Decision Making Process

Head: Decisions Page 1

Decision Making Process

Cynthia Fields

July 23 2012

David Perry

MGT/230

Running head: Decision Making Process Page 2

Every human being is faced with situations in everyday life, where they need to make important decisions. Decisions that are made on a whim have the risk of failure. This can be avoided by following the six steps of the decision making process. According to the text, those six steps are: identify and diagnose the problem, generate alternative solutions, evaluate alternatives, make the choice, implement the decision, and evaluate the decision ( Bateman & Snell, 2011). Decision making can easily be defined as making up one's mind about something. However, decisions that have life altering effects on the decision maker and others should be made in an organized way. A decision such as returning to school is a prime example of a situation that should be made using the decision making process.

The first step in the decision making process is defining the problem. This involves recognizing a difference in the existing state and a desired state and then going beyond the surface symptoms to reveal the core causes of the problem. The second step is generating different solutions, which involves, accepting solutions already made or designing specific solutions. The third, evaluating alternatives, means predicting the consequences of different alternatives, sometimes through building scenarios of the future. Fourth, a solution is chosen; the solution might maximize, satisfy, or optimize. Fifth, people implement the decision; this stage requires more careful planning than it often receives. Finally, managers should evaluate how

well the decision is working. This means gathering objective,