Exam 7: Decision Making

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Types of Problems and Decisions (Scenario) It seems Dave spends most of his day making decisions. Every time he turns around, someone wants him to make a decision about something. This morning, the office assistant came in and asked if she could reorder paper for the fax machine. That seemed like a routine decision that he should not have to deal with. If Dave could avoid those types of decisions, then he could focus more time and attention on the more complicated issues, such as the one presented to him by the production supervisor this afternoon. According to the supervisor, a major piece of equipment urgently needs repairs, and the repair bill could cost almost as much as a new machine! -The decision about how to handle the equipment repair or replacement is __________.

In allocating weights to the decision criteria, which of the following is helpful to remember?

"Before a health claim may be paid, the following steps must be taken" is an example of a __________.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Types of Problems and Decisions (Scenario) It seems Dave spends most of his day making decisions. Every time he turns around, someone wants him to make a decision about something. This morning, the office assistant came in and asked if she could reorder paper for the fax machine. That seemed like a routine decision that he should not have to deal with. If Dave could avoid those types of decisions, then he could focus more time and attention on the more complicated issues, such as the one presented to him by the production supervisor this afternoon. According to the supervisor, a major piece of equipment urgently needs repairs, and the repair bill could cost almost as much as a new machine! -Dave believes he should be spending more time making __________ decisions and less time making __________ decisions.

A __________ is series of interrelated sequential steps that a manager can use for responding to a structured problem.

__________ occurs when decision makers seek out information that reaffirms their past choices and discount information that contradicts past judgments.

Opinions, preferences, and values of decision-makers are an essential element of evidence-based management.

A procedure __________.

The final step in the decision-making process is to __________.

The self-serving bias occurs when decision makers take credit for their successes and blame failure on outside factors.

Which of the following is an example of a policy?

Which of the following is important to remember in evaluating decision effectiveness?

The process of selecting decision criteria is accomplished by __________.

Design thinking is an interesting new line of thinking with broad implications for making effective business decisions by integrating emotional elements into the process.

Heuristics are "rules of thumb" that managers use to simplify decision-making.

Problems that are straightforward, familiar, and easily defined are called __________ problems.

Rules of thumb that managers use to simplify decision-making are called __________.

An individual making a "maximin" choice has what type of psychological orientation toward uncertain decision-making?

The confirmation bias occurs when decision makers tend to think they know more than they actually do and hold unrealistically positive views of themselves.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Management Decisions : Declining Income (Scenario) Net income has fallen for the second consecutive quarter, and Amanda is understandably worried. She knows there will be a lot of questions for her at the board of directors meeting Wednesday, and she will be expected to reveal her plan to avoid any third-quarter losses. Amanda begins to analyze the company's financial reports to try to determine the cause of the loss. After much consideration, it appears that expenses have risen dramatically over the last few months. Amanda wonders why. She decides a meeting of the department heads is in order first thing tomorrow morning. At the meeting, Amanda would like to generate several possible solutions to the increased expenses. She wonders how to effectively explore all the options. Next morning, the first option presented at the meeting is to downsize the research and development department, since it is not essential to current operations. Several managers believe the plan will help stem the losses and immediately move to approve it. However, Amanda suggests that they need to look further at the issue and explore other potential solutions. Several suggestions are made, many of which appear to be viable. Amanda wonders what to do next. -When several managers move to approve the plan to downsize the research and development department without first exploring other options, they are engaging in a type of decision-making called __________.