Chapter 12, Problem 1RQ

Program Plan Intro

Decision making process:

Decision making is the process of making decisions which should be carried over in a typical situation in order to safeguard the organization or to protect the organization from serious loss.

Explanation of Solution

Levels of decision making:

There are three different levels of decision making. They are as follows:

• Senior management
• Middle management
• Operational management

There may be different decision-making group available in the organization and each groups the three levels of decision making.

Decision making requirement:

Each level of decision making require different information for decision support. For senior management, their requirement could be based on the capital budget, and requirements to decide the long-term goals. For middle management, the requirement is to design the marketing plan, developing the departmental budget and developing new website. For operational management, it should fulfill the requirement of employees, individuals and the team members.

Explanation of Solution

Difference between unstructured decisions, structured decisions, and semi structured decisions.

Unstructured decisions	Structured decisions	Semi structured decisions
Senior management are allowed to take the unstructured decisions in an organization.	Operational management are allowed to take the structured decisions in an organization.	Middle management in an organization are allowed to take the semi structured decisions.
The decisions processed here are non-routine, important and should be carried for long-term future.	The decisions processed here are routine and repetitive.	The decisions processed here are short term future and mainly used for marketing purpose.
It does not have a well-understood procedure for making the decisions.	It has a definite procedure for making the decisions.	It has a definite procedure and clear-cut idea for only the part of the problem

Explanation of Solution

Stages in decision making:

There are four stages in decision making. They are as follows:

• Intelligence
• Design
• Choice
• Implementation

Intelligence:

Intelligence is used to identify the problem that occurs in an organization. It gathers the activities and inform the managers about the performance of the organization and the problem which exists in an organization.

Design:

During the design, the individual designs the possible solutions to the problems. The manager chooses the best and appropriate solution for the problem.

Choice:

The third stage, choice consists of choosing among alternatives. In this stage, the managers utilizes the information tools and tracks the consequences, costs and opportunities provided by each of the alternative provided in the second stage.

Implementation:

The last stage is the implementation stage where the mangers utilize a reporting system which gives the routine reports for processing the specific solution. Here, the selected solution for the particular problem is implemented and test whether it works well.