Decision Making & Problem Solving Essential Skills

Decision Making & Problem Solving Essential Skills by
Joan E. Leichter Dominick
Copyright 2002, All Rights Reserved Update 2011

“The decision is the central act of organization”
Herbert Simon

Importance of Decision-Making and Problem Solving Abilities

• The Decision is the central act of an organization

• Leaders are expected to be efficient and effective decision makers and problem solvers

• Leaders are expected to be ethical decision makers

• Leaders are expected to make decisions on behalf of an organization and be accountable for those decision

• Leaders design and deliver Public Speeches that are Public Decision-Makings for the organizations and their stakeholders

• Team work and group problem-solving reach decisional outcomes that benefit the stakeholders of an organization

• Public Speaking is a form of Public Decision-Making, whether it is an
Informative, Persuasive, or Ceremonial Speech

• The Bigger the Decision the Bigger Economic Impact

• The Bigger the Decision the Bigger the Ethical Impact

• Visionary Leaders must be Visionary Decision-Makers and Problem Solvers

• Powerful Decision-Makers and Problem Solvers welcome accountability for their actions

• Effective Decision-Making and Problem Solving are what keeps organizations productive thus meeting their goals successfully

As you journey through your life, you become more and more accountable for your
decisions and their resulting consequences. You have to make decisions about your
personal and professional life every day.

You had to decide to go to college, what college to attend, what to choose as a major,
how you would complete college, and what to do after college!

Your next big challenge will be how to make decisions and problem solve at work.
Work can be your career, graduate school, military service, or a volunteer commitment.
Regardless of where you work, you are now entering a new area of professional
obligation. The new obligation is realizing that now you are accountable for every
decision that you make while at work

This a is great time to take decisional stock on focusing on (1) What is a decision? (2)
How do you make decisions? (3) What are the decision-making and problem solving
processes? and (4) How do you make decisions on behalf of an organization?

1. What is a decision?

A decision is a choice among a range or set of images of the future that we think are
feasible. The varieties of decisions relate to the size of the decisional agenda of potential
images of the future (K.Boulding (1989) Three faces of power. London: Sage
Publications, p. 15)

A decision is a process to reduce uncertainty and to choose the most reasonable solution
among a variety of choices.

The root of the meaning of decision is caedo or caedere, which means striking down.
Caedo itself goes back to Sanskrit interpretation, which is khidati, to press, or kheda to
hammer. To make a decision is to reduce uncertainty, strike down or hammer out an
outcome to a problem, need, or emerging challenge.

2. How do you make a decision?

Herbert Simon groups the decision process into optimizing and satisficing.

An optimizing decision is when you take plenty of time, consult others for ideas, and
feel that you have made the best possible decision given the circumstance. For example,
when all alternative solutions to solve a problem are known such as the choice of buying
or renting a car when the objective is to have the lowest monthly payment.

A satisficing decision is when you take very little time, don’t consult others, and feel that
you make the fastest decision rather than the best. For example, such as deciding to
accept a job only after a few job interviews and a couple of job offers.
Most of the decisions you will make at work will fall into one of the categories. Most
organizations say they espouse optimizing decision-making but often times satificing
deicison-making results because of lack of time, no group consensus, or an answer is
needed.

Regardless of how a decision is made, once you are making a decision on behalf of an
organization you are always accountable for the process and outcome of your
decision!

As you go up the leadership ladder, your breadth and depth of decisional
accountability increases.

Give consideration to that as you select careers! For instance, military officers in most
branches of the service now have zero tolerance policies. The military officers are
accountable for good and bad decisions made by the enlisted soldiers.

3. What is the decision-making and problem solving process? What is the decision-
making outcome?

The decision-making process is the method in which the decision outcome is met. The
decisional process is just as important as the outcome. For example, the decision process
reveals:
 Who are the key decision-makers?
 How does the leader of the organization set the decisional tone?
 Do people make decisions alone or in groups?
 How much money is spent backing the decision?
 How much time is spent deliberating over the decision?
 Are decisions honored at the organization?
 Does the organization support satificing decision-making?
 Does the organization support optimizing decision-making?
 Does the organizational culture support solitary decision-making?
Does the organizational culture support group decision-making?

For example, occupations such as law enforcement, court judges, and corrections officers
are often called upon to make solitary decisions. Although, they are accountable to
review boards, most of their decisions are done alone. If this reflects how you like to
make decisions, then you would probably be comfortable in these professions. If not, you
have an insight about what not to do for a career.

Conversely, decisions made within organizations that require collaboration, group
accountability, a lengthy time frame, an outcome that pleases many, and involve a
detailed assessment of the outcome, often occur in occupations such as education,
medicine, and counseling. If this type of decision-making process appeals to you consider
the career possibilities, if not, have an insight about what not to do for a career.

The decision-making and problem-solving outcome is another critical part of the
process. Organizations are bottom-line driven. For example, the decision-making and
problem solving outcome reveals:

 How much will the company earn?
 How much will the company develop?
 What are the local, national, and globally implications for the decision?
 Who is accountable for the decision-making outcome?
 How does the leader of the organization deal with the success or failure of a
decision-making outcome?
 How are decisional outcomes explained to the organizational stakeholder, such
as, employees, customers, stockholders, legislators, and the general public?

By knowing how decision-making outcomes are treated at an organization, you will be
able to make better decisions about accepting a position at the organization, conducting
business with the organization, leaving an organization, or making a career at the
organization.

The Harvard Business Review regularly runs interesting articles on decision-making and
problem solving at organizations. Consult their Website:

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbr/index.html

The decision-making process is an illusive process to describe. Decisions have a
streaming process, that is, they do not occur neatly or in a linear fashion. Decisions are
affected by past decisions.

Decisional streaming occurs in every organization. Robert A. Harris says that every
decision follows a previous decision, enables many future decisions, and prevents other
future decisions (Robert A. Harris “Introduction to Decision Making” page 4 from

http://www.virtualsalt.com/crebook5.htm

The decision-making process contains six distinct stages according to Harris:

1. Define the decision that is to be made and outline the potential goals.
2. Get the facts regarding the feasibility of the goals.
3. Develop alternative solutions for the possible goals.
4. Rate each goal for efficiency and effectiveness.
5. Rate the risk of each alternative.
6. Make the decision.

This process is the same whether you are making the decision alone or with a group.
Remember, if you are making a decision on behalf of an organization, you are always
accountable.

4. How do you make decisions on behalf of an organization?

You make decisions on behalf of an organization from the moment you become a
member of that organization. Realize that every organizational culture embraces a range
of decisional styles.

What is an organizational culture? How does the organizational culture impact the
decisional styles of the stakeholders?

According to Dr. Kamal Fatehi, author of International Management: A Cross-Cultural
and Functional Perspective, organizational or “…Corporate culture indicates
organizationally shared values, beliefs, assumptions, and understandings that are the basis
for relevant corporate norms and behavior patterns. A very simplified definition is “the
way things work around here (p. 157).”

To locate Dr. Kamal Fatehi’s text published by Prentice Hall (New Jersey, 1996),
consult: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0130997226

The way things are done in organizations are through the decision-making process and
its subsequent decisional outcome. This sums up the central thesis of Herbert Simon,
whose thoughts on the importance of decision-making within organizations began this
chapter.

Every organization has a culture; within the culture is a repertoire of accepted
decisional styles. Some organizations encourage optimizing decisional styles. The
organization provides time, resources, group collaboration, and feedback for the more
serious decisions that must be made at the organization. They want the best decision.

Some organizations encourage satisficing decisional styles. The organization provides
very little time, resources, group collaboration, and feedback for the more serious
decisions that must be made at the organization. They want to fastest not necessarily the
best decision.

Some organizations say they want optimizing decisional styles but really espouse
satisficing decisional styles.

Some organizations say they want satisficing decisional styles but really espouse
optimizing decisional styles.

Be careful! Try to find out as much about the decisional styles of an organization
before you agree to become a member. Office politics is a direct result of conflict of
decisional styles and decisional outcomes.

Realize that your decisional style should fit the organizational decisional style.

Take decisional stock of yourself before joining an organization. Take an inventory of
your decisional style. It is directly connected to your learning style. How you learn and
how you make decisions are companions of each other. Do you like to study alone?
Do you like to make decisions alone? Do you like group projects? Do you like to make
group decisions?

For my doctoral dissertation, I studied how adult educators made decisions in practice.
As I discussed earlier in the section on decisional style, I found that there was a direct
correlation between how an educator made decisions and how their organization
impacted their decisional styles. For example, adult educators in law enforcement
preferred to make educational decisions alone, much like law enforcers must do on duty.
Adult educators making decisions at university settings preferred to make decisions in
groups much like the majority of decisions are made on campuses across the nation.

What is the point of this information? Be aware that you probably choose both your
academic major and your new career because they best fit your decisional styles. This
knowledge underscores the importance of being aware of the decisional styles that are
supported in the organizational culture that you are about to join. A good decisional style
fit between the organization and you should enhance your career satisfaction and
productivity.

In closing, Professor Hassien Arsham provides a list of Characteristics of a Good
Decision-Maker on his Website Making Good Decisions:

http://www.ubmailubalt.edu/~harsham/opre640/opre640.htm

1. Have a high tolerance of ambiguity.
2. Have a well-ordered sense of priorities.
3. Be a good listener.
4. Build consensus around a decision.
5. Avoid stereotyping.
6. Remain resilient with feedback.
7. Be comfortable with soft and hard input.
8. Be realistic about cost and difficulty of a decision.
9. Avoid decision minefields.

Add to his great list:

10. Make ethical decisions.
11. Be accountable for all your decisions.
12. Avoid decisionphobia! Make decisions when it is necessary.

Decision-Making and Problem Solving Website Resources:

Consult Professor Robert A. Harris’s Introduction to Decision Making Website at:

http://www.virtualsalt.com/crebook5.htm

Read about Chester Barnard’s work on decision-making on the Website:

http://www.ufphq.com/mgt_topics.htm

Consult the Basic Guidelines for Problem Solving and Decision-Making Website:

http://www.mapnp.org/library/prsn_prd/prb_bsc.htm

Mind Tools: Essential Skills for an Excellent Career

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_TED.htm

Decision Making & Problem Solving Essential Skills

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