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What is Decision Making?

Types of Decisions
1. ‘Whether’ Decision
2: ‘Which’ Decision
3. ‘Contingent’ Decision

Decision making can be categorised into following three

groups:

1. Rational decision:
2. Intuitive decision:
3. Combination decision:

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Steps of Decision Making Process

Step 1 : Identify the Problem

Read the case study given in the question carefully, to
develop a clear picture of the problem that needs to
be resolved.

Step 2 : Identify Most of the Alternatives

Every problem may not be resolved by the one and
the same course, instead it may need some other or
various courses of action to be resolved.

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Step 3 : Analyse Each Alternative Develop
Develop the criteria on the basis of which the alterna-
tive is to be made. Once you have developed the cri-
teria, analyse the pros and cons of each alternative/
option one by one.

Step 4 : Remove the Unsuitable Alternatives

After having analysed each alternative one after the
other, the next step is to remove all those alternatives/
options which fail to meet your criteria and those
which have negative consequences. This is to narrow
down your choice to 2 or 3 options/ alternatives.

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Step 5 : Make the Decision
Now, rank the selected alternatives/options in order
of your preference with respect to the desired result.

Decision Making Skills

These skills are used by the administrator, when he
or she holds a high position in administration hierar-
chy. The higher a person moves up in the hierarchy,
the greater his responsibility increases.

Basic Skills
1. Technical skills :

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Some examples are as under:
A surgeon must know how to perform a surgery.
An accountant must know how to maintain accounts.

2. Interpersonal skills :
This is the ability of a person to convince others and
to make decisions keeping in mind the ethics and the
social welfare of the community.

3. Conceptual skills :
It is the ability of a person to take a broad and far-
sighted view. It is the ability to visualise the relation-
ship between the individual, business to industry, the
community and the political, social and economic
forces of the nation as a whole.

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Illustration 1. Mr Kartik is a higher level manager in a
chemical industry. He is informed that there is a problem
in effluent treatment plant. Because of this problem, a large
portion of untreated water is admixing with the drainage
system of the city municipality. In this regard, Mr Kartik
has to take a decision.
Which one of the following options he has to select?

(a) Let it go as it is not creating problem in his plant

(b) Inform the MD and relieve himself from the
decision making
(c) Order the plant to shut down for a temporary
period in order to fix the problem
(d) inform the city municipality to treat the drained
water

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Illustration 2. You have been posted in a rural area as an
administrative officer. You learn that the ratio of girls to boys in
that particular village is very low. On probing further, you are
shocked to learn that every time a girl child is born, she is killed
by the family members themselves. All this is done very secretly
and hence, nobody has ever been caught. You would

(a) call for a meeting with the villagers and explain to them
the value of the girl child and request them to stop such
a brutal act
(b) set-up a team to track such activities and announce to
the villagers that strict legal action will be taken against
any person, who is caught
(c) arrange for schemes which will provide financial
assistance to parents of the girl child for her
upbringing, so that the parents are encouraged to let
the child live
(d) accept things as they are, since the entire village
supports this kind of an act and you alone will not be
able to prevent such things from happening
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Qualities of a Good Decision Maker

1. Ethical and unbiased:

It goes without saying, especially when a single per-
son is involved in making a decision, that he should
possess a strong moral conscience and approach the
decision without any prejudice or biase.

2. Clarity in thought process:

The person or persons involved in decision making
should possess strong analytical, logical and reason-
ing ability.

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3. Optimal data utilisation:
As explained before, having too little or too much in-
formation can be detrimental to the decision making
process.

4. Practicality:
The decision maker should endeavour to make deci-
sions, which are useful and impact the organisation
favourably

5. Vision:
Good decision makers must always possess a strong
sense of vision, ie they should be able to anticipate
the future impact of their decisions on the organisa-
tion and society at large.

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6. Sustainability:
Decisions that impact favourably on an organisation,
but unfavourably on society are examples of unsus-
tainable decision making.

7. Timely decision making:

This is one of the most important factor that goes
into the making of a good decision.

8. Prioritise:
A good decision maker will always prioritise his de-
cisions based on strategic, tactical and operational
aspects and know which decisions fall in which cate-
gory.

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Personality Variations in Decision Making
Research has shown that there are meaningful differ-
ences between people with respect to their orientation
towards decisions.

Hence, based upon these differences in approaches,

decision making has been divided into four styles as
under:

1. Directive style:
This style is followed by the individuals, who prefer
simple and clear solutions. These individuals rely on
existing rules to make their decisions and use their
status/position to achieve results.

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2. Analytical style:
This style is followed by the individuals, who have
vast knowledge. These individuals analyse their deci-
sions carefully, using as much information as possi-
ble. This style involves brain-storming process.

3. Conceptual style:
This style is followed by individuals who are more
socially-oriented. Their approach is humanistic. Such
individuals have a strong future orientation and like
initiating new ideas.

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4. Behavioural style :
This style of decision making is followed by individ-
uals, having a deep concern for the organisations in
which they work and the personal development of
their co-workers.
As a Aspirant, you have to adopt all the methods or
styles as per the situation.

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Illustration 3: You as a recruitment manager, are interviewing
Ritik, a hardworking young man, who has problem in
speaking fluent English. Among the following options, what
would you choose to do, if your company has vacancies?

(a) I would hire him at all costs.

(b) I would hire him for production or finance job but
not for marketing job, which requires good
communication skill.
(c) I would ask him to improve his communication
skill and come back again.
(d) I would not hire him.

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Illustration 4: You are the head of your office. There are certain houses
reserved for the allotment to the office staff and you have been given the
discretion to do so. A set of rules for the allotment of the houses has been
laid down by you and has been made public. Your personal secretary,
who is very close to you, comes to you and pleads that as his father is
seriously ill, he should be given priority in allotment of a house. The
office secretriat that examined the request as per the rules turns down
the request and recommends the procedure to be followed according
to the rules. You do not want to annoy your personal secretary. In such
circumstances, what would you do?

(a) Call him over to your room and personally explain

why the allotment cannot be done
(b) Allot the house to him to win his loyalty
(c) Agree with the office note to show that you are not
biased and that you do not indulge in favouritism
(d) Keep the file with you and not pass any orders.

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Approaches to Decision Making

1. Authoritarian:
The manager makes the decision based on the knowl-
edge he gathered. He then must explain the decision
to the group and gain their acceptance of it.

2 Group:
The group shares ideas and analyses, and agrees
upon a decision to implement. Studies show that the
group often has values, feelings, and reactions quite
different from those the manager supposes they have.

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Decision Making Strategies

1. Optimising This is the strategy of choosing the

best possible solution to the problem, discovering as
many alternatives as possible and choosing the very
best. How thoroughly optimising can be done is de-
pendent on
importance of the problem
time available for solving it
cost involved with alternative solutions
availability of resources, knowledge
personal psychology, values

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2. Satisficing In this strategy, the first satisfactory al-
ternative is chosen rather than the best alternative.

3. Maximax This stands for 'maximise the maximums.

This strategy focuses on evaluating and then choos-
ing the alternatives based on their maximum possible
payoff.

4. Maximin This stands for 'maximise the minimums'

In this strategy, that of the pessimist, the worst pos-
sible outcome of each decision is considered and the
decision with the smallest possible loss is chosen.

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1. As a District Magistrate, you are on work during electoral
polling process. At the time of electoral polling process, an
unruly mob has gathered and is creating havoc. Even the
police is unable to take any remedial step. What will you
do?

(a) Try to save the police folks from that mob

(b) Try to calm down the mob by making them
understand the position
(c) Go away silently from that place
(d) Inform to your senior officer about your genuine
responsibility over phone

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2. You are being sent for an intensive efficiency improvement
training programme, but you are not interested in going
for it. What will you do?

(a) Proceed for the training, keeping your interest

aside
(b) Inform your boss to send someone else for the
training
(c) Go for the training, but you will spend most of the
time by moving here and there
(d) Try on finding excuses for avoiding the training

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3. You are the Superintendent of Police of an area. You
are going on an urgent work. At the time of travelling, you
come across a person, who is grievously injured. What will
you do?

(a) Leave him and proceed to your destination

(b) Carry the injured person to hospital
(c) Hire a cab and send him to hospital and then you
to proceed to your destination
(d) Order one of your subordinates to come and take
the person to the hospital

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4. You had made a request to the State Civil Works department for
repair of roads of your colony, which are in pathetic condition. The roads
have not been repaired as yet, but in response to an RTI application
filled by you, the official records show that the repair has been done
and the contractor has been paid for it. You tried to meet the executive
engineer, but he has been avoiding meeting you on one pretext or the
other. Mean while the contractor has approached you and threatened
you with dire consequences, if you take any further action.
He assures that the roads around your residence adjoining it will be duly
repaired in lieu of your silence. Which among the following actions will
you take?

(a) File a written complaint against the executive engineer and

the contractor, despite the threat
(b) Keep silent and accept the contractor's offer of getting the
roads only around your house repaired
(c) Take initiative and garner people in your colony to file a joint
memorandum against the civic authorities and the contractor
(d) Plan to shift your residence to a better locality which enjoys
the services of a more responsible and better civic agency

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5. You are working in a Government Department. As a
team leader of a group, you have been sent to a village to
identify the grass-root problems of the village. You will

(a) identify all the problems by carrying out proper

study
(b) submit your report to the department without
consulting other the members
(c) consult all the members and then submit a report
giving all the details and viewpoints of all the
members
(d) refrain from doing any work and all the
responsibilities to other members

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6. You are the head of the department of a Government
Organisation. An urgent report has to be sent somewhere.
What would you do?

(a) Place a written order to your subordinate for

sending the report immediately
(b) Give an order to your subordinate to send it by
speed-post or fax
(c) Give an order to your subordinate through a
departmental letter
(d) None of the above

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7. You are an invigilator. During an examination, you notice
that a student is copying answers from the answer sheet of
another student. You catch both of them. Promptly, one
student reveals that he did not stop the other student from
copying his answer sheet because he had threatened him
with dire consequences. In such a situation, you will

(a) give fresh answer sheets to both the students and

ask them to complete the exam in the remaining
time
(b) lodge a complaint against the student, who is
found copying and give new answer sheet to the
other student
(c) cancel the exam of both the students
(d) lodge complaint against the student, who was
copying and investigate about the threatening
allegations
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8. You had applied for an electricity meter in your house. It
has been almost 2 months, but the electricity meter has not
been installed in your house. So, after waiting for 2 months,
you try to find out the reasons for its non-installation.
After making enquiries, you find that there was something
wrong with the information you filled up in the form. To
sort it out, you go to the office of Electricity Board and
find that nothing was wrong with the information. And
when questioned, the clerk replied that it was just a plain
oversight. Now, how will you respond?

(a) By reporting to the head

(b) By filling a written complaint
(c) By ignoring it because you know how things work
in government offices
(d) By talking to a tout outside, so that your electricity
meter can be installed

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9. You are a Police Commissioner and you notice that one of
your subordinate was a good officer with good manners, but
over a few months his appearances and ways have changed.
He has changed his behaviour, looks shabby other officers
have also complained about his ill-mannered behaviour.
You fear something might be wrong and also worry the
effect of his shabby looks that might affect his relationship
adversely with his colleagues. How do you approach him?

(a) You will meet him separately and talk at length

and try to know the cause of his problem
(b) You will call on him at his chamber and warn
about his shabby appearance
(c) Show him sympathy and ask him to seek his
transfer
(d) You will send him on leave to help recover himself

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10. You are the Senior Production Manager of a steel firm
and have won the bid to supply steel for railway bridges
across the River Ganga. You have been asked to ensure
maximum production in the next eight months. You
would

(a) plan out a production strategy with your team and

monitor production schedule at regular intervals
(b) pressurise the production team to meet the target
anyhow
(c) relax, thinking that the work will be done anyway
(d) pass on the responsibility to higher management

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