I don’t understand this Business question and need help to study.

Decision making is the process of identifying and choosing alternative courses of action. While we want to make rational decisions, sometimes we don’t . . . sometimes we make non-rational decisions.

There are four steps in rational decision-making:

1. Recognize and define the problem or opportunity-In business the problem can come in the form of customer complaints, supplier breakdowns, staff turnover, sales decline, etc. Organizations proactively seek opportunities to exceed goals, surpass the industry expectations and to expand and grow the business.
2. Identify and analyze alternative courses of action-Leaders should seek input from multiple sources to interpret and analyze the problem/opportunity to come up with as many options as possible to solve the issue.
3. Choose a preferred course of action-The group want to answer the following: (1) Is the action ethical?; (2) Is it feasible? (costs, technology availability; (3) Is it effective? If your answer to this question is the resolution is “good enough” you want to rethink this solution it will cause more harm than good.
4. Implement the preferred course of action-You need to the participation from all teams to successfully implement the action.

On the other hand, non-rational decisions are generally the result of either Satisficing (going with the first available option without much research) or Intuition (using your “gut” or just your own feelings to make decisions).

For this week’s discussion, think about a time when you made a non-rational decision on the job or in your personal life.

• Was it the result of satisficing or intuition?
• How would your decision have been different using the four steps for rational decision-making?
• How would the steps have helped you to make a better, or more sound, decision?

Don’t forget to view my video for clarity on this weeks topic!

Click here to watch the video

Part 2: Respond to a Peer

Read a post by one of your peers and respond, making sure to extend the conversation by asking questions, offering rich ideas, or sharing personal connections.

For this week’s discussion, think about a time when you made a non-rational decision on the job or in your personal life.

• Was it the result of satisficing or intuition?

A time when I made an irrational decision in the workplace…this is a tough one for me. One instance that I can remember is when we (the leadership team) allowed a resident to come back to our memory care unit from the hospital after she was admitted for pneumonia. It was determined by a doctor that she needed a puree diet. We didn’t have any equipment for this, so we went to Walmart and purchased a blender to allow for her doctor’s orders to be filled by our community. This decision was based on satisficing. Because she was discharged from the hospital, she needed a place to go. She should have been referred to a rehab physical therapy center but was not. During our wait for the rehab center to take her so that she could have occupational therapy done for a closed throat problem she was having due to aspirating there were many time when she choked on her liquid pureed diet and gave us multiple scares. She also scared the residents in the memory care unit, and they would cry out from time to time that she was chocking.

• How would your decision have been different using the four steps for rational decision-making?

1,) We should have recognized the problem – that she was being discharged without being sent to therapy.

2.) An alternative course of action would have been to refuse to take her back from the hospital and insisted that they send her to rehab for therapy for her closed throat problem.

3.) This would have been the ethical decision to make because it would have kept her from having this discomfort continue for the extra 5 days that it took to have her be admitted to a local therapy center.

4.) Next time we will ensure that all the associates make it a priority to listen and gain all the discharge information so that we can have our nurse make the educated decision to take a discharged resident back or not.

• How would the steps have helped you to make a better, or more sound, decision?

I believe that if we would have followed the rational steps to decision making that we would have saved this resident 5 days of discomfort, embarrassment and possible pain