The issue of design in managerial decision making

It is argued that the design of decisions is a process that in many ways is shaped by social factors such as identities, values, and influences. To be able to understand how these factors impact organizational decisions, the focus must be set on the management level. It is the management that shoulders the chief responsibility for designing collective actions, such as decisions. Our propositions indicate that the following measures must be taken in order to improve the quality of organizational decisions: 1. The identity of the people, involved in organizational decision making, affects the quality of decisions and should be taken into account in the design of decisions. 2. The decision maker or designer of decisions should engage the members of an organization to create a shared vision. 3. Getting the members of an organization to express and share common values should improve the decision making process. 4. Being able to socially influence the members of an organization, or other stakeholders involved, as well as letting them participate in the process, should improve the quality of decisions

The preponderance of decision in a new managerial function of information – decision

The decision preponderate over information in a new central function of management defined as informationdecision; we believe that the option for a compromise of the type: prognosis of product or service, organization, information-decision, stimulation and control better responds to the new managerial conditions. There frequently occur deadlocks in modelling decisions, especially owing to the lack of information (quality of the data, equations, the degre of accuracy etc.), but we believe that the option for a better decision, sometimes even instead of a better information, finally, means an optimal solution to short term.managerial information and decision, mathematical hope, prudence, moderate, superoptimistic, equilibrium and regrets rule, decision trees

Using a cognitive prosthesis to assist foodservice managerial decision-making

The artificial intelligence community has been notably unsuccessful in producing intelligent agents that think for themselves. However, there is an obvious need for increased information processing power in real life situations. An example of this can be witnessed in the training of a foodservice manager, who is expected to solve a wide variety of complex problems on a daily basis. This article explores the possibility of creating an intelligence aid, rather than an intelligence agent, to assist novice foodservice managers in making decisions that are congruent with a subject matter expert\u27s decision schema

Sensitivity Analysis as a Managerial Decision Making Tool

Decision making is an integral part of operations management. It may be useful to a decision maker to have some indication of how sensitive an alternative choice might be to the changes in one or more of those values. Unfortunately, it is not possible to explore all the possible combinations of all the variables in a typical problem. In spite of this, there are some elements that a decision maker can use to assess the sensitivity of assumption probabilities. One of the tools useful for the analysis in some decision making problems is sensitivity analysis. It provides a range of feasibility over which the choice of alternative remains the same. Successful decision making consists of several steps, the first and most important being carefully defining the problem. Given that linear problems can be extensive and complex, they are solved by using sophisticated computer methods. This paper will present software solutions available for personal computers (Lindo, POM). For a manager taking the decision, however, a solution model is only part of the answer. Sensitivity analysis offers a better understanding of the problem, different effects of limitations and “what if“ questions. The insights obtained are frequently much more valuable that a specific numerical answer. One of the advantages of linear programming lies in the fact that it provides rich information on sensitivity analysis as a direct part of the solution.feasibility range, linear programming, Lindo, POM, optimum solution, optimum range, sensitivity analysis.

Kepemilikan Manajerial: Kebijakan Hutang, Kinerja Dan Nilai Perusahaan

The objective of this research is to examine whether there is a significant difference between the managerial ownership and non-managerial ownership companies in term of their business decision making process. The business decision mentioned in this paper includes financial decision which is indicated by debt policies (capital structure), operational decision reflected in company\u27s performance, and business decision implied in company\u27s value.The research observes 137 of 336 companies which had been listed in the Jakarta Stock Exchange until the year of 2005. The examination results in the fact that the debt policies and the company\u27s value of the managerial ownership companies are significantly different with non-managerial ownership companies. In contrast, the managerial ownership companies statistically have the same performance with non-managerial ownership companies

Portraying managerial dynamic capabilities : a case study in the fast-moving consumer goods industry

This paper presents a case study describing the managerial dynamic capabilities of a firm in the highly competitive fast-moving consumer goods industry and their effects in the performance of the firm and the industry. Managerial dynamic capabilities are processes of managerial decision-making, extending throughout the firm, to determine which particular resources managers identify as strategically important and how they build them. The case study, which was developed with a management team during a period of one year, involved a detailed analysis of the resources perceived strategically relevant and the operating policies aimed at maintaining an adequate balance of the set of key resources. In other words, this paper describes what Winter (2003) defines as 'how we earn our living now' or 'zero-level' capabilities

Uncovering Hidden Profiles; Managerial Interventions for Discovering Superior Decision Alternatives

A common reason for the use of teams in organizations is the idea that each individual can bring a unique perspective to the decision task; however, research shows that teams often fail to surface and use unique information to evaluate decision alternatives. Under a condition known as the hidden profile, each member uniquely possesses a critical clue needed to uncover the superior solution. Failure to share and adequately evaluate this information will result in poor decision quality. In order to mitigate this team decision-making bias, the present study utilizes experimental research to examine the impact of the devil’s advocacy technique on the decision quality of hidden profile teams. Results show that advocacy groups had higher decision qualities than groups under free discussion; however, advocacy teams also had higher levels of anger and lower levels of individual support for their group’s decision. As a result, while these teams selected the best solution, the presence of a devil’s advocate introduces conditions that may hinder the solution’s implementation. Furthermore, similar experiments with advocacy techniques suggest that the positive effect on decision quality found here is reduced in the presence of stronger hidden profiles

Analysis and intuition in strategic decision making. The case of California

Many management scholars believe that the process used to make strategic decisions affects the quality of those decisions. However several authors have observed a lack of research on the strategic decision making process. Empirical tests of factors that have been hypothesized to affect the way strategic decisions are made notably are absent. (Fredrickson, 1985) This paper reports the results of a study that attempts to assess the effects of decision making circumstances focusing mainly on the approaches applied and the managerial skills and capabilities the decision makers built on during concrete strategic decision making procedures. The study was conducted in California between September 2005 and June 2006 and it was sponsored by a Fulbright Research Scholarship Grant

On Risk Management Determinants: What Really Matters?

We investigate the determinants of the risk management decision for an original dataset of North American gold mining firms. We propose explanations based on the firm's financial characteristics, managerial risk aversion and internal corporate governance mechanisms. We develop a theoretical model in which the debt and the hedging decisions are made simultaneously. Our model suggests that more hedging does not always lead to a higher debt capacity when the firm holds a standard debt contract, while hedging is an increasing function of the firm's financial distress costs. We then test the predictions of our model. To estimate our system of simultaneous Tobit equations, we extend, to panel data, the minimum distance estimator proposed by Lee (1995). We obtain that financial distress costs, information asymmetry, separation between the posts of CEO and chairman of the board positions and managerial risk aversion are important determinants of the decision to hedge whereas the composition of the board of directors has no impact in such decision. Also, our results do not support the conclusion that firms hedge in order to increase their debt capacity which seems to confirm our model's prediction.Risk management determinants, corporate hedging, capital structure, managerial risk aversion, gold price, tax incentive, minimum distance estimator, panel data, Tobit, corporate governance.

Product-Market Competition and Managerial Autonomy

It is often argued that competition forces managers to make better choices, thus favoring managerial autonomy in decision making. I formalize and challenge this idea. Suppose that managers care about keeping their position or avoiding interference, and that they can make strategic choices that affect both the expected profits of the firm and their riskiness. Even if competition at first pushes the manager towards profit maximization as commonly argued, I show that further increases in competitive forces might as well lead him to take excessive risks if the threat on his position is strong enough. To curb this possibility, the principal-owner optimally reduces the degree of autonomy granted to the manager. Hence higher levels of managerial autonomy are more likely for intermediate levels of competition.product-market competition, authority, decision making, delegation, autonomy