Decision Making: A Personal Perspective

Decision Making: A Personal Perspective

The decision-making process for managers is not always an easy task, but is one of the core requirements for managers. Everyone has the capacity to make decisions, as decision-making is a part of human existence, whether those decisions be considered good or bad. In a person's personal or professional lives, we all make decisions all the time and often under pressure.

According to the text, there are six different stages of the decision-making process. Throughout this process, there are certain questions that a manager should seek to answer; these questions are 1) what is the process/product/area, etc. that needs to be changed; 2) what is the best process for making this change; 2) what is preventing the department/company from arriving at the desired goal; 3) how to verify this is the best decision and what lessons did we learn.

Oftentimes, some managers may choose to ignore problems as the problem-solving process is often difficult as the factors in finding creative solutions can sometimes be overwhelming. In the first stage of the decision-making process, it is important that a problem has been identified.

For example, my department is responsible for processing invoices for the pipeline operation of the company. My department has to coordinate with field representatives who work directly with vendors for pipeline parts for the company projects. A problem was identified with the process in how the vendors were submitting their invoices for payment through the field team was identified. Following this discovery, a series of meetings took place and a better process was developed. This issue was dissolved through the six stages of the decision-making process in that, a problem was identified, alternatives were discussed and evaluated, and the best choice to optimize the process most efficient to the department as well as vendors was implemented. After