Abstracts 4 Articles Decision Making

yarn 1. 3 Jack tout ensemble, R. (1988) Theories of ending- make process deliver to managers many an separate(prenominal) essential tools such(prenominal) as risk and cost/benefits analysis, etc. which in tern routinizes administration. These tools cannot be used fitly to manage of incalculable entities. The functional demythologisedity ascend is when activities precisely plotted and estimated to reach some goal. This method is unlikely to be used by top managers because another important factors argon problematical such as ego or personal altitude.If there is no special surgical operation for a particular problem, manager should focus on how to turn a situation into the right way in accordance with expectations from their impress. Some managerial slew cannot make their own judgments. Instead, they are facial expression up and looking around for someone elses opinion and utmostly they rely on it because of personal fears or inexperience. another(prenominal) exemplar of it is the mid-level decision- reservation paralysis in many American companies when a manager is trying to avoid of making a decision. In the case of inevitable decision, he or she would engage as many colleagues as workable for self-protection.Many examples of recent administrative and economic problems indoors American companies have showed the tendency that managers are oriented to the short-term full spirit level when making decisions. This is callable to the fact that MBA programs provide tools which are focuses to the highest degreely on a short-term attitude. The turn reason would be that managers are downstairs pressure for annual, quarterly, monthly and daily results and these factors push they out of thinking strong-nigh the future, even though they realise that todays minor difficulties could be tomorrows big crises.Managers are also aware of purpose time and when things go wrong it is necessary to be protected from consequences. This is the reason why they gr avitate towards this fear being punished rather than reflecting littlely. bureaucratism disrupts running(a) processes into parts and the results of the work therefore disconnected with the decisions, which had been made. Managers productivity depends on the position within management circle or their supervisors. at that place is no codes or corpses for tracking personal responsibilities to be established.To be successful manager means to move quickly within the levels of managerial hierarchy. It protects from going into problems too deeply at every level. Example I worked for four years as an instrument engineer in the indwelling squander industry in Russia. I was involved into the decision making process associated with planning re offsets and finances for further projects and discussions about engineering- think difficulties. Firstly, when the question was limiting and involves financial resources, I checked the parameters of equipment many times and sent the results to my boss.When I received the confirmation from him, I printed it out and managed the necessary signatures on it. I did not want to be responsible for any inconvenience because my boss has to carry out this kind of responsibility. It was extremely important for me as a lower-level manager to have the document that proves that all things are done in time and approved by middle-level manager. In case of inconveniences such as the late commissioning phase of facilities I showed the documents that all the travel were completed by me on time. variation 4. 2 Reason, J. (1990)The general heap on accidents causes within complex technological systems includes a priori framework which is not only provides the selective information on how dangerous factors could be combined themselves, however also where and how to predict these tendencies and take necessary measures beforehand. There are many elements of production, which are also involved into accident causation. delicate high-level manage rs decisions are a major(ip) add factor to an increase in risk, followed by the lack of line management, which in turn causes dangerous preconditions and unsafe acts (intended and unintended).The latter are based on humans psychological characteristics and conditions and are described as a combination of both potential hazards and misunderstandings, which could cause injury or monetary valuate. Likewise, a trajectory of an opportunity includes all these factors plus safe fortresss and productive events. Each of these has a window of opportunity in ground of an accident incidence. hence damage is highly possible when this trajectory is crossing all the windows at all the stages of production. The safe operation control consists of two features feedback and repartee.The theory points out that the most successful approach to manage the safety is by interpreted into circumstance the failure types rather than the failure tokens. According to Westrum (1988) there are collar mee tings of auctions denial, repair and reform. The successful organization is taken bring throughs in responding to safely data from the reform (bottom level). The fundamental distri neverthelession error relates to a personal incompetency of employee while on the other hand the fundamental surprise error is the situation when personal observation differs to a reality.Thus, taken into consideration these terms and experience from the past major accidents such as Chernobyl, the nature of a malfunction has to be considered not only as pure proficient but also as socio- skillful. The peoples contribution to accidents is bossy the machine failure risk. Example I investigated many serious accidents related to the natural gas transportation process. For instance, one emergency stop of the 3. 2-megawatt gas turbine was caused by the malfunction of a frequency meter. After an analysis of reports I concluded that practiced maintenance of this device was conducted improperly.A responsible worker forgot to immerse one procedure related to the metrology accuracy of this piece of equipment. other example is when other gas turbine was stopped by alarm during normal working cycle. The reason for that was unplanned and uncoordinated upgrade of its automatic control system (ACS). From my point of view, the modern technology is very reliable and ACS is highly faultness but social factors as well as poor decision making are of the major reasons for emergency situations. For instance, social factors in Russia are include a low salary and the lack of a proper education. Reading 6. Beach (1993) A descriptive Image theory focuses on peoples individual decisions rather than group ones, and it is directly opposite to prescriptive classical theory of making decisions. There are also troika decision-related emblems (structures), which have to be consumeed by a decision maker. The value image is based on personal principles, behavior and beliefs. These are the source for generat ing goals. Thus, the ultimate criteria for this is when the decision maker consider the values to be relevant. thus potential goals and actions, if they are inconsistent with the relevant principles, will be refused.The second image, which is called the trajectory image, includes potential goals, which have to be set and the third one, the strategical image, focuses on actions and plans that have to be performed for achieving stooges. The important parts of the third image are tactic and forecast, which would be a significant factors for monitoring a realisation progress of a particular goal. Decision-making process consists of two types of decisions such as adoption and progress which include the implementation of the compatibility and lucrativeness psychometric tests.The compatibility test is based on both types of decisions and compares candidates to three images, whereas in business the profitability test relates to the adoption decision only and uses the outcome aft(pre nominal) acting the compatibility test. For instance, the compatibility test selects few candidates, who successfully crossed through a excerption criteria and the profitability test therefore chooses the best candidate from the previous sorting. Another important part of the Image theory is the process of framing decisions which is the action when the goal is identified and the plan is alled back if one exists. The data from the serviceable research suggests that it is unlikely that the decision maker tend to change the weft criteria without changes in principles, goals and plans. Example I was involved into the process of interviewing new workers within the Natural gas industry. I had to employ personnel with sufficient technical knowledge and skills because they have to work within hazardous arenas and on potentially dangerous equipment. As a team leader I was hoping to go back highly qualified workers with massive experience for an average amount of salary.After execute several meetings and consultations with potential staff within this salary category I concluded that no one was able to pass the criteria and possess conjectural knowledge and practical achievements from previous work experience. Because of that I decided to change the working images by changing the criteria. Therefore, I focused on workers who possess theoretical knowledge with engineering psyches in complex. Although they did not have extensive experience, they satisfied basic criteria and were able to perform tasks within their federal agency (maintenance and repair).And after this correction of principles I recruited staff for my team successfully. Reading 7. 3Janis (1971) Groupthink is a way of thinking when members behave with a high level of meeting of minds and tend to adopt a soft line of criticism on colleagues ideas or even on every critical put out. This is why they make cold-blooded decisions easily with serious consequences such as the huge itemize of peoples de aths. The much cohesive the group, the more the risk that the decision will be proposed without the deep analysis of other choices.There are eight major symptoms of groupthink such as invulnerability, irrationality, ignorance of moral principles, stereotypical and unrealistic positions, group pressure against any critical views, members self-censorship, unanimity tendency within a group and the mind guard which is to protect the decision from any kind of the feedback. These indicators are typical for a bad decision making process which in tern may results the inhumane decision with serious consequences. Several steps could be adopted to frustrate any group from group thinking.In this case criticism should be recognised not only by members but also by a leader. Wide range of alternatives should also be taken into account as possible options. In a case of vital decisions several groups with variant leaders should be established to work on the same problem. in the beginning the fi nal decision is made each member should discuss considerations in its unit of organisation and then provide a final response to the group. An exterior expert should be invited to all meetings. One decision-maker within the group should criticise a position of the majority.In the case of consensus the group should organise the final meeting for listening and discussing any doubts against the final decision. Although these actions have also drawbacks. For instance, when developing crisis requests an immediate solution there is no time for discussions and implementing many steps for decision making. Another example might be that the risk of the natural spring of vital information would significantly increases when outside specialists are involved. All in all, it seems to be clear that top priority should be given in the prevention of any policymaking unit from the group thinking.Behavioral scientists should also be involved into these processes. Example During my work in Russia a gr oupthink was played a crucial role because of many factors. Firstly, my colleagues were really close to each other and the phoners social policy was developed for this purpose. Therefore, we spent some days playing games and sports altogether. This resulted in the number of small close-connected teams within the group. Another point is that my boss had a top role during all the process of discussion. Therefore, I had een many examples of bad decision-making. For instance, the only criticism from experienced and old colleagues was taken into account despite obvious things that were given by young professionals. Another factor is that the small teams did know how to play games within this environment and how to speculate. From my point of view, taking into consideration the long-term period, most of the final decisions were satisfactory but insufficient. It means that the projects were performed according to the rules and practices within timelines.But it can be clearly seen that du e to the lack of criticism, for example, the total cost of the projects was increased. This way if the rules and steps of good decision practice were implemented, the cost and efficiency would significantly increase. Reading 8. 2Callon (1987) The ontogenesis of the technology has been explained by many social scientists using different ready(prenominal) methods but they have not taken into account the point that the issue of the technology itself can also be represented as a sociological tool for an analysis. This also leads to the changes in understanding the dynamics of technology.There are two sociological views on the dynamic of consumption, which were developed by sociologists Touraine and Bourdieu. Touraine showed that French consumers behavior mostly dictated by astronomic monopolies and industry, whereas in parentage Bourdieu pointed out that competition between social classes within French troupe taken the first place in terms of consumption of goods and services. There fore these theories were shown by battle between engineers of two powerful French companies in the early 1970s Electricite de France (EDF) and Renault.Despite the fact that both of them successfully proposed the imagination of an electric automobile car (VEL), the EDFs theory failed because of unsolved technological difficulties related to the area of science and economy of the VEL, but the Renault did survive in the market because it focuses on not only the technological factors but also on rational views. This is the controversial result, because from the sociological point of view Renault specialists won this battle by a chance nor by implementing genius technological ideas.This experience of engineers-sociologists is possible to use as a new methodological tool for exploring large sections of society as well as researching within the value of role of social movements in the progress of consumption. There is also a facilitative tool which is named the actor network. It is the c ase when companys technological schema supported by many sections of society. It describes the dynamics of society in all told different way without using sociological explanations.Firstly, in the case of implications of ascendant innovations within a technological sector engineers must mix technical and scientific analysis with sociology. Secondly, the actors network approach is efficient because it takes into account outside factors, which are related to common concepts of systems. Example I was responsible for implementing the concept of using compressed natural gas (CNG) as force out for clandestine cars and municipal buses instead of regular petrol. I was focused on the national transport such as buses because of the potential reduction of pollutions as well as the decrease of the total cost of fuel consumption.Moreover, it was easier to install the necessary equipment on buses because the government agreed to subsidise the cost of these modifications. Whereas in contrast I concluded that private car owners would not agree with this idea because the Siberian region in Russia is a large area and the number of CNG filing stations was limited to only 7. Thus, it was clear for me that using CNG fuel people could not travel between major cities which is crucial factor. This approach was based on social behavior of people and their habits. Therefore, the main target for our new policy was a municipal transport within major cities.