Making everyday decisions, such as deciding which toothpaste to buy, where to eat lunch, or which route to take home from work, may seem like simple tasks unworthy of a formal decision making process. These routing tasks may not deserve critical scrutiny; however, tasks which affect the health of a company and even a career, deserve a closer look. While some people prefer to jump into decisions, successful decisions come from critically thought through processes. From executives of major firms to lower lever managers, each is charged with the task of making decisions, which can directly or indirectly affect the health of the company he or she works for (Harrison & Pelletier, 1995). For that reason, many people turn to a formal decision-making process, such as the Managerial Decision Making Process.
The Managerial Decision Making Process is used by many organizations, allowing them to make strategic choices, instead of blind decisions (Harrison & Pelletier, 1995). The model for the Managerial Decision Making Process consists of six steps: setting managerial objectives, searching for alternatives, comparing and evaluating alternatives, the act of choice, implementation and decision, and following up and controlling the decision (Harrison, 1996). The Managerial Decision Making Process can be fully understood through the following personal example.
During the product launch of my company's most recent concoction, I was given the task of finding a venue to hold the product launch event. Being in Atlanta, the possibilities were endless. While I listed several goals I wanted to achieve by deciding on the location, my main objective was to make sure the location I chose resulted in a successful event. Setting Managerial Objectives is the first step in the Managerial Decision Making Process. Many objectives can be listed and arranged in order of importance (Making Decisions, 2006). At the beginning
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