Readings 8.
5 (Studying Deciding: An Exchange of Views Between Mintzberg and Waters, Pettigrew and Butler)Abstract In this paper, the exchange of views on decision making have been discussed by Henry Mintzberg, Jim Waters, Andrew Pettigrew and Richard Butler. The author is mainly concerned with the ambiguities of studying deciding with all the other field’s concepts i.e. decentralization, participation, planning etc. where the most important is taking decision which is a sense of security.
Where the decision takes place in an organization it overlaps with the “Problem” and “Choices” after taking a decision. For this, we studied the “strategy formation” by Mintzberg and Waters. If a decision is really a commitment to action, then the traces it leaves behind in an organization can range from a clear statement of facts and decision- making process. Many authors quote about decision- making, that decision- making produce no direct evidence for themselves and knowledge of them can only be derived from the cumulation of indirect evidence.
Others say that decisions are “registered” in the book of organizational activities while some are hidden in the inner of human psyche.One fundamental problem with decision is the difficulty of commitment in the collective context of organization. This problem may be arising because they do not reveal and cannot reveal when the individual decision-makers made up their minds.
Another associated problem with decision in an organizational context is that it reinforces an undifferentiated, mechanistic image of one of few central decision- makers, thereby diverting attention from the fact that organizational actions do not correspond directly to leadership intentions.Focus on the decision making can reshaped, elaborated and defined over time through complex processes within and without organizations. The important general conclusion is that the concept of “decision” sometimes serve to confuse things. Although decision is get in a way of understanding behavior.
ExperienceWhen I was working as a trainee engineer in a company, our company received many projects in constructing a building, so it’s a difficult job for company and their employees to get to a perfect decision in choosing the projects. The problem was to find a way to analyse the judgement of the engineers and labours on their desirability to work at which project and in which city. So, the project requirements were investigated, and detail of every project was studied in minute detail. Then at last we final the project
