Exam 10: Decisions Making in Organizations

The expected advantages of using groups to make decisions include:

The first step in the use of the Delphi technique is:

If Melba is more influenced by negative information than by positive information in her decision-making, then she is experiencing the attribute framing effect.

In the rational-economic decision-making model, the decision maker makes a decision as soon as possible on as little information as possible.

Table 10.2 Decision makers have a number of options available to them as to how to categorize and make decisions. Ray selected his job because he thought it simply felt like the right place to work. The organization and job seemed to fit his values and career goals. When the secretary that reports to Ray in his new job decides that she needs office supplies, she calls up central purchasing and places an order. But in order to get the new computer software she wants for her job, she has to get Ray to sign off on the purchase. After six months on the job Ray concludes that he needs an assistant. He writes up the job description, receives permission to recruit for the position. He receives about 150 resumes in the mail. He sets up interviews with the top 10 candidates. As he is interviewing candidate number four, he decides he meets all the criteria and offers him the job, which he accepts. -Refer to Table 10.2. The secretary's decision-making process for buying office supplies is an example of:

What are the advantages and disadvantages of group decisions.

The first step in the traditional, analytical model of decision-making is to:

Breaking a group into subgroups and promoting open inquiry in decision-making are ways to avoid groupthink.

________ refers to the making decisions differently, depending on how the problem is presented.

Escalation of commitment is unlikely when:

The identification of possible solutions to the problem comes in the:

Individuals outperform groups on creative tasks and when the tasks are poorly structured.

If a manager is making a decision for which no ready-made solutions exist because the situation is unique, he/she is making a(n):

Table 10.1 Brian, Chen, Adrienne, Sandra, and Jill are working on a company problem. Jill is deeply concerned for the company and how the solution will affect the personal development of employees. She is open to the others' suggestions and will tend to make her decision in the meeting. On the other hand, Brian wants a simple, clear, quick solution. He only gathers the minimum necessary information and tends to rest on rules or precedent to make his decision. Adrienne has just retired from a successful 20-year career in the Army as a logistics officer.In contrast to Brian, Chen enjoys the problem-solving process. He wants to look at a complex solution because he wants the best possible solution. Sandra is the facilitator of the group. She reminds the group to think of the solution's impact on the employees. Sandra has a strong future orientation and enjoys her role as facilitator because it allows her to initiate new ideas. -Refer to Table 10.1. If Adrienne follows the norms discovered in decision style research, her style is most likely to be:

Studies show that corporate presidents tend toward ________.

Explain the Delphi technique, the nominal group technique, and the stepladder technique of decision-making and how they work.

________ are computer programs that help decision makers structure their responses to decisions.

Research on brainstorming shows:

The stepladder technique adds new members to a group one at a time and requires each new member to present his/her ideas independently to the group.

Table 10.3 Nancy recently tried to talk her executive management team into moving into international markets. She emphasizes the positive opportunities that were possible, but her supervisors turn her idea down because they fear the risks involved. They preferred expanding existing markets to entering new markets. Nancy reviews the meeting with her supervisor later to see how she could improve it. Her supervisor says that she didn't provide sufficient information prior to the meeting and several of the executives were drawing on information currently on their desks, showing the international market was a dangerous place to be, rather than the exciting opportunity Nancy tried to present. Gail, Nancy's friend, suggested at lunch that the 'old-boys' network was functioning, and she was turned down because they weren't going to let some pushy woman tell them what they should be doing. About four months after the presentation, the executive management team meets again to decide about the investment of capital and effort. Existing markets are drying up, and if the company doesn't move into new markets, especially internationally, it may well fail. Obsolescence of the product line and the growth of competition is destroying their market share and profitability. However, the management team decides to invest more money and effort into existing markets and to let the international idea sit. -Refer to Table 10.3. The turn down by Nancy's bosses is an example of: