WHAT AND HOW TO IMPROVE INDIVIDUAL DECISION MAKING ?
A
person has rightly said that “when you focus on problems, you will have
more problems. When you focus on possibilities you will have more
opportunities”. Decision making is a blend (combination) of thinking,
deciding and action. It is affected by person’s perception about the problem.
Most decisions involve one or more problems. In general, decision-making
results in a choice from many alternative courses of action. The problem solving
results in resolving the disparities/differences between the desired
performance and the performance that is actually obtained.
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Managers
at all levels (top, middle and lower level) make decisions according to their
authority and responsibility. Not only managers, even non-managerial employees
also make decisions but the impact of their decisions to the organization is
very much less. The examples are :
- Top managers
decide over organisation’s goals, type of products or services to offer, where
to locate a new manufacturing plant, etc. - Middle and lower
level managers decide over production schedules, select new employees and so
on. - Non-managers
decide over whether to go for work or not (today), how much effort to pay at
work, whether to follow the direction of the boss or not ? etc.
In
coclusion, it can be said that
individual decision making is an important part of OB. An indiviual’s final
choices are highly influenced by their perception. Moreover, one person’s
problem may be another person’s satisfactory state of affairs or even an
opportunity as well.
The
first assumption of psychology is that individuals are different. People have
their own sets of strength and weakness. Weakness of the person destory
decision quality. Again, decisions are also affected by several other factors
as well. Here, we discuss some of the personal characteristics and other
related factors that can help to improve individual decision making. They are :
Increase information inputs :- Decision requires adequate and accurate information.
But individual has certain mental constraints that limit the information
processing. Therefore, the decisions maker must try to get help from others to
receive and analyze the information.
Proper communication :- As against group decisions, communication is difficult
and less effective in individual decision making. This makes implementation
difficult. The managers should, therefore, take care to communicate all
decisions to the concerned persons in clear, precise, and simple language.
Select appropriate timing :- Selecting correct timing for taking the decision is
not less important than taking a correct decision. If the decision is correct
but the timing is not appropriate, it will not serve any purpose.
Increase acceptance and commitment :- For effective implementation of decision acceptance
and commitment of sunordinates is highly essential. Therefore, the managermust
adopt democratic leadership style. That style encourages subordinates to
suggest and criticize and thereby increases acceptance and commitment.
Create supportive environment :- The nature of decisions and their implementation is
affected by the prevailing environment both physical and organizational.
Therefore, the managers needs to build trust and improve motivation among employees
to make and implement decisions.
Change personal habits :- Personal habits determine the decision making style.
Some decisions makers stick (remain fixed) to their decisions even when these
decisions are not optional or even incorrect. Some decision makers shifts the
blame for ailure to other or to outside factors. These personal habits need to
be changed to make better decisions.
Proper reward and punishment system :- The organizational policy should not penalize loses
more than it rewards gains. If the policy penalizes more than the rewards a
decision maker may avoid a potentially good opportunity if there is a slight
chance of a loss.
Avoid prejudice and biasness :- Prejudice and biasness may cause the decision maker to
make ineffective decisions. So, as far as possible a decision maker should try
to minimize these factors at the time of making decisions.
Calculate risk :- Some managers are either highly conservative and are
low risk takers, or are highly optimistic and are high risk takers. In general,
both of these types are not good for the organization. So, the decision maker
should avoid these two extremes and take moderate level or calculated risk.
Avoid indecisiveness :- Decision making is a complex and risky task. The fear
of its outcome leads an individual towards indecisiveness or postponement. This
may cause loss of opportunity. Thus, individuals must be given training to
increase the confidence to make correct and timely decisions.