Introduction
Decision making is one of the most important processes for any business organization, group, or individual because it influences the course of action taken as well as the success or failure of the course of action. When the right decisions are made, the course of action taken is likely to succeed and vice versa. Different people make decisions differently (Elwyn et al 2012). There are those who make decisions intuitively. These are individuals who base their decisions on past experiences with the issue they are supposed to make the decision on (Velasquez and Hester 2013). Decision making was one of the issues faced by our team. As a team of six individuals, we were required to make decisions for our company, The Pure Heart. In this reflection, I will highlight the decision making approaches we used as a team, whether the decision making approach was successful or not, and what extent another decision making approach would have been successful where the approaches we used failed.
Decision making
Decision making 1
One of the decision making approach we used as a team is the rational decision approach. This approach is a step- by-step process of making decisions. The decision this approach was used for is the sample to be used in the marketing survey plan. In this approach, each sample option was carefully analysed where different possible outcomes in relation to the marketing survey considered before a final decision was made. In making decisions using this approach, the marketing survey issue was analysed critically in order to make the most logical decision about it (Cabantous and Gond 2011). Data was sought and examined critically before any decision was made. In using this approach, the first step involved defining the problem, which is marketing survey. This was aimed to help determine the exact issue we are dealing with so that we determine how to approach. The next step involved an examination of possible solutions to the problem we were facing (Wolfs et al 2012). One of the strategies we used to examine possible solutions is simulation. This helped us determine which among the possible solutions is the best based on the prevailing circumstances. The last step involved what we felt was the best solution.
The reason this approach was used is because we needed to make an informed decision. We wanted to make decisions that would help the company. We also wanted to make a decision that takes into account all the risks involved in order to determine whether the company can deal with those risks (Schwartz, Ben-Haim and Dacso 2011). This is because while some of the decisions had potential of giving us really good outcomes, they were highly risky and the likelihood of those risks occurring was also high. The rational decision making approach was significantly successful because the decisions made were based on scientific data (Djulbegovic, Elqayam and Dale 2018). This reduced chances of errors. In addition, as indicated, under this approach, all the risks involved were examined and contingency plans developed to handle them. This ensured that any changes to the situation could be foreseen and be dealt with (Krstić and Krstić 2015). However, the problem with this approach is it was time consuming. This made it not ideal for situations that required quick decision making.
Decision making 2
The second decision making approach used is the intuitive decision making approach. The intuitive decision approach is basically known the sixth sense decision approach (Dane, Rockmann and Pratt 2012). The decision this approach was used was the marketing strategy to apply (). The decision made was based on one’s judgement. When using this approach to make decisions as a team, we relied more on one’s expertise (Salas, Rosen and DiazGranados 2010). Each of us in the team has an area where they are significantly knowledgeable. In the case of the marketing strategy, this decision was left to Xue Tiang who is an expert in marketing. It was thereby left to him to identify the best marketing strategy to use. The reason for using this decision making approach to ensure decisions are made quickly in situations that needed quick decision making (Abubakar et al 2019). There are also situations we felt that not all of us have adequate knowledge to participate in making them. As such, it was left to the most qualified individual to make the decision. The intuitive approach was successful in some cases and failed in others (Hogarth 2010). This is because some people made subjective decisions which affected the outcome of the decisions made.
The other decision making approach that could have been used in either case is the creative decision making approach. This is an approach that involves coming up with new ideas to a problem (Cerreta and Toro 2010). This approach would have led to better outcomes in both cases because it does not only involve examination of the problem in details it also involves thinking ‘outside the box’ to come up with unique ideas that would have provided the company has with competitive advantage (Lee and Ostwald 2020). This approach would have led to a better decision outcome in either case.
Uncertainty
Uncertainty in decision making is a problem that any individual or group of individuals face time to time. This is a problem that we faced as a team during the decision making process. One area we faced uncertainty was in determining the amount of products we should supply in one of the markets we had identified (Sniazhko 2019). While we had noted that there is a considerable potential market for our product, we were not certain whether this would translate into high demand and thereby sales for the company (Doyle et al 2014). The situation was exacerbated by lack of adequate knowledge about the demand level in the market and even whether our product will be accepted in the market (Dewulf and Biesbroek 2018). We thereby compelled to rely on intuition and the little knowledge to make a decision.
One of the theories that can explain the lack of uncertainty is the normative decision theory. This theory focuses on the most ideal decision for any given situation (Elliott 2019). The main assumption of this theory is an actor is a rational being who would try to find an outcome with the highest possible value. With the theory prescribing that any decision maker should focus on the best solution possible, it can be concluded that when a situation is not ideal for making the best decision, then uncertainty occurs (Małecka 2020). This is because when examined critically, the normative decision theory implies that a decision has to be made based on adequate information because the focus is to get the result with the highest possible value (Damnjanović and Janković 2014). In our case, this theory implies that we had to make a decision that would result in maximization of the available demand in the market. Maximization of demand means that we had to supply an amount that is equal to demand in order to maximize on sales without oversupplying which could have affected the price. With lack of adequate information, we could not make such a decision and this led to uncertainty we faced.
Another theory is the expected utility theory. The expected utility theory indicates that when making a decision, one should choose with the maximum expected utility (Pettigrew 2015). This means that one must examine different options and select the option among different alternatives that will result in the best outcome possible. However, in order to select the most optimal outcome, one must have enough information to consider different options (Cappello, Zonta and Glišić 2016). For example, in our case, we should have adequate information about demand in order to determine which options we have in order to select the best option. The lack of adequate information means that it is hard to determine the available options and then select the best option based on the available data (Karni and Schmeidler 2016). For instance, if there was adequate information about the possible demand in the market, it would have been possible to determine the different levels of supply and which supply is ideal to maximize on sales as well as profitability (Joao, Luzardo and Vanderson 2015). This theory thereby implies that the inability lack of adequate information results in a situation of uncertainty.
Impact of culture
Culture has an impact on the decision making process. To get better insight into the influence of culture, it is important to use Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. There are four main Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and these are individualism vs collectivism, long-term vs short-term orientation, power distance, and femininity vs masculinity (Manrai and Manrai 2011). Two of the dimensions that affected the way our team made decisions are individualism vs collectivism and power distance. The individualism vs collectivism focuses on the individual versus the group. A society characterised by individualism puts emphasis on personal goals as opposite collective goals (Cronjé 2011). On the other hand, a society characterized by collectivism focuses on achieving collective goals at the expense of individual goals. On the other hand, power distance focuses on the extent to which inequality and power are tolerated. A society characterized by a higher power distance has a high level inequality and power difference. On the other hand, a society with a low power distance is characterized by low power distance and inequality (Taras, Kirkman and Steel 2010). Individualism vs collectivism affected the manner in which we made decisions as a team. In our team, we are all Chinese. This means that the Chinese culture significantly influenced how we made decisions. In relation to individualism vs collectivism, the Chinese culture is based more on collectivism (Dartey-Baah 2013). This affected the manner in which we made decisions in that we focused more on developing consensus among ourselves when making decisions. This was even the case for decisions that were left to the individual. For example, as indicated, there are decisions we felt that one of us was better at them (Huang and Crotts 2019). However, these individuals still consulted others on the decision they felt are the right ones. This cultural dimension affected how fast we made decisions because no one wanted to make a decision for the group for fear that not all members would be comfortable with the decision made.
For power distance, the Chinese culture has a high power distance where authority is highly respected. However, in our case, there was low power distance where in our team each was considered as having equal power (Manrai and Manrai 2011). This way, there was no one who had more power than the other. The low power distance between us ensured that decision making was not left to one individual (Cronjé 2011). These cultural dimensions increased the effectiveness of the decisions made since they ensured that all decisions are made after through discussion among us all (Taras, Kirkman and Steel 2010). However, the problem is it made the decision making process time consuming.
There are no particular issues that occurred in relation to the decisions we made as a consequence of the two cultural dimensions. If anything, they served to increase the effectiveness of the decisions made. The only issue that was faced was it took time to make decisions because focus was on developing consensus among all members (Dabić, Tipurić and Podrug 2015). I believe that if we were to play the game again, we would take the same approach. However, the only thing we would change is attempt to make decisions faster. For example, decisions which are supposed to be made by an individual would be left to him without any further consultation (Dabić, Tipurić and Podrug 2015). This would help reduce the time used to make decisions which would be ideal for situations which require quick decision making.
Conclusion
Essentially, decision making is an important element for any organization because its influence on the success or failure of the organization. As a team, we were compelled to make decisions on The Pure Heart, especially marketing decisions. We used two main approaches to make decisions and these are rational and intuitive decision making approach. Both these approaches were effective and ineffective in various ways. Rational decision approach was effective because it ensured the best decisions are made while the intuitive approach ensured that decisions were made quickly. The downside of the rational approach is it took long to make decisions while for the intuitive approach, some decisions made were not ideal. As a homogenous team made of only Chinese individuals, we did not benefit from diversity of ideas. Nonetheless, any decision made involved all members. We tried to examine issues from different perspectives to ensure we make the most appropriate decisions at every stage.
