gerth, 2009).

THE GEITHNER PLANS -on Feb. 10, Mr. Geither presented the rough outlines of the Obama administration's plan. A central piece of the proposal would create one or more so-called bad banks that would rely on taxpayer and private money to purchase and hold banks' bad assets. Another centerpiece of the plan would stretch the last $350 billion that the Treasury has…

Decision making is a term that can be described as the process of choosing between alternatives and entails identification, development, and selection. Based on academic literature decision making and analysis can be widely divided into two schools of thoughts i.e. analytic and experiential or incremental decision making processes (Sipp & Carayannis, 2013, p.18). The analytic school of thought on decision making and analysis primarily focuses on problem definition and identification, assessment and selection of alternatives. In this school of thought, implementation in the decision making process basically entails simple execution of the cautiously selected alternative. On the contrary, even though experiential or incremental school of thought incorporates the two major steps in decision making just like the other school of thought, it focuses more on the execution of the alternative. This school of thought on decision making also utilize feedback to make necessary adjustments to the selected alternative in order…

The brainstorming approach: The Grubb & Ellis Company

In contrast to the City of Miami, the Grubb & Ellis Company, a commercial real estate advisory firm, uses the 'brainstorming' method of decision-making. A creative business such as Grubb & Ellis clearly believes it benefits from a decision-making model that encourages a 'free for all' of information. In this model, individuals write down, collectively or individually, every idea that comes to mind, good or bad. No censorship is allowed. Quite often, unique and off-beat solutions are generated through this method, and sometimes even the 'craziest' ideas can germinate practical solutions.

The only problem with the brainstorming model is that because it is so democratic, the organization can get bogged down debating an array of available alternatives, when a quick decision is required. Eventually, a solution must be arrived at, and the organization may find itself forced to shift to a more…

Accounting Information for Decision Making
Corporate Confirming on Water isk (Feb 2010) indicates that the Global Confirming Initiative (GI) G3 Guidelines' five water-related indications (total withdrawal volume by source, ponds considerably impacted by distributions, percentage and total amount of water recycled and used again, total water discharge by quality and destination, and identification water physiques and related habitats impacted by discharges) make the perfect beginning point for assessing and confirming water risks. Within this section, we'll briefly discuss the relevance of all these standards (Power, 2010).

Total water withdrawal by source

Confirming the entire amount of water withdrawn by source adds for knowledge of the general scale of possible influences and threats connected using the company's water use. The entire volume withdrawn offers an indication from the organization's proper size and significance as a user of water and offers to set up a baseline figure for other information relevant to…

business decision is usually undertaken by classifying the option with a good amount of revenue or the slightest cost. The Incremental analysis is seen to be the most promising mode in such processes due to its simple processes, this paper is going to demonstrate this simplicity.
Incremental analysis which is also known as marginal/disparity analysis is often undertaken in analyzing the monetary value in sequence appropriate for decision making. It brings about the pertinent revenues as well as costs of every option in addition to the predictable impact of the option on prospect proceeds and here decision making involves selecting among many options. The focal point of incremental analysis is known to scrutinize diverse factors among the options in relation to three main pointers known as revenue differences, benefits, cost differences as well as cost savings differences (Clifford Cobb, Ted Halstead and Jonathan owe 1998).

According to Terry Moore (2006),…

Decision Making
Career Chosen

The chosen career is investment/financial advisor. This position involves working within the context of a bank or financial services firm, as a broker serving a set group of clients. When determining investments for clients, there is information that should go into the decision, provided by both the client and the company that you work for, as well as by companies in the markets. The investment decisions that you make for/with the client are supposed to reflect this information. That said, many people do not use rational, informed decision-making when they make their investments.

Structured Decision

structured decision with respect to building an investment portfolio would follow the format laid out in the text. The initial phase is the intelligence. n investment advisor would already have performed intelligence with respect to the different types of investments, and have a set list of favorites. But there needs to…

Decision Making Methodology
Decisions in business should be based on sound intuition and factual data. Oftentimes management has to make a judgment call of whether to evaluate from projections or from objective analysis of the circumstances. It is important for those in business to have proof to back the reasoning for making a decision which is sound and reasonable. According to Bazerman and Moore there are six main steps to making a sound decision this structure can be used for any problems requiring a resolution. The methodology is considered useful due to the fact that consistent results can be documented (Bazerman and Moore, 2005).

Identifying a business problem is the first step in the Bazerman and Moore decision model. A problem that recently presented itself in the workplace was related to tenants in the Wulvern housing complex.

Background

Wulvern is part owner to a Senior Living Association that houses thousands…

In this case the affair did not have any apparent effect on the business. In fact during the time of the nearly two-year affair profits actually rose. However the whistle blower believed that the affair was morally wrong, particularly because the boss was married with children.
The whistleblower believed that ultimately the affair would be detrimental to the business so he blew the whistle. He believed that the affair was an indication that the boss was a poor decision maker and that this poor decision making would ultimately cause the business some harm. Some people believed that he was not obligated to tell of the affair. However, others argued that it would be just a matter of time before the decisions that he made in his private life would affect the manner in which the business was run. In this instance the idea of preventing harm encompassed a broad scope.…

Decision-Making
Approaches in decision making

Decision-making forms a very significant component of success at work, at the same time it can be the cause of failure if the conditions are wrong and if those involved are not on the same page. Confusion with regard to decision-making can cause conflict to teams, supervisors, managers, and team leaders. There are various decision-making approaches that can be adopted depending on the situations, these include: consensus, majority vote, minority (subcommittee), expert, authority with discussion, and authority without discussion (Eisenfuhr, 2011). This will describe the 'consensus' and 'expert' approaches of decision-making with respect to the scenario selected.

In the consensus or group decision-making approach, the manager becomes part of the team and involves everyone who is willing and ready to contribute in the decision-making process. The fact that the word consensus is used does not signify that all those involved fully agree with whatever decision…

decision making best exemplifies what happened on the Deepwater Horizon rig?
The basic model that was used in the Deepwater Horizon accident was the bounded rational decision making approach. This is when everyone inside the organization will be focused on selecting options that work well within their current circumstances. The problem is that these individuals are not selecting an approach, which is in the best interests of everyone. Instead, there is an obsession in meeting short-term objectives at all costs. In the case of the Deepwater Horizon, everyone was ignoring obvious signs that the well was about to explode. The biggest reason why is managers were focused on meeting the productivity goals of the company at all costs. ("What are ational Models," 2012)

Which of the decision- making biases played a potential role in the disaster?

The kind of decision making biases that were occurring prior the Deepwater Horizon incident…

To this end, synergy can be likened to economies of scope, whereby the quality of decisions reached goes up with the inclusion of more minds (Nelson & Quick, 2012). Information-sharing is based on the idea that every individual possesses some unique information besides that which is known by everyone (Nelson & Quick, 2012). When several individuals come together in a group, they consolidate these unique pieces of information, creating a more complete informational platform and consequently, a decision of high quality (Nelson & Quick, 2012).
Group decision making is not without its share of drawbacks; i) since the technique is built on consultations, it usually involves lengthy procedures that could be quite costly to the organization, ii) it could kill team spirit, especially if some members feel that they are being shortchanged, iii) decisions are largely influenced by members' relative statuses - in an academic group task, for instance, members…

Ethics
Employees and business management personal are taught business ethics as a fundamental guideline. It is tasked with assigning a particular meaning and role to business on the whole. Taking ethical decisions entails keeping certain aspects in mind. Written below is a brief argument on the points regarding ethics and a scenario is setup where business ethics are employed.

In layman words, business ethics entails working within reasonable means in a financial environment. Some particular aspects are required to achieve that (Brusseau). The decisions are guided by principles, comprehending the facts, making a valid argument and lastly ethics basically entails discerning between right and wrong (Brusseau). The overall result is secondary to the process at hand. The end result consists of constructing and making valid arguments. Hence, business ethics isn't really brainwashing. It's just fine tuning. The conclusions are formed from transparent values, confirmed facts and viable arguments (Brusseau).

Keeping…

Collaborative Decision Making Through Share Governance
I attended a committee meeting at a local school. The committee was formed in order to come up with a proposal on how they could improve the performance of the school. Those who attended the meeting were supposed to see to it that they come up with a proposal on how the performance of the students could be improved. I was quite keen on how the committee members interacted and the process the committee used to arrive at their decisions.

I observed that the committee used both managerial level and group levels in the decision making process. First of all I observe that there were proposals from the management that were forwarded to the committee members. The management of the school had come up with their own measures that would be taken to ensure that the performance of the school would be improved. This…

According to Halpern (1996, p. 197), arguments that utilize irrelevant reasons are fairly common: "The Latin word for this sort of fallacy is non-sequitur, which literally translates to 'it doesn't follow.' In other words, the reason or premise is unrelated to the conclusion." Since relevant premises are a key criteria for building sound arguments, it follows that critical thinkers must learn to recognize and avoid such fallacies.
However, in the real world this is perhaps easier said than done since the use of force often tends to sway decisions in favor of the person who is making the threat, implied or otherwise. An example that comes readily to mind is the manner in which advertisers have coerced sports bodies to disallow ambush marketing: "It is important that any sports body has the right to control what is being brought into their events...to protect the millions of pounds of investment that…

Decision Making & Creativity, Power and Influence in the Workplace, and Leadership in Organizations
Creating a platform for leadership that is agile enough to respond quickly to unforeseen events, yet stable enough to ensure team and group solidary is one of the most challenging aspects of any leader's long-term growth. Coupled with the need for having a solid foundation of leadership skills including Emotional Intelligence (EI), situational awareness and transformational leadership (Purvanova, Bono, 2009) is the need for leaders to thoroughly understand power and influence not just in their departments but across their entire organization as well. The five dominant forms of organizational power, ranging from coercive, to reward, legitimate, referent expert and informational power, all must be orchestrated successfully by a manager if challenging, often time-constrained objectives are to be attained (Drea, Bruner, Hensel, 1993). This self-reflection analysis includes insights into specific types of power from the context of…

decision making tools and techniques whereby 6 Thinking Hats has been chosen as one of its tools. This decision making tool is widely used in the business world of today.
THINKING HATS

DECISION MAKING

Decision making in science and indeed any other field of study is a difficult thing and for this, one needs to understand what are the basic ways in which a decision can be arrived at, without wasting much time and using the best tools and techniques in order to achieve the same. These decisions are very crucial to the outcome of a project but certain things should be kept in mind that information is the single most significant thing in this whole process. Decision-making is indeed a very complex and well-developed area, one that has to be looked at by the researchers and lecturers with particular care. This paper is about the decision-making tools and techniques…

As in any merger, the organization would have to deal with human resource issues (because the verification process was double-performed, one of the two teams needs to be reapplied within the organization), financial issues, etc.
The third option would be to create a sole compartment to deal with the verification process, a compartment that would employ human resource from both the ECFMG and the EICS. This compartment would deal only with the verification and would have several advantages. First of all, it would eliminate the original problem we had to deal with and, second of all, it would probably increase the efficiency of the compartment, with more employees and a better coordination.

In making the decision, we need to choose between deciding by majority rule and consensus building. In my opinion, in this particular case, it is best to build the appropriate consensus with all party involved. For additional information…

History tells us, evidently, that the worse a slump, the quicker the recovery because there's nowhere else to go but up. The rebounds from a bad economy were very strong. Now there's something to look forward to for those millions of Americans who can't put bread on the table for their kids.
ut, why is the stimulus not working all that well. In actuality, the government threw in around $800 billion for President Obama's Recover and Reinvestment Act of 2009. How could it not work? ecause it spent money on the wrong things. Remember when we were told all the wonderful new green investments it would allow to create thousands of jobs. And, do you recall how it would bring the U.S. transportation system up-to-date with highway and bridge repairs?

Pork. That's what happened, plus huge support for existing social programs which brought zero new jobs. The Wall Street Journal…

Administrative model is defined as "a decision-making model that describes how managers actually make decisions in situations characterized by nonprogrammed decisions, uncertainty, and ambiguity" (Daft 1999, p. 284). This approach to decision-making recognizes that not all decisions are able to be considered and judged based on quantitative methods. While it may be preferred that decisions be made by a process where the outcomes are known and can be compared, it is not always possible to know the outcomes. For these types of decisions, a new kind of model is needed that takes into account the uncertainty. This model is the administrative model.
Herbert A. Simon is the founder of the administrative model. He considered the economic model of decision-making and noted that one major element was missing. This element was the human element. Taking the human element into consideration, Simon rejected the idea that people make decisions based on rational…

Business Course Retrospective
Comment on how journaling activities helped you recognize the real or potential impact of stakeholder biases as well as your own biases. How do biases or differing perspectives influence the media, public opinion, and decision-making in business and society? Use example from your activities to support your commentary.

The Journaling process provided direct examples of individual bias and of the degree to which pre-existing beliefs and perception color the perceptions of individuals. For example, journaling revealed that people with predominantly conservative political views maintain fundamental beliefs that differ substantially from the views maintained by people with fundamentally liberal points-of-view. I learned that one aspect of modern media consumption is that people tend to seek out editorial opinions that are consistent with the ones they already espouse and that only reinforce them. They do not seek out objective opinions and critical review of the reports they consume and…

402). Moreover, Daly and ee (2006) suggest that the probability proportionate to size method is particularly useful for sampling educational institutions for ensuring that a representative sampling is achieved. Therefore, Ms. Smith would assign larger colleges with higher enrollment rates a greater chance of being selected for her visits and correspondingly lower chances to smaller colleges with lower enrollments. In order to reduce the uncertainty involved and maximize the chances of each student having an equal opportunity of being selected for interview, this step is achieved by adjusting the probability of selecting a college during the initial stages of college selection based on the proportion of all students in the general population who are enrolled at the college. As a result, a college that had 40,000 students enrolled in its computer science program would be 100 times more likely to be selected by Ms. Smith than a smaller college with…

General Motors and the United Auto Workers Labor Agreement
Judgment in Managerial Decision making

General Motors and the United Auto Workers have been among the America's largest manufacturers of motor vehicles and related parts. Following pressure of the two leading manufacturers going bankrupt they had to negotiate a change in the labor agreement as an urgent move. The workers and the communities are to be adversely affected by this part of restructuring.

Some of the decisions reached during the negotiation affected the workers negatively in as much as they were mainly to prevent the collapse of the two manufacturers. General Motors reached a decision to close or idle 17 of its facilities, where Chrysler was to close eight plants. The GM seeks to reduce its 60,000 strong UAW workforce by up to 20,000. On the top of that Chrysler is to reduce positions because of the plant closures, however the…

Director's Daughter
The issue is that the purchasing manager is uncertain about what to do. There is an intimation that the purchasing manager should purchase from Tabitha's, regardless of whether the bid is competitive, but that has not been made clear.

There are two reasons why this is an issue. The first is that the CEO has not been 100% clear on this issue. If he is ordering the purchasing manager to do a deal with Tabitha's, then he has not stated that explicitly. As a result, there is ambiguity here. The second reason this is an issue is because there is uncertainty as to whether Tabitha's can handle the order. If that was not in doubt, then there would be little reason to worry -- the purchasing manager is free to switch suppliers for any reason at the end of a contract. Only the ambiguity with respect to the…

Ethical Analysis
Memo on a Ethical Analysis

____, Student

____ (due date)

e:

Decision making by a Healthcare Leader in case of an Ethical Dilemma

in an interview of my health care administrator of the long care health facility where I work, I asked, "How do you make a wise decision in a situation relating to an ethical dilemma?"

esponse:

Description of the Answer

It seemed like my question took the administrator by surprise perhaps he did not expect such a question when I requested for an interview. However, he looked composed and amused by my question. Confidently and leaning a little bit forward and supporting his hands on his desk, he responded. He first pointed out the numerous occasions when ethical dilemmas were evident in his health care administration career at the health facility. He said that he learnt over time through many experiences and a little consultation and…

Decision
As the general contractor of a medium size, one of the most important decision points in construction is a go no-go decision. Go no-go decisions have become common in the modern construction industry because of the changing marketplace that has in turn generated complex procurement choices. In light of the changing marketplace in the construction industry, construction companies face new challenges in identifying the most suitable project proposals to adopt and develop vetting measures that help in making the appropriate go no-go decision (Illia & ubin, 2014). Despite the complexities of such decisions, go no-go decisions remain very crucial choices in this sector because of their significance in weighing costs for the most appropriate project fit.

Contractors need to conduct a go no-go analysis in order to determine the best project fit depending on project specifications and needs. The analysis helps in several aspects including serving as a process…

Decision-Making
Assessing a Decision Based on Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats Technique

In the book Six Thinking Hats Edward de Bono describes the process of parallel thinking. This process means looking at problems from all angles at once. Edward de Bono uses the example of four people all looking at the same house. One person is looking at the front. Another is looking at the back. The other is looking at the left side. The final person is looking at the right side. These people are all arguing about what the house looks like, while each has a different view of the house. The fact is that what everyone is seeing is part of what the house looks like. But as long as they are all only seeing one side, they will never agree. They will also never really understand what the entire house looks like. The four people…

Accounting
What decision making model would you use to make this decision?

The rational decision making model would be the best choice in this instance. This model is particularly useful as it provides a systematic method of processing information. Many of the steps involved within the overall process involve judgment and foresight. In question 4 of the self test, the primary problem is centered on working an additional shift. The decision to work the additional shift lends itself well to the rational decision making model. First the model allows the development of alternatives, which can better aid management in its overall decision. Alternatives to working an additional shift would be to outsource labor, improve productivity through technology and so forth. Through the rational decision making model, these alternatives can be properly addressed while also outlining a means to arrive at the best possible decision. Management however, must guard itself on…

Organization Decision Making
Within an organization, there have to be many changes taking place at all times, without which the organization may stagnate and start to decline. These changes would have to be organization-wide, rather than small changes like changing the program, adding a new person, and so on. Some examples of organization-wide change are a change in the mission of the company, or a restructuring of operations, or maybe an addition of a new technology, or a merger, etc. In general organizational change is provoked by a need for accomplishing some preconceived goal, or it is caused by some outside force like for example, a need for cutting costs within the organization, or a need to increase declining productivity. Although it is a fact that organization wide change is difficult to accomplish, primarily for the reason that many people are afraid of change of any kind, even though it…

Horn of Africa experienced what was termed the worst drought in 60 years. The drought, caused by the failure of the rains for two consecutive seasons, led to a severe food crisis across Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya, and killed more than 100,000 people while placing hundreds of thousands at risk of starvation. According to Hiller and Dempsey (2011), the greatest tragedy was that the world had seen this disaster coming, but little had been done to prevent it. From as early as 2010, there had been clear indications of a looming crisis and its consequences. La Nina, a climate condition that would lead to drier than normal conditions over the entire area had already been confirmed. Further warnings of the crisis were repeated and became more strident in 2011. In light of all the warning signs, it is, therefore, rather surprising that proper response from the international aid system…

Public Institutions
Professional ethics refer to the ethics that surround a particular profession. These are the ethical standards that surround the job, and they will typically encompass a range of job-specific ethics and basic ethical standards in general. Organizational ethics are the set of ethical standards by which the organization operates. Each organization has its own culture, and that culture will have a built-in set of ethics that may be different from those of similar organizations. Social ethics are the ethics of a society.

At their heart, each code of ethics reflects the standards by which the group of people agrees to operate. So a society, a firm and a professional body are three different groups of people, and each can therefore have their own set of ethical standards and guidelines. Ethical guidelines are part of an agreed structure for any group of people. When one belongs to a group,…

Decision Analysis System
Computers have brought a great change in our lives. A software program called spreadsheet turns the computer screen into a paper sheet one is working on. This program saves time by reducing the errors and repetitions of calculations. It is commonly used in physics labs in order to save time by getting accurate results and accumulating proper data in labs. Spreadsheets have traditionally been used by accountants for the purpose of bookkeeping and budgeting, when actually they can prove to be amazing tools for engineers and scientists as well. Using a spreadsheet, entered raw data could be manipulated and plotted through few easy commands. Furthermore, due to their built-in capability to easily plot data, spreadsheets prove to be especially useful (Karmakar et al., 2007).

Initially introduced in the corporate world in late 1970s and the early 1980s, it proved to be an immediate success. The usefulness, power…

Therefore to form a basis of good decision making business people should be able to understand how statistics can be applied in the description of markets, advertising development, price setting and how they can best respond to the consumer demands that are often changing (Petryni, 2010).
Statistics can be used in various situations within a business for instances; incase a business wants to venture into new markets statistics can be used to inform the business decisions in the definition of target consumers. The statistical analysis of the trends of consumers, purchasing powers and preferences can be useful in making decisions before venturing into a particular business.

Another situation can be where decisions on the branding and advertising products or services the statistical analysis may aid in the definition of the consumers who are targeted, provide information about the industry one wants to venture in and description of the buying trends.…

instant, accurate communication -- the days of missed phone calls and letters which had to be sent via certified mail or otherwise tracked are long gone. Today, electronic media can be secure, instant, and quickly accessible and verifiable, making them the most viable means of communication within and without an organization. In the corporate community, the speed of information is almost as important, if not equally so, to its accuracy -- minutes, even seconds, can mean losing an edge to a competitor or missing out on a blockbuster deal.
Two different, and yet very compatible, means of communication in this new electronic era are intranets and extranets. An intranet is defined as "a local network that covers the premises of one Firm/Organisation with the objective of speeding up working procedures and production process." (Trieste 2004). An extranet, on the other hand, is the connection, over public network, of two or…

In the former approach, tradable goods, money or services are exchanged between buyers and sellers at a rate that is agreeable to all parties. This approach assumes both the buyers and sellers have enough money, services or goods to have their needs met. The latter approach, public provision, is when all is available to those on an as-needed basis.
The Pharmaceutical and Manufacturing Association warns that whenever there is government control of prices it only has a negative impact on those who are in need of being helped: 1) When funding for new medical technology, cures for diseases and research and development are diverted to more lucrative economic areas; 2) Incentives to enter the pharmaceutical industry decline; 3) More restrictions are placed on providers; 4) the quality of medical care suffers and 5) This leads to a rationing of care. Instead, the association says there has to be a healthcare…

The recency effect: most manager at times have an overreliance on the most readily available information to make decisions, it commonly occurs when carrying out annual performance evaluations of employees where recent performance of the employees plays a major role than accomplishments that have taken place in the earlier periods of review, this has an adverse effect has it may lead to the deviation of the set desired goals. (John k.bochardt 2010)

Anchoring bias: in most cases the price tags on products often if not always affect the purchasing negations between consumers and retailers, and most of the time consumer's end up paying higher prices for the product than necessary. This notion that sometimes leads us to allow initial reference point to distort our estimates is what professor oberto refers to anchoring bias.

From a marketing point-of-view anchoring bias can come about when negotiating the renewal of a contract with…

Planning Decision Making
Planning and decision making are two main and fundamental processes of an organization. Planning is one of the main factors with the help of which an organization can determine where it wants to be in the future. It is planning with the help of which an organization can determine as to what can be done in order to accomplish the mission and aims that an organization has. One of the basics that are followed during planning includes achievement of the objectives that the organization has. In order to have better planning, there are four main facts that are needed to be kept in mind by the planners in the organizations. These include mission, values, resources, as well as the environment of the organization as these are the four main facts that help in having better planning within the organization.

Decision making is the second important foundation of…

Identification
Decision making and problem solving in companies are probably the most important processes in any business. These processes ensure that companies run smoothly and effectively. There are a variety of decision-making and problem-solving processes that ensure the effectiveness of business processes. Often, these are chosen on the basis of their effectiveness in the particular business setting involved. The automotive industry, for example, would not function on the same decision-making process as a childcare business. Particularly, problem identification relate to various problem-solving styles, including the morphological approach, the Kepner-Tregoe approach, inventive problem solving, constraints thinking, the collective-participative style, and the fairness approach. These will be related to five types of businesses, including an automotive business, a restaurant, an electronics business, a DVD store, and a preschool,

The first important step in problem solving is problem identification (Reference for Business, 2010). All five businesses investigated have a problem identification process in…

Group Decision-Making
Decision making in institutes have been depicted as a progression of conduct with the full amount of level-headedness at individual excessive, as well as absolute illogicality at the other excessive. The depiction entails that no more than illogical decision making brings about individual morals priority in excess of economic principles. There must be a way of finding some focal point amid these ends, as it is obvious that any of this set of values can be overlooked. Many a times, managers have been brazen out with the responsibility coming up with stern, objectionable, as well as obnoxious slashes of workers along with services in a speedy approach, for the reason that, in a way, they botched to pay attention to the earlier decisions as per economic values. In the same way, institutions have also been pushed to decision retracting as well as acting in a more confusing way…

Rational Business Decision
Poor Decision Making

One of the most difficult things to admit is when one has made a mistake. In retrospect, the decision not to promote Ms. X, given her sterling performance for our competitors, is one such a poor decision on my part.

However, I have learned from my mistake. I realize that I should not have rejected her request for a promotion, and the added responsibilities that such a position entailed out of hand.

At first, deploying what is known as Recognition Primed Decision Making, under the stressful situation of her immediate prompting, I bridled at the idea of paying her more, because I knew that the department was financially strapped.

However, she requested an audience with me. Still, I rejected her request again, deploying the Explanation-Based Model of decision making, when a decision maker such as myself "will attempt to create a full story from…

Rvw
Decision Making and the Implication of Change

This paper will briefly identify, summarize and evaluate the ideas presented by Alfred D. Chandler Jr. He presents a solid analysis and in-depth look at the elements of modern decision-making and how change has influenced this practice over time. He shares his own personal experiences as an historian and analyzes how history has affected his choices in life. Chandler spends a great deal of time looking at the history of American conomics. He does not really say how the past will predict the future of the business world but he does reflect on what will influence change. He focuses more how if one looks at economic history, one can see an evolution or progression toward modern business practices.

This paper discusses the factor of change and its role in decision-making. In many ways, at the business level, decision-making is much like strategy…

This step entails communicating the decision to the concerned person or parties along with the penalties. This step also entails communicating the future course of action to concerned parties.
Close the case- the big errors that companies frequently make is that at times they let the case hang around on without any accomplishment on it. An imperative part of ethical decision making is to close the case by taking action as and when the decision has been communicated.

Set an example and move on- There is no damage in setting the examples for the other workers so that they have a complete awareness of it and they themselves stay away from making such mistakes at any costs. Making sure that everybody has good information of it, and then moving forward is one of imperative facet of ethical decision making (Problem-Solving and Decision-Making, 2010).

eferences

A Framework for Thinking Ethically. (2010).…