MGT 205 Ch. 7 & 8

The process by which managers respond to opportunities and threats by analyzing options and making determinations about specific organizational goals and on-going courses of action

Rules of thumb that simplify decision making (medication)

Use of strong prior beliefs among two variables

Generalize from a small sample

The tendency to overestimate one's own ability to control activities and events (tragic drinking stories)

Tendency to commit additional resources to a situation even though evidence shows that the project is failing (Challenger)

A routine, virtually automatic process that follows established rules or guidelines.

Required for those nonroutine decisions. Made in response to unusual or novel opportunities and threats

A decision that takes time and effort to make utilizing conceptual, human and technical skills.

• 1. Recognize the need for a decision
• 2. Generate alternatives
• 3. Assess alternatives
• 4. Choose among alternatives
• 5. Implement chosen alternative
• 6. Learn from feedback

Evaluate alternatives: Legal? Ethical? Economically feasible? Practical?

The process of drawing upon the combined skills (conceptual, human, and technical) competencies, and accumulated knowledge of group members and thereby improve the ability to generate feasible alternatives and make good decisions

A pattern of faulty and biased decision-making that occurs in groups whose members strive for agreement among themselves at the expense of accurately assessing information relevant to a decision

Noticing an opportunity to satisfy a customer need and then deciding how to find and use resources to provide a product/service that satisfies the need

The establishment inside of an organization of a learning environment encouraging employees to identify opportunities, solve problems, and provide customers with new and improved goods/services

An essential managerial task and process that managers use to identify and select appropriate goals (big picture) and courses of action (ongoing picture) for the organization

The planning, organizing, leading and controlling of human and other resources to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively.

Choosing appropriate organizational goals and courses of action to achieve these goals

A cluster of decisions about what goals to pursue (big picture and smaller picture) what actions to take, and how to use resources to achieve goals

Five years or more, corporate level plans

1-5 years, business level plans

One year or less, functional plans

A planning exercise to identify strengths(S) and weaknesses(W) inside an organization and opportunities(O) and threats(T) in the environment

• 1. Low Cost
• 2. Differentiation strategy
• 3. Focused low-cost strategy
• 4. Focused differentiation strategy