Chapter 4: Decision Making and Problem Solving

Personality and cognitive intelligence

The __________________________________ of the decision maker influence his or her ability to find effective solutions.

Decision criteria

The goals sought for in making the decision are also referred to as the _______________.

Neuroeconomics

The irrational side of decision making became incorporated into a branch of behavioral economics called _____________.

Emotional intelligence

This type of intelligence generally affects the ability to connect with people and understand their emotions.

Procrastinate

To delay in taking action without a valid reason.

Social awareness

This competency includes having empathy for others and having intuition about organizational problems.

Relationship management

This competency includes the interpersonal skills of clear and convincing communication, the ability to disarm conflicts, and the ability to build strong personal bonds.

Flexible

This decision-making style focuses on speed, yet adaptability is emphasized. The decision makers gather just enough data to choose a line of attack and quickly change course if needed.

Self-management

The ability to control one's emotions and act with honesty and integrity in a consistent and adaptable manner.

Self-awareness

The ability to understand your own emotions is the most essential of the four emotional intelligence competencies.

Alex Osborn

The founder of modern brainstorming.

Certain

The more __________ a decision maker is of the outcome of a decision, the more calmly and confidently the person will make the decision.

Integrity

The person with ____________ is aware of not alienating people in power, yet supports what he or she thinks is the best decision.

Emotional tagging

The process by which emotional information attaches to the thoughts and experiences stored in our memories.

Group decisions

The process of several people contributing to a final decision.

Flow experience

The ultimate involvement in work or a condition of heightened focus, productivity, and happiness.

Human resource decisions

These decisions are often the most ambiguous because making precise predictions about human behavior is so difficult.

Programmed decisions

They are repetitive, or routine, and made according to a specific procedure.

Vertical thinking

An analytical, logical process that results in few answers.

Problem

A _________ is a discrepancy between ideal and actual conditions.

Risk

A condition of ________ exists when a decision must be made based on incomplete, but accurate, factual information. Effective managers often accept this condition.

Certainty

A condition of ___________ exists when facts are well known and the outcome can be predicted accurately.

Brainstorming

A group method of solving problems, gathering information, and stimulating creative thinking. The basic technique is to generate numerous ideas through unrestrained and spontaneous participation by group members.

Decision-making style

A manager's typical pattern of making decisions.

Non-programmed decision

A problem that takes a new and an unfamiliar form or one that is complex or significant calls for a ___________.

Groupthink

A psychological drive for consensus at any cost. It makes group members lose their ability to evaluate bad ideas critically.

Creativity training

A standard approach to enhancing individual and organizational creativity is to offer ____________________ to many workers throughout the organization.

Lateral thinking

A thinking process that spreads out to find many alternative solutions to a problem.

Diagnosis

A thorough _____________ of the problem is important because the real problem may be different from the one that is suggested by a first look.

Pursuit of excellence

A value that significantly influences decision making is the ______________. A manager who embraces this value will search for the high-quality alternative solution.

Physical exercise

A well-accepted method of stimulating creativity is to engage in ______________.

Formulating policies

A well-planned and highly structured organization reduces the number of non-programmed decisions. It does so by ________________ to help managers know what to do when faced with a problem.

Heuristics

Affected by bounded rationality, decision makers often use simplified strategies known as ______________. It helps the decision maker cope with masses of information.

Encouragement

An external factor in creativity is ____________, including a permissive atmosphere that welcomes new ideas.

Human creativity, entrepreneurship

As venture capitalist and author George Gilder notes, the true source of business growth is ____________________________ and _________________.

Electronic brainstorming

Brainstorming can be conducted through e-mail and other online collaboration tools—it's generally referred to as ________________.

Expertise, creative-thinking skills, and motivation

Creativity takes place when these three components join together.

Certainty, risk, and uncertainty

Degree of certainty is divided into three categories: __________________________.

Herbert A. Simon

He proposed that bounds (or limits) to rationality are present in decision making.

Single focus

In terms of creating options, _____________ decision makers are committed to taking one course of action.

Develop Alternative Solutions

In this intellectually freewheeling aspect of decision making, all kinds of possibilities are explored, even some that seem unrealistic.

Identify and Diagnose the Problem

In this step of problem solving and decision making, it begins with the awareness that a problem exists. It is to identify a gap between desired and actual conditions.

Choose One Alternative Solution

In this step of problem solving and decision making, the process of weighing the alternatives must stop at some point. You cannot solve a problem unless you choose one of the alternatives—that is, make a decision.

Integrative

Instead of looking for a single best solution, managers using this decision-making style frame problems broadly. This style uses input from many sources and makes decisions involving multiple courses of action. The decision may be modified in the future as circumstances change.

Creativity

It can be defined simply as the process of developing novel ideas that can be put into action.

Innovation

It can be regarded as the commercialization or implementation of creative ideas.

Decision making

It can be seen as the heart of management

Cognitive (or traditional) intelligence

It carries a profound influence on decision-making effectiveness.

Behavioral economics

It emphasizes that people are not entirely rational decision makers.

Perfectionism

It exerts a notable impact on decision making.

Implementation

It involves focusing on the operations of a company or business unit.

Nominal group technique (NGT)

It is a group decision-making technique that follows a highly-structured format.

Intuition

It is a way of arriving at a conclusion without using the step-by-step logical process. It can be based mostly on experience or mostly on feeling.

Intuition

It is an experience-based way of knowing or reasoning in which weighing and balancing evidence are done unconsciously and automatically.

Revenge

It is both a political and an emotional factor in decision making.

Decision

It is choosing among alternatives.

Persevering

It is essential for finding creative solutions. It also refers to sticking with a problem to a conclusion.

Devil's advocate

It is important for someone to play the role of ________________. This person challenges the thinking of others.

Decisiveness

It is the extent to which a person makes up his or her mind promptly and prudently.

Evaluate and control

It is the final step in the decision-making framework which involves investigating how effectively the chosen alternative solved the problem.

Accessibility

It may be even more important than quality in determining which information is used or not used.

Controlling

It means ensuring that the results the decision obtained are the ones set forth during the problem-identification step.

Bounded rationality

It means that people's finite (somewhat limited) mental abilities, combined with external influences over which they have little or no control, prevent them from making entirely rational decisions.

Anchoring

It occurs during decision making when the mind gives too much weight to the first information it receives.

Emotional intelligence

It refers to qualities such as understanding one's own feelings, empathy for others, and the regulation of emotions to enhance living.

Expertise

It refers to the necessary knowledge to put facts together.

Conflict

It relates to crisis because both can be an emotional experience.

Procrastination

It results in indecisiveness and inaction and is a major cause of self-defeating behavior.

Analysis paralysis

Some intelligent, well-educated people have such a fondness for collecting facts and analyzing them that they suffer from ____________________.

Indecisive

People who seek the perfect solution to a problem are usually indecisive because they hesitate to accept the fact that a particular alternative is good enough.

Hierarchic

This decision-making style involves analyzing a great deal of information and seeking input from others. Decision makers expect a decision to be final and relatively permanent.

Decisive

This decision-making style involves valuing action, speed, efficiency, and consistency. Once a plan is in place the decision maker sticks with it and move on to the next decision. Time is precious to this type of decision maker.

Implement the Decision

This is a major step in problem solving and decision making wherein a decision is converted into action.

Satisficing

This is an approach wherein managers want to pore over reams of information before making a decision.

Judge

This role involves evaluating some wild ideas after developing them.

Lawyer

This role involves negotiating and finding ways to implement your ideas within your field or place of work.

Explorer

This role involves speaking to people in different fields to get ideas you can use.

Artist

This role involves stretching your imagination and striving to spend about 5 percent of your day asking "what if?" questions.

Evaluate Alternative Solutions

This step of problem solving and decision making involves comparing the relative value of the alternatives. The problem solver examines the pros and cons and considers the feasibility of each.

Nominal

This term means that for much of the activity, the participants are a group in name only; they do not interact.

Status quo trap

This ties decisions to political factors.

Satisficing decisions

Those decisions that suffice in providing a minimum standard of satisfaction. Such decisions are adequate, acceptable, or passable.

Clarify its true nature

To diagnose a problem properly, you must ________________________.

Values

Ultimately, all decisions are based on _________.

Nonroutine, routine

Under ideal circumstances, top-level management concerns itself almost exclusively with ___________ decisions; lower-level management handles all ___________ decisions.

Strategic

Virtually all __________ decisions are non-programmed.

Multifocused

_____________ decision makers generate lists of possible options and may pursue multiple courses.