Contents
Meaning of Decision Making
Decision making is simply a process used by managers in taking action for solving the problem. It is an integral part of the management system of a company which aims at improving efficiency. Decision making is the one through which managers are able to take right decisions at right time. Taking decisions is the core part of every organization management team.
If any decision is taken wrong then it would be having negative consequences on the organisation. It may affect its overall functioning making it hard for organisations to attain their goals. Decision-making process makes it possible to choose the right action among different alternatives available. This right decision selection makes it easy to properly manage all business affairs and easily attain objectives.
Decision making is a continuous and dynamic activity for every business. It must be ensured that people of sound mind and creative thinking should be involved in the decision-making process. Decision-making process involves a series of steps to be followed properly to take better action. In today’s time, the organisation involves a large number of peoples in their decision making.
Decision-making process has both advantages and disadvantages for an organisation. Advantages of good decision making are as follows:
Advantages of Decision Making
Gives more information
Good decision-making process acquires enough information before taking any action. In decision making, there is a large number of peoples involved. It is undertaken by the whole group rather than by a single individual. Each person gives his perspective to handle a particular situation.
They all represent there facts and figures according to their skill. This generates enough information which can be used for better understanding of the situation. This helps managers in taking corrective decisions.
Increase people’s participation
Decision making in the organisation is done by a group of peoples working in the organisation. It is not carried out by a single individual rather than by a group of people. Each people actively participates in decision making of the organisation. They are free to present their creative ideas without any boundations.
Also, none of them is individually criticized for any failure but the whole group is responsible to handle. This increases the participation level of different people in the organisation.
Provide more alternatives
Companies are able to get different alternatives for a particular situation through group decision making. There are different people working as a group for proper decisions. Each person looks differently to a particular problem.
They give their own perspectives and ideas for it. This way there are different options available to choose. All the alternatives are properly analysed in light of handling situation. The best one is chosen to arrive at a better result.
Improves the degree of acceptance and commitment
Companies always face the chances of conflict among its staff working in the organisation. Through group decision making each person gets equal right to share his views and ideas.
Here decisions are not imposed on the peoples but are created with their participation. It develops a sense of loyalty and belongingness among people towards the business. They easily accept the decisions taken and are committed to their roles.
Improves the quality of decisions
Decision making helps in taking quality decisions at the right time. There are different experts engaged by organisations in their decision-making group. These peoples have through knowledge and creative thinking.
They analyse each and every aspect of every alternative available to them for handling situations. Best among the different alternatives available is chosen. It enables in quality decision making which helps in easy attainment of objectives.
Helps in strengthening the organisation
It helps in improving the strength of the organisation. Decision making provides a platform to each individual working in an organisation to equally represent their ideas. Everybody gets an equal right to take part in managing the organisation.
It develops a sense of cooperation and unity among individuals working there. They all come together and works towards the accomplishment of the company’s goals. This increases the overall productivity of the organisation and strengthens its overall structure.
Disadvantages of Decision Making
Costly
The first and foremost disadvantage of decision making is that it is too expensive to process. Decision making in organisations involves different peoples for taking proper action. Putting different people together in one requires large efforts. Also, it is too hard to analyse the different perspectives provided by people in a group. It all requires large funds to systematically collect information from different people.
Time-consuming
Decisions are of no use if they are not taken timely. Decision making involves a series of steps to be followed to arrive at a particular conclusion. There are different people taking part in decision making. It takes times and efforts to plan, organise and coordinate different people for meeting and have quality discussions. All these things make prove to be time-consuming and may delay in taking proper action.
Individual Domination
This is another disadvantage of the decision-making process in an organisation. There may be a possibility that all members are not treated equally in a group created for decision making. Few peoples may try to control the whole affairs and may dominate over whole discussions in meetings. People differ in their knowledge and experience in dealing with situations. This enables some people in dominating over whole group and demoralising other peoples.
Ambiguous Responsibility
Another disadvantage of decision making is that responsibility is not clear. In the case of individual decision making, responsibility is on a single person. But in the case of group decision making, the whole group is involved and responsibility is not clear. This reduces the scope of accountability to one person.