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Security Management
home page > Unit 4: Planning & decision making
Decision Making (continued)
Factors
Affecting Decision-Making
a variety of factors
can affect your decision-making ability, including:
- Individual Attributes
The amount and type of education you've had can affect how much knowledge you can bring to a decision. 2 relevant types, both of which you need to master:- declarative: what you know that can be verbally communicated or is part of a mental model
- procedural : skills required for a particular activity.
age is also relevant: can be positive, such as wisdom gained from more experience, or negative, if, for example, you fear change.
Cultural Factors
For example, people from East Asian countries have been found to use more compromising strategies than those from North American cultures (Briley, Morris and Simonson, 2000). US managers more likely to take risks than Japanese, who are more interested in long term-term strategy . Managers from collectivist societies are more likely to follow a utilitarian (greatest good for the greatest number of people) strategy, while those from individualistic societies such as the US emphasize their own personal good (Robertson and Fadil, 1999).Environmental Attributes
(refers to issues of stability and change in this context) Rational decision-making may require a lot of time, that may not be available in a crisis or a fast-paced business environment. Another environmental factor, technological complexity, may also affect decision-making. : as the technological complexity of an industry increases (such as nuclear power), individual decision-making ability decreases (Perrow, 1984).Organizational Attributes
A decision-maker in a very conservative organization may be less likely to take risks.
if all of these factors may be relevant to decision-making, and if it is almost impossible for everyone to possess all of the m in equal amounts, what are the implications for decision making?
- Groupthink
Happens when a corporate culture deems it more important to reach consensus than to explore all alternatives. Positive side is group cohesiveness.
- "The Abilene paradox"
variation on groupthink: someone proposes a decision, others go along with it to avoid being seen as obstructionists. Results in conflict afterwards.