Decision Making & Creativity  Certainty- info is sufficient to predict

results
Decision making – choosing an action to deal
 Risk – decision makers lack complete
with a problem
certainty
Steps in decision making:  Uncertainty – managers have so little
info on hand
1. Recognize problem
2. Identify alternative action Risk management – anticipating risks and
3. Choose preferred action factors them to decision making
4. Implement preferred action
Alternative decision-making models
Lack-of-participation error – important people
Behavior decision model – people act only in
are excluded from decision making process
terms of their perceptions
5. Evaluate results
Satisficing decisions – decision maker chooses
Ethics – philosophical study about good first alternative that gives them satisfaction
character and conduct
2 cognitive processes team engage:
Moral problem – poses major ethical
 Systematic – utilizes rational, analytic
consequence for the decision maker
thinking
Moral dilemma – decision maker faces two or  Intuitive – flexible and spontaneous
more uncomfortable alternatives
Key decision-making traps and issues
Criteria for ethical double checks:
Judgmental heuristics – simplifying strategies
 Utility used to make decisions
 Rights
Availability heuristics – assessing current event
 Justice
based on past occurrences
 Caring
Representativeness heuristic – assessing
Spotlight questions for ethical double checks:
likelihood that an event will occur based on its
 How would I feel If my family found out similarity to one’s stereotypes
this decision?
Anchoring and adjustment heuristic – assessing
 How would I feel if decision was
an event by taking an initial value
published?
 What would a person I know has Decision bias:
strongest character do in this situation?
 Confirmation error – seek cues in
Programmed decisions – standardized situations that support pre existing
responses to recurring problems opinion
 Hindsight error – event could have been
Nonprogrammed decisions – specifically crafted
predicted
to fit unique situation
 Framing error – evaluate and resolve
Crisis decision – unexpected problem threatens problem in context which it is perceived
major harm if not resolved quickly

3 general environments (basis of decisions)

Authority decisions – manager decides what to Conflicts – occur when disagreements exists in a
do without involving others social setting

Consultative decisions – manager solicits inputs Substantive – disagreement over ends or goals
from other people to be pursued

Team decisions – members work together to Emotional – interpersonal difficulties that arise
make final choice over feelings of anger, mistrust

Escalating commitment – renewed effort on

chosen course of action

Can be done to stimulate creativity in decision

making

Creativity – involves generation of a novel idea

to solve performance problems

Personal creativity drivers:

 Task expertise
 Task motivation
 Creativity skill set

Team creativity drivers: Functional conflict – constructive, positive

 Decision techniques benefits to team
 Creative membership Dysfunctional conflict – destructive to a team
 External support
Conflict can be managed by:

Conflict resolution – underlying reasons for

destructive conflicts are eliminated

Stages of conflict:

1. Antecedent conditions – set conditions

for conflict
2. Perceived conflict – substantive or
emotional differences are sensed
3. Felt conflict – tension creates
motivation to act
4. Manifest conflict – addressed by
conflict resolution

conflict aftermath – removing/correcting

antecedents

conflict suppression – no change in antecedent

Conflict & Negotiation
causes of conflict:
vertical conflict – commonly involves Competition – achieve domination by force
supervisor-subordinates, team-leader
Authoritative command – use formal authority
disagreements
to end conflict
horizontal conflict – between persons working
Win-win conflict – achieved by a blend of both
at the same level
cooperativeness and assertiveness
Line-staff conflict – disagreements between line
Collaboration – recognition by all conflicting
and staff personnel who has control over
parties that something is wrong
decisions such as budgets
Negotiation – making joint decision when
Role ambiguity conflicts – communication of
parties have different preferences
expectation is unclear
Substance goals – relate to content issues under
Task & workflow interdependencies – people
negotiation
are required to cooperate to meet goals
Relationship goals – relate to how well people
Domain ambiguities – teams or individuals lack
are able to work with each other
adequate task direction
Effective negotiation factors:
Resource scarcity – results to suffer working
relationships  Quality – agreement that is wise and
satisfactory
Power or value asymmetries – team differs from
 Harmony – negotiation is harmonious
one another in status
than inhibits good interpersonal
Indirect strategies: relations
 Efficiency – no more time consuming
Managed interdependence
Ethical aspects of negotiation – motivation to
 Decoupling – eliminate required contact
behave ethically in a negotiation
between conflicting parties
 Buffering – inputs of Team A are the
outputs of Team B

Appeal to common goals – focusing the

attention of two conflicting parties to one
mutual conclusion

Upward referral – problems are moved to the

senior manager to address

Altering scripts and myths – superficial

management managed by scripts
Lose-lose conflict – nobody gets what he/she
wants (Strategies: Avoidance. Accommodation
– playing down differences. Compromise –
giving up something valued)
Win-lose conflict – one party achieves its desire
Distributive negotiation – focuses on position
declared by conflicting parties
Integrative negotiation – principled negotiation.
Focuses on merits of the issues
Bargaining zone – one party’s minimum
reservation to other’s maximum reservation
Foundations of integrative negotiation:

1. Attitudinal – willingness to trust

2. Behavioral – don’t allow emotional
considerations to affect negotiations
3. Informational – each party must what
he/she will do

Third party negotiations – third party works

with persons involved in negotiation

Arbitration – third party acts as a judge and

issues a decision to bind parties

Mediation – third party tries to engage the

parties in a negotiated solution by persuasion