Decisions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Decisions - Essay Example This also takes into consideration the fact that decision-making is impossible to be the same in every organisation of a country, in spite of similar culture. But on the whole, it would be more or less identical and definitely, it would be totally different from organisations of another culture. Various cultures have different ways of approaching a problem and solving it. It could a participatory method or the time-honoured authoritative approach, or the decision-making might involve a group, or the topmost manager could take the total responsibility of it on his shoulders. Country related cultural factors like high or low masculinity, weak and strong uncertainty avoidance, and different ways of assessing the problem can all affect the process of decision making. Even if the outcome could be poles apart, the steps of decision making are more or less the same: identifying the problem, criteria, and allocation of weights to criteria and the final decision. If problems are framed to two people, it would definitely result in at least slightly different solutions and it is not surprising that two countries with diverse backgrounds, race and culture should have organisations that would take unidentical decisions in solving a management problem3. Defining the problem itself could be from absolutely dissimilar angles. From the decision-making point of view, a wrong diagnosis of the problem could definitely lead into wrong decision-making. Sometimes managers act without complete knowledge of the problem in haste4. Identifying the relevant criteria is the next step of decision-making. Judging the weight of the criteria, so that the decision could be taken accordingly is another step. Before making a decision, it is absolutely necessary to look at the alternatives and apply them to the criteria and assess and decide on the best-suited alternative under the circumstances. If alternatives are not considered, there is always a mischance of leavin g aside a better option. Rating each alternative against each criterion is the best way of taking a decision. Only after that, a decision could be arrived at and before the final decision, its credibility, far reaching affect and its suitability should be assessed. US AND JAPAN These two countries are absolutely different from one another in race, culture and outlook. Japanese had enormous success in industrial and technological field and since then they are pitted against United States in decision making. There is a crucial point that US has a top-down decision making process, where decisions come down from the top level and the rest are expected to follow it verbatim. But Japanese still believe in conventional society, and here the decisions are made at the operating level, 'a sort of bottom-up process' and such decisions are supported and approved by the organisation at all levels. There had been speculations in both countries about the success of the other's economy and researches have gone into the decision-maki