Management and Organizational Studies 2181A/B Lecture : Chapter 11 – Decision Making.docx

• School: Western University
• Department: Management and Organizational Studies
• Course: Management and Organizational Studies 2181A/B
• Professor: Meritt

Document Summary

Involves making a choice between several alternatives. A problem is a perceived gap between and existing state and a desired state. Decision making is a process of problem solving. A well-structured problem is a problem where the existing and desired state is clear, and how to get from one state to the other is fairly obvious. Since decision making takes time and is prone to errors, organizations program (standardized way of solving a problem) the decision making for well- structured problems. Other come from experience and exist only in the head. An ill-structured problem is one where the existing and desired states are unclear and there is method to get from one state to the other. They tend to be more complex and have a high degree of uncertainty. Cannot use a program to make these decisions. Conformation bias the tendency to search for information that conforms to one"s own definition or solution to a problem.