Organizational Behavior Trends

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR TRENDS

Organizational Behavior Trends

January19, 2005

Decision making defined

According to (Wikipedia encyclopedia, Decision making section, pa.1) decision making is defined as a cognitive process of selecting a course of action from several alternatives. Every decision results in a final choice. It also can be an action or an opinion. Decision making is a reasoning process that can be rational or irrational, moral or immoral depending on the individual's beliefs. Ethical principles of decision making vary.

There is several ways ethics influences decision making. When an individual is faced with a decision to make he or she has to ask themselves several questions first. Questions an individual needs to ask him or herself before making a decision are have they totally assessed the problem? Does the individual have all the necessary information? Can the decision be misunderstood? Has the individual looked at every alternative by asking him or herself if it is legal, fair, and moral? An individual might ask his or herself before making a decision is how important the decision is to themselves?

Five principles in ethics and decision making

According to (Doctor Arschams, Ethic and Decision making section, pa.1) Trying to decide a common moral code is not easy as history of theology has taught numerous times. An individual is provided tools to provide information to use while making a decision but it does not give an individual the decision itself. This is true whether ethics is included or not when making a decision. Ethics is a set of rules that effects our behavior in situations and sets some standard of conduct. There are five principles in common ethics, Autonomy, non-malfeasance, beneficence, justice, and fidelity. Autonomy deals with exploitation of others and impact of their freedom. Non-malfeasance is will it be creating harm of others? Beneficense deals with can this create good? Can problem be solved in a way that creates the most good? Justice is the process fair. Means and the ends need to be looked at. Fidelity deals with does decision follow professional, corporate or governance roles? Requires looking at the bigger picture. Every individual will have his or her own perspective on the above five principles.

Six key stages in decision making

According to (Doctor Arschams, Six key stages in decision making, pa.32) there are six key stages of decision making. Identification of the problem, what is the goal, possible actions predict outcome, pick the best alternative, and implement decision.

The first stage in decision making is identifying the problem. This stage is where ethics can have the biggest impact. This is the most difficult stage. From an ethical perspective an individual needs to ask him or herself if there really is a problem?

The second stage of decision making is what is the goal. The decisions need to be made in this stage is to solve the problem in an ethical manner or determine the most ethical goal. The problem here is does a person choose a goal first or choose a goal based on ethics first. In a perfect world one would think to choose the goal with ethics in mind first but this is not reality in the business world today.

The third stage to decision making is possible actions. Depending on how an individual makes the decision in stage two will have an influence on the types of actions that make sense.

The fourth stage to decision making is predict outcome. This is the stage where ethics may require no change.

The fifth stage to decision making is pick the best alternative. Is the best alternative the predicted outcome that maximizes goals or does it just provide results to compare. Looking at all cases similar to given situation and cases ethics would promote.

The sixth and final stage to decision making is implement decision. A lot of times this is when ethics plays a role in current business practice. In this stage an individual may be trying to lessen or trivialize perceived problems in decision decided on. Hopefully if decision implemented is not satisfactory the problem will be revaluated.

Technology and work related stress

According to (Life positive, Stress at work section, pa.1) the expansion of technology has resulted in higher expectations for productivity and speed. These expectations that go with technology has increased an individual to constantly be a high performance levels. Factory workers for example are under great stress to remain alert while operating machinery. Employees are under pressure and stress to constantly to keep up new technology and improvisations, which forces employees to learn new software and process with new technology. Technology has been known to control workers. For example, a telephone banking where there are no gaps between calls and employees have no control. E-mail has its benefits but also can be a stressful thing to have.