Making Decisions
Making decisions involves selecting the best option from a range of options that fit one's preferences. Every action that results from a decision is either a new method of carrying out tasks, presenting ideas, or an entirely new experience. The goal of decision-making is to maximize the potential of the decision-makers' preferences (Ferell & Freidrich, 2015).
Steps in Decision Making
It entails the steps of identifying a problem, finding approaches that can be taken to address the problem, and selecting the best approach to solve the current situation. Logical decision making involves professionals in a particular field coming together to discuss and come out with the best decisions that will most likely lead to a solution to the issue at hand.
Importance of Good Decision Making for Leaders
For the case study, good leaders always have the temptation to make bad decisions due to the forces surrounding them. The goal of a good leader is always to make good decisions and the rest is just but some influence that counters them in their line of duty. The main activities of a good leader are making decisions that are efficient and that can be used for the purpose of improving the firm. The complexity of the decision making in good leaders is the availability of other alternatives that may appear to be favorable in the short term. These kind of decisions are very complex because the leader evaluates the possibility of having a gain in the short term and losing in the long run or remaining in the same state and having better payoffs in the long run. The stakeholders involved in this process are the people that report directly to the leaders (Finkelstein & Campbell, 2009).
Step-by-Step Decision Making Process
Decision making involves a step-by-step logical procedure that is adhered to attain quality decisions. It is lengthy and time-consuming as it involves identifying a problem, analyzing the problem, developing alternative solutions, selecting the best solution over the alternatives, converting the decision into action, and making a follow-up/feedback (Ferell & Freidrich, 2015).
Identification of a Problem
The first stage is the identification of the problem. The problem for this case study is the influence that makes good leaders make bad decisions. This would mean that the leader has to be very sharp so as to discern bad decisions from the good ones. The bad decisions always come up with solutions that are effective in the short run while good decisions are those that payoffs accrue in the long run.
Analyzing the Problem
The problem is then analyzed in detail. The analysis would include the investigation on whether the bad decision is really bad and whether it can be altered if it has already been adopted. This stage also needs a group of professionals that help in coming up with the solutions.
Developing Alternatives
Solutions can be several. This would be efficient since it ensures that there are plenty of alternatives that the leader will have to choose from. For this case, the leader will ensure there are plenty of solutions that can be adopted.
Choosing from Alternatives
In this stage, the leader will now choose the alternative that will best suit the organization. The decision must be a good decision, one that solves the earlier problem effectively.
Implementation
This is the most viable stage in decision making. It is the actual effectiveness stage as it is here that the chosen alternative will actually be tested if it can work. This will also involve the use of resources since implementation is the actual stage.
Follow Up
After the best decision is chosen and implemented, the leader is supposed to follow up on whether the decision made was the correct one and the most efficient. If there is evidence of failure in this stage, the leader will go back to the stage where he had to choose from alternatives and choose another project or decision.
Analysis of the Case Using Vertical Integration
Vertical integration is a strategy where a firm decides to take complete control of one or several stages in the process of production or distribution. This would mean that the decisions made are not only those that have a positive effect on the production level but also the decisions that favor the firm in raising revenue by investing also in other stages of making revenues such as the distribution stage.
Pros and Cons of the Process
Decision making is a vital tool in any organization. It is the backbone of development and innovation as it helps in ensuring the firm gets the best from the ideas of the leaders. The process, however, has a series of strengths and weaknesses. To begin with the strengths, the process ensures that the company has the best ideas being implemented. This improves greatly on efficiency. On the weaknesses, however, the process can be very expensive as it involves a lot of research which sums up a huge number of workers who need to be paid. It is also time-consuming as the decisions may be analyzed over a long period of time (Ferell & Freidrich).
References
Finkelstein, S., Whitehead, J., & Campbell, A. 2009. Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Nelson Education.
