Explain briefly various models of decision making process.


Explain briefly various models of decision making process. Briefly describe the model of decision making Process which prevails in the organization known to you and explain as to how close it is to the models explained above. Briefly describe the structure and other relevant details of the organization.
Decision making is usually defined as the act of making up your mind about something. However, the process of decision making is not as easy as it sounds. There are certain important decisions that you have to make that have the ability to change the course of your life. Even at a work place, one is confronted with problems or dilemmas, where the solutions that one has to find should cater to the need of others around you. Such decisions have to be made in a careful way, especially if it is going to affect you monetarily, or if it is going to bring major changes in your life. Thus, it is important to take decisions in a systematic way, so that the decision you make has high chances of being successful. The article here discusses the 6 steps to decision making process, that can help in clarifying certain things in your mind before you take the final decision. These steps also will also help enhance your decision making skills for different types of decision making.

How to Make a Decision in Six Steps
Defining the Problem: The first step towards a decision making process is to define the
problem. Obviously, there would be no need to make a decision without having a problem. So, the first thing one has to do is to state the underlying problem that has to be solved. You also have to clearly state the outcome or goal that you desire after you have made the decision. This is a good way to start, because stating your goals would help you in clarifying your thoughts.
Develop Alternatives: The situation of making a decision arises because there are many alternatives available for it. Hence, the next step after defining the main problem would be to state out the alternatives available for that particular situation. Here, you do not have to restrict yourself to think about the very obvious options; rather you can use your creative skills and come out with alternatives that may look a little irrelevant. This is important because sometimes solutions can come out from these out-of-the-box ideas. You would also have to do adequate research to come up with the necessary facts that would aid in solving the problem.
Evaluate the Alternatives: This can be said to be the one of the most important stages of the decision making process. This is the stage where you have to analyze each alternative you have come up with. You have to find out the advantages and disadvantages of each option. This can be done as per the research you have done on that particular alternative. At this stage, you can also filter out the options that you think are impossible or do not serve your purpose. Rating each option with a numerical digit would also help in the filtration process.
Make the Decision: This is the stage where the hard work you have put in analyzing
would lead to. The evaluation process would help you in looking at the available options
clearly and you have to pick which you think is the most applicable. You can also club
some of the alternatives to come out with a better solution instead of just picking out any one of them.
Implement the Solution: The next obvious step after choosing an option would be
implementing the solution. Just making the decision would not give the result one wants.
Rather, you have to carry out on the decision you have made. This is a very crucial step
because all the people involved in the implementation of a solution should know about
the implications of making the decision. This is very essential for the decision to give successful results.
Monitor your Solution: Just making the decision and implementing it is not the end of
the decision making process, it is very important to monitor your decision regularly. At
this stage, you have to keep a close eye on the progress of the solution taken and also whether it= has led            to the results you expected.
These 6 steps to decision making process may, at first, seem very complicated. However, these are essential decision making techniques that would aid you in taking proper decisions in your personal as well as professional life.
Logical decision making is an important part of all science-based professions, where
specialists apply their knowledge in a given area to making informed decisions. For
example, medical decision making often involves making a diagnosis and selecting an
appropriate treatment. Some research using naturalistic methods shows, however, that in
situations with higher time pressure, higher stakes, or increased ambiguities, experts use intuitive decision making rather than structured approaches, following a recognition primed decision approach to fit a set of indicators into the expert's experience and immediately arrive at a satisfactory course of action without weighing alternatives. Recent robust decision efforts have formally integrated uncertainty into the decision making process. However, Decision Analysis, recognized and included uncertainties with a structured and rationally justifiable method of decision making since its conception in 1964.
A major part of decision making involves the analysis of a finite set of alternatives described in terms of some evaluative criteria. These criteria may be benefit or cost in nature. Then the problem might be to rank these alternatives in terms of how attractive they are to the decision maker(s) when all the criteria are considered simultaneously. Another goal might be to just find the best alternative or to determine the relative total priority of each alternative (for instance, if alternatives represent projects competing for funds) when all the criteria are considered simultaneously. Solving such problems is the focus of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) also known as multi-criteria decision making (MCDM). This area of decision making, although it is very old and has attracted the interest of many researchers and practitioners, is still highly debated as there are many MCDA / MCDM methods which may yield very different results when they are applied on exactly the same data. This leads to the formulation of a decision making paradox.
Decision-Making Stages
Developed by B. Aubrey Fisher, there are four stages that should be involved in all group decision making. These stages, or sometimes called phases, are important for the decision-making process to begin
Orientation stage- This phase is where members meet for the first time and start to get to know each other.
Conflict stage- Once group members become familiar with each other, disputes, little fights and arguments occur. Group members eventually work it out.
Emergence stage- The group begins to clear up vague in opinions is talked about.
Reinforcement stage- Members finally make a decision, while justifying themselves that it was the right decision
Decision making at HAIER TELECOM
Decision-making increasingly happens at all levels of a business. The Board of Directors may make the grand strategic decisions about investment and direction of future growth, and managers may make the more tactical decisions about how their own department may contribute most effectively to the overall business objectives. But quite ordinary employees are increasingly expected to make decisions about the conduct of their own tasks, responses to customers and improvements to business practice. This needs careful recruitment and selection, good training, and enlightened management.

Types of Business Decisions
1. Programmed Decisions These are standard decisions which always follow the same routine. As such, they can be written down into a series of fixed steps which anyone can follow. They could even be written as computer program
2. Non-Programmed Decisions. These are non-standard and non-routine. Each decision is not quite the same as any previous decision.
3. Strategic Decisions. These affect the long-term direction of the business eg whether to take over Company A or Company B
4. Tactical Decisions. These are medium-term decisions about how to implement strategy eg what kind of marketing to have, or how many extra staff to recruit
5. Operational Decisions. These are short-term decisions (also called administrative decisions) about how to implement the tactics e.g. which firm to use to make deliveries.




The model in Figure 2 above is a normative model, because it illustrates how a good
decision ought to be made. Business Studies also uses positive models which simply aim to illustrate how decisions are, in fact, made in businesses without commenting on whether they are good or bad.
Linear programming models help to explore maximising or minimising constraints eg one can program a computer with information that establishes parameters for minimising costs subject to certain situations and information about those situations.
Spread-sheets are widely used for ‘what if’ simulations. A very large spread-sheet can be used to hold all the known information about, say, pricing and the effects of pricing on profits. The different pricing assumptions can be fed into the spread-sheet ‘modelling’ different pricing strategies. This is a lot quicker and an awful lot cheaper than actually changing prices to see what happens. On the other hand, a spread-sheet is only as good as the information put into it and no spread-sheet can fully reflect the real world. But it is very useful management information to know what might happen to profits ‘what if’ a skimming strategy, or a penetration strategy were used for pricing.
The computer does not take decisions; managers do. But it helps managers to have quick
and reliable quantitative information about the business as it is and the business as it might be in different sets of circumstances. There is, however, a lot of research into ‘expert systems’ which aim to replicate the way real people (doctors, lawyers, managers, and the like) take decisions. The aim is that computers can, one day, take decisions, or at least programmed decisions (see above). For example, an expedition could carry an expert medical system on a lap-top to deal with any medical emergencies even though the nearest doctor is thousands of miles away. Already it is possible, in the US, to put a credit card into a ‘hole-in-the-wall’ machine and get basic legal advice about basic and standard legal problems.
Intuitive decision making models
Some people consider these decisions to be unlikely coincidences, lucky guesses, or some kind of new-age hocus-pocus. Many universities are still only teaching rational decision making models and suggest that if these are not used, failure results. Some researchers are even studying the logic behind the intuitive decision making models!
The groups who study intuitive decision making models are realising that it's not simply
the opposite of rational decision making. Carl Jung pointed out that it is outside the realm
of reason.
In military schools the rational, analytical models have historically been utilised. It is also long been recognised, however, that once the enemy is engaged the analytical model may do more harm than good. History is full of examples where battles have more often been lost by a leaders? failure to make a decision than by his making a poor one.
"A  good  plan,  executed  now,  is  better  than  a  perfect  plan  next  week." - General George S. Patton, Jr.
The military are educating the soldiers of every rank in how to make intuitive decisions. Information overload, lack of time and chaotic conditions are poor conditions for rational models. Instead of improving their rational decision making, the army has turned to intuitive decision models. Why? Because they work!
Recognition primed decision making model
Psychologist Dr Gary Klein has been studying decision making for many years and he
suggests that people actually use an intuitive approach 90% of the time.  His recognition primed decision making model describes that in any situation there are cues or hints that allow people to recognise patterns. Obviously the more experience somebody has, the more patterns they will be able to recognise. Based on the pattern, the person chooses a particular course of action. They mentally rehearse it and if they think it will work, they do it.
Obviously people become better with this over time as
Constraints on Decision-Making
Internal Constraints
These are constraints that come from within the business itself.
- Availability of finance. Certain decisions will be rejected because they cost too much
- Existing Business Policy. It is not always practical to re-write business policy to accommodate one decision
- People’s abilities and feelings. A decision cannot be taken if it assumes higher skills than employees actually have, or if the decision is so unpopular no-one will work properly on it.
External Constraints
These come from the business environment outside the business.
- National & EU legislation
- Competitors’ behaviour, and their likely response to decisions your business makes
- Lack of technology
- Economic climate