Decision Making Model

Decision-Making Models

Decision making models and principles provide guidance for making efficient and effective decisions by putting to use a shared set of assumptions that enable us to understand or predict behavior. Lane (2000) states that there are many models of the scientific process focusing on problem solving and decision making. This careful and objective way of systematically approaching problems and issues is employed to reduce guessing and coming up with mere opinions about a problem. Most all decision making, problem solving, and planning models use a systematic approach in addition to relying on such techniques and concepts. This paper will focus on the rational model for decision-making. The first section will define decision making, identify the stages of decision-making process and a recent experience. I will discuss the experience and show how the rational model of decision-making was effectively utilized to reach a decision.

Decision making is the process of identifying problems and opportunities and resolving them It is the cognitive process leading to the selection of a course of action among alternatives. A characteristic and self-consistent mode of intellectual and perceptual functioning. The earliest classification of cognitive styles was suggested in 1923 by the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), and a modified form of it is assessed through the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Your personality can affect your decision making. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a well known measure that assesses how people differ from one another. The basis for the MBTI is that people have preferences for one way of doing things over another and what people do and how they would do it gives free choice to exercising their true preferences (Bateman & Snell, 2004). The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is probably the most frequently used personality inventory in the United States alone. Over 3 million MBTIs are administered each year. The MBTI is designed to give people information about their psychological type according to Jungian philosophy. It was developed by Isabel Briggs Myers (1897-1979) and her mother, Katherine Cook Briggs (1875-1968) in the early 1940s to make Carl Jung's theory of human personality understandable, useful and accessible. The MBTI results divide respondent's preferences into four areas: Extroversion (E) or Introversion (I); Sensing (S) or Intuition (N); Thinking (T) or Feeling (F); and Judging (J) or Perceiving (P). Results are usually expressed as four letters indicating the alternate preferences, such as ENTP. The MBTI is used for a variety of purposes, including team-building, management training, organizational development, career development, and self-development. The MBTI instrument is regularly updated to reflect the latest research in type theory. Data from more than 4000 research studies provide a robust empirical foundation for the test.

The rational model of decision making consists of a six stage sequence: 1) identifying and diagnosing the problem; 2) generating alternative solutions; 3) evaluating alternatives; 4) selecting the best alternative; 5) implementing the decision; and 6) evaluating the decision. (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002)

An episode in my life where I made a rational decision was to attend graduate school. First I identified and diagnosed the problem, should I attend graduate school? The journey to