Decision Making Process Essay

Decision-Making Process Carol Hartfield MGT/230 June 20, 2011 Mike Osby Decision-Making Process Decision-making can be difficult and disastrous if not thought out carefully. Some decisions once made cannot be changed, and the outcome could change your life forever. Of the six stages of the decision-making process, I, like others, can say I do not use all the stages, if I made my decision using the stages my outcome may have been better that it was. I wanted to change jobs to spend more time with my son and make our lives better. If I had used the decision-making process my decision would have been different. The first step of the process is identifying and diagnosing the problem. I identified the problem, I needed more money and a daytime job with as few hours of overtime required. The diagnosis for the problem was to switch from nighttime data entry to daytime dialysis. I was not clear about what I wanted the decision to achieve. I was putting my situation in a negative perspective, e. g. , I do not want to work at night any more and I did not like the company. But such framing of the outcome in the negative does not set a direction to move towards, only what to move away from (McDermott, n. . ). The positive outcomes should have been stated for my goal to be achieved. The decision-making process steps are, generating alternative solutions and evaluating alternatives. I did not follow these two processes; maybe if I would have I would have had a better outcome. I would have had a plan if the new job failed to give the results anticipated. Within evaluating the alternative I would have d one more research on my earnings potential of the new job versus my old job. The next step of the decision-making process was implementing the decision. This was not an easy task to complete. My schedule for sleeping was hard to change, and I had to work the night job for two weeks before I could leave. Implementation of the decision was the hardest part of the process since I had to work and train at the same time for two weeks with hardly any sleep. I would have allowed time to transition from one jog to the other if I had used the six steps in the readings from this week. Evaluating my decision was also an easy task; my bills started piling up because I was not making the money promised from taking the job. I had to do something to make more money or go back to my previous position. I was lucky that I was friends with the new supervisor and she needed help because people had left. I could resume my position with the same seniority and pay. The decision to switch jobs would have been different if I had used the decision-making process listed in this week’s reading. I would have had alternative solutions and investigated the new job more than I did. In generating alternative solutions, I would have ensured I could have returned to my previous job and not agonized over if I could return or not. Reference McDermott, D. (n. d. ). How to make a decision. Retrieved from http://www. decision-making-confidence. com/index. html