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11: Making Decisions

  • Page ID
    34450
    • Anonymous
    • LibreTexts

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    • 11.1: Decision-Making Culture: The Case of Google
      This page details the rise of Google, founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1996, emphasizing its focus on user experience, innovative culture, and collaborative decision-making. It highlights the company's generous employee benefits and challenges in maintaining its original ethos amid growth and scrutiny as a public corporation. The balance between fostering innovation and upholding corporate responsibility is noted as crucial for Google's future success.
    • 11.2: Understanding Decision Making
      This page discusses the critical role of decision-making in organizations, outlining programmed versus nonprogrammed decisions and their strategic, tactical, and operational levels. Various decision-making models are explored, including rational, bounded rationality, intuitive, and creative methods. The importance of criteria setting and avoiding biases is emphasized, along with techniques for enhancing creativity in decision-making.
    • 11.3: Faulty Decision Making
      This page emphasizes the significance of understanding decision-making traps like overconfidence, hindsight bias, and escalation of commitment, which can lead to poor outcomes. It advocates for regular reassessment of decisions, especially in long-term projects, and promotes an organizational culture that encourages admitting mistakes.
    • 11.4: Decision Making in Groups
      This page examines the pros and cons of individual versus group decision-making, highlighting how group diversity can boost creativity yet may lead to groupthink and inefficiencies. It suggests techniques like the Nominal Group Technique and consensus methods, while also warning about potential alienation through majority rule. Tools like GDSS and decision trees enhance processes but may complicate them.
    • 11.5: The Role of Ethics and National Culture
      This page highlights the significance of ethical decision-making in management, stressing that legality does not always equate to ethics, exemplified by unethical lending practices. It encourages self-reflection on ethical dilemmas and notes that cultural factors affect decision-making styles across countries like Japan, the US, and China. Understanding these cultural differences is essential for effective cross-cultural business interactions.
    • 11.6: Empowered Decision Making: The Case of Ingar Skaug
      This page discusses Ingar Skaug's leadership challenges as the new CEO of Wilh. Wilhelmsen ASA after a tragic plane crash. He focused on empowering employees and fostering a decentralized decision-making process, which promoted innovation. This new approach led to significant achievements, including a renewable energy cargo ship, highlighting Skaug's emphasis on autonomy as a key factor in the company's success in the maritime industry.
    • 11.7: Conclusion
      This page discusses the importance of decision-making in business, highlighting the range from simple choices to complex ones needing thorough analysis. It addresses various decision-making methods and group dynamics that may introduce risks such as insufficient information or analysis paralysis. Additionally, it notes how ethics and cultural differences influence decision-making styles, with some cultures preferring majority rule while others value consensus.
    • 11.8: Exercises
      This page presents Martha Wang, a new employee at Herb's Garden Products, who encounters an ethical dilemma after a customer attributes her dog's death to their fertilizer. While her boss defends the product's track record, Martha's personal safety concerns lead her to question the product's reliability.

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