We need to make decisions every day, weather it is simple ones like, what to have for breakfast, or more complicated ones like, weather to take a job offer. In life we all make some good decisions and some bad decisions. In simple terms decisions with the positive consequences are good and decisions with the negative consequences are bad.
All people have their individual schema of decision making. Usually is based on their personal experiences. Furthermore, is greatly correlated with their sex, cultural background and religious believes. But we need to keep in mind that decision making is situation specific, and situations are never identical. For example, taking the bus route that always takes you home the quickest, but this particular time there is a car accident on the road and it takes you forever to get home.
I would defiantly agree that decision making is “circumstantial” and that “ is greatly correlated with their sex, cultural background and religious believes”, … I would just add to the list maybe emotional intelligence of a decision maker… You also mentioned “decisions with the positive consequences are good and decisions with the negative consequences are bad”. Hence, I a fun case scenario for you: a decision to invade the foreign country by launching an army on the civilians, or invade the same country by fighting the military. In both cases the same number of casualties will accrue and in both cases the country will surrender. Which one is positive and which one is negative consequence? Have fun.
ReplyDeleteOne of the points made in class is that outcomes are often uncertain. This means that judging decision quality on the basis of the outcome may not be helpful - what matters is how the decision was made. Was enough relevant information taken into account? Were the probabilities and outcome values weighed up properly? Of course, different people may value things differently, and there may be cultural influences, and so on, but for any individual the key question is did they take enough things into account and weigh up the pros and cons?
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