Organisational Behaviour

BST 512 Organisational Behaviour

Student Number: C1673716

Word count:

Drawing examples from a decision-making model of your choice, evaluate your decision to join the Cardiff MBA programme. On the basis of your experience on the programme so far, discuss (with illustrations) the key factors that impacted on the effectiveness of your decision.

An individual, in everyday life, there will be several alternatives decisions to choose and make the final decision. The decisions made from alternatives might have successful impact in life, for example, how to treat customers’ complaints in any business. And some of them might cause risks or failure by choosing an incorrect alternative, for example, considering business benefits and ignoring what customer wants. As a result, a successful and effective decision making will master the success of an individual, a team or an organization.

In this essay, we will firstly know what is decision making and one of decision making models will be discussed: Rational Decision-Making Model with reference to the decision made to join Cardiff MBA programme and a detailed evaluation of the decision process. Secondly, on the basis of experience on the programme so far, the key factors that impacted on the effectiveness of the decision will be discussed.

 “Decision making is defined as a process to identify problem, generate alternative solutions, select the best solution available and implement them (Mansor, Zakaria, 2008, P36)”. The decisions that occur frequently enough that we develop an automated response to them are termed as programmed decisions. However, decisions that are unique and require conscious thinking, information gathering and careful consideration of alternatives are called nonprogammed decisions.

The Rational-Decision Making Model is one of the effective model of nonprogrammed decisions. This model describes a series of steps that decision maker should consider to make the best choice. First step was to identify all the opportunities that are possibly available to meet my career needs. Belonging to business oriented family, I wanted to help my father in his business and wanted to take his business to next level with the knowledge acquired. Having graduated from commerce background, wanted to pursue Masters in Business Administration from university abroad.

Secondly, understanding which are the factors/criteria that are important to make the right choice. Which consultancy to meet? Which place abroad to study? Which rank does the university stand? What is the applicant’s criteria? How much is the admission fee? What is the time frame of the course? What are the choices for selection of electives? Is the faculty efficient? Is the infrastructure well provided? What are the facilities available for students? Does the university provide accommodation? What are the future opportunities after completion of the course? and many more factors were considered.

Thirdly, of all the criteria mentioned above, the place, the university, the time frame, the choice of electives and the faculty was weighed most. Apart from that, other factors were given medium weightage while making decision. Step 4, was to generate all the alternatives that would meet the criteria. By considering the consultancy agent, MBA from United Kingdom, following universities Cardiff Business School, Coventry University and Dublin University provided a one year course period. Step 5, using information provided by the Consultancy agent, a thorough research was made using the Universities official websites and prospects, communicated with alumni students and evaluated which university would meet the criteria that had been established. Step 6, by considering the best alternatives, Cardiff Business School and Coventry University met the required criteria.

Lastly, Cardiff Business School was considered as the best choice, as it met major criteria established for a final decision. Finally, the decision was implemented and chose Cardiff University for Master studies and proceeded with further admission procedure.

With the reference of Rational Decision-Making Model, the fourth step was most challenging one and could lead to faulty decisions. Though the generated alternatives would not meet all the mentioned criteria, for example, Cardiff Business School is located in Cardiff city and ranked higher when compare to other Universities, whereas the Coventry University is located in London city and lacked in infrastructure. However, the main aspects of the university were determined while making the end decision.