Exam 7: Individual and Group Decision Making: How Managers Make Things Happen

Regarding decision making, research has found that ____.

Decision making is the process of identifying and choosing alternative courses of action.

Sal has been in the landscaping business for over 40 years, and when Donovan, his business partner, suggested adding snow removal as an extra service, Sal responded with "My gut feeling is to say yes because of my experience in the past and what I have seen other companies do over the years, both successfully and not." Sal's response to Donovan is known as _____.

Two disadvantages that can occur with group-aided decision making is that either a few people dominate or satisficing occurs.

The decision was made by BP and Halliburton executives regarding not taking action with the oil well blowout preventer that experts believe would have prevented the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and fire off the coast of Louisiana, since company management believed that there would be no great negative consequences as a result of their decision. This is an example of ___.

Debbie likes working in the banking industry because there is a lot of structure and certainty, and the daily work is routine. Debbie probably _____.

An ethics officer is someone trained about matters of ethics in the society, particularly about resolving issues with competition.

Summarize Pfeffer and Sutton's seven implementation principles to help companies that are committed to doing what it takes to profit from evidence-based management. Give an example of three of the implementation principles.

Dwight, a hotel general manager, is having serious problems-a substance abuse issue-with one of his housekeeping employees. He knows that because of the seriousness of the issue he needs to talk with the employee. However, his assistant manager asks Dwight if he would like him to deal with it. Dwight knows this is not the best option, but agrees, knowing it is the easy way out. This is an example of _____.

Define the concept of deciding to decide. Give an example with each of the three ways to help you make this decision.

The predisposition in which people's subjective confidence in their decision making is greater than their objective accuracy is ____.

Difficulties that inhibit the achievement of goals are known as _____.

Phillip and Meg are selling their home. They listed their house three months ago at an extremely high selling price, a price they randomly chose. They do not want to come down on their price to reflect what the marketplace shows their home is really worth. This is an example of ______.

When people seek information to support their point of view and discount data that do not, this is ______ bias.

George, a restaurant manager, has to make a decision on firing a server who has had customer service issues. Identify the steps of rational decision making, and summarize how George would use each step in the process to handle this situation.

Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer suggests companies incur big costs when they cut their labor forces, and should turn to evidence-based decision making for accurate guidance.

After implementing a new marketing plan last month to increase sales at Direct TV, it does not seem to be working. Summarize what the marketing manager and his employees can do.

The rational model of decision making explains how managers should make decisions.

Despite your best intentions, it's hard to bring the best evidence to bear on your decisions because of such reasons as ____.

Having a greater pool of knowledge, gaining different perspectives, gaining intellectual stimulation, having a better understanding of decision rationale, and having a deeper commitment to the decision are advantages of ____.