Decision Making
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Approaches to decision making
The decision making process
Participation
Vroom decision tree
Approaches to Decision
Making
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Rational
Bounded rationality: Limits on
information that can be processed
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Satisficing: Picking the first solution that’s
“good enough”
Decision Making Process
Identify
problem
Identify
criteria
Weight
criteria
Select
alternative
Analyze
alternatives
Develop
alternatives
Implement
solution
Feedback
Evaluate
decision
quality
Criteria for Decision Making
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Quality of decision
Timeliness
Cost
Stakeholders -- who has to be
considered
Certainty vs. risk
Programmed vs.
Nonprogrammed Decisions
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Programmed decision
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One that is made regularly
Structures problems (clear problem,
obvious criteria)
Pre-set rules, policies, procedures
Efficiency
Non-programmed decision
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One-time
More “important” problem
What is Participation?
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Aspects of Participation
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Levels of Involvement
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Setting Goals
Making Decisions
Solving Problems
Changing the Organization
Voice
Participation
Delegation
Fake Participation
Participation: Pro and Con
Pro
 It works…..
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Better information
Decision acceptance
(more motivation)
Better for employees
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Con
 It doesn’t work…..
Basic individual needs
(self-actualization,
autonomy, etc.)
Social needs (group
decision-making)
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It’s not necessary
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Information may be
centralized
Need for rapid response
Assigned goals enough
Employees may not be
interested
Vroom Decision Tree
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Decision Criteria
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Decision Quality
Commitment Requirement
Leader’s Information
Problem Structure
Commitment Probability
Goal Congruence
Subordinate Conflict
Subordinate Information
Decision Making and Ethical
Perspectives
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How do we make ethical decisions?
Sources of ethical beliefs
Sources of Ethical Beliefs
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Basic human values
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Institutional sources
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Reciprocity
Altruism
Religion
Philosophy
The environment
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Cultural experience
Law
Source:http://www.infoplease.com/
World Religions
Catholic
Orthodox
Protestant
Other
Christianity
Chinese Folk
Other
Islam
Buddhist
Hindu
Judaism
The Golden Rule
“Every religion emphasizes human
improvement, love, respect for others,
sharing other people's suffering. On
these lines every religion had more or
less the same viewpoint and the same
goal.”
-- The Dalai Lama
Source: http://www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc.htm
The World of Islam
On the day of judgment, the
honest Muslim merchant
will stand side by side with
the martyrs
- The Prophet Mohammed
Moral Values in the Work
Setting: Islam
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Prohibition on charging interest
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Lending fees
Leasing
Share of a bank’s profits rather than interest
Investment (Syariah principles)
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operations based on riba (interest) such as banking or
finance companies
Gambling
Manufacture and/or sale of haram (forbidden) products such
as liquor, non-halal meats and pork; and
Elements of gharar (uncertainty) such as conventional
insurance
Philosophers
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Asia
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Is it religion or philosophy
Is this even a valid distinction
Western philosophers: A long tradition
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Classical thinkers
Theologians
Enlightenment philosophers
Writers in other areas (politics, social
issues)
Socrates and Plato
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Socrates (470 BC – 399 BC)
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Virtue is knowledge of what is good
Virtue has an existence of its own; we know what
is good without being told
Virtue cannot be taught
If one knows what is good, one will act virtuously
Plato (428 BC – 348 BC)
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Platonic forms – Pure, eternal and unchanging
ideas, that exist independently
Differs from Socrates, in that Plato believed that
virtue could be taught
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
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Virtue is fulfilling a function
Virtue comes from strength of character
Virtue involves both feeling and action
Virtue is innate, but also requires training and
practice to form proper habits
Theologians
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St. Augustine (354 AD – 430 AD)
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Influenced by Plato and Platonic philosophers (merged
classical and Christian thought)
Every work of God is good; evil comes from mankind and
the freedom they have to choose (also, original sin)
Evil does not have an independent existence (the
Manichæan heresy)
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
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Influenced by Aristotle
Mankind aspires to goodness
Goodness or virtue requires the exercise of reason
Others
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Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 -1527)
Herbert Spencer (1820 –1903)
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Social Darwinism
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900)
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The great man can make his own rules
Niccolò Machiavelli
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The Prince
Bad reputation today, but also a very pragmatic
thinker
What actually occurred versus what actually worked:
…the gulf between how one should live and how one does live
is so wide that a man who neglects what is actually done for
what should be done learns the way to self-destruction
rather than self-preservation (XV)
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The end -- stable rule -- justifies the means:
…a prince, and especially a new prince cannot observe all
those things which give men a reputation for virtue, because
in order to maintain his state, he is often forced to act in
defiance of good faith, of charity, of kindness, of religion
(XVIII)
Enlightenment Philosophers
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In general, these people separated theology and
philosophy
Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804)
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Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832)
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Deontology
What are one’s duties?
Teleology
Utilitarianism (greatest good to the greatest number)
John Locke (1632 – 1704)
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Social contract
Natural rights of mankind
“The right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”
Teleology
Teleological (or consequential) ethical systems are
concerned with the consequences of an act rather
than the act itself. It includes act-utilitarianism,
where one’s goal is to identify the consequences of a
particular act to determine whether it is right or
wrong, and rule-utilitarianism, which requires one to
adhere to all the rules of conduct by which society
reaps the greatest value. In sum, the principle to be
followed for utilitarian is the greatest good for the
greatest number.
Deontology
Deontological ethical systems hold that a
person renders ethical decisions if he or she
acts based on what is right, regardless of the
consequences of the decision. In this
formalistic view of ethics, what is right is
based on the categorical imperative, which
is the notion that every person should act on
only those principles that he or she, as a
rational person, would prescribe as universal
laws to be applied to the whole of
humankind.
Social Contracts
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How can society best be structured and
regulated?
Governments are based on the "social
contract“
Reciprocal obligations that can be
changed