Decision Making at the Executive Level Essay -- Business Management Pa

Decision Making at the Executive LevelThe focus of my term paper is the close reservation process used by todays top-level managers. Top-level managers, such as Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Chief Operations Officers (COOs), and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), must make critical decisions on a daily basis. Their choices and the resulting outcomes affect the company, the employees, and the stakeholders. Due to the high importance of their decisions, the process they use to reach them merits a close examination.A study published in the winter 1997 volume of Business Strategy Review suggests the major factor in a decisions success is the decision process itself. The study, by Paul Nutt, suggests that hapless decision making processes cost North American businesses billions of dollars each year. The study also proposes that most managers dont realize the importance of the process, and its effect on the success of the decision. to begin with analyzing the decision process in depth, the measurement of success must be established. Nutt used two broad measures to determine the success of decisions made. First, was the decision implemented fully. Second, was the decision still effective two years after implementation. Based on these measures, only half of the decisions in the study were considered successful. Nutt concluded that a lot time and notes was therefore wasted on these unsuccessful decisions. So during what part of the decision making process did these top-level managers go wrong? In general, many managers often quiver to a decision and stick by it, even when it continues to fail. Another cause of unsuccessful decisions is that the managers did not include those most affected by the outcome in the decision mak... ...n decisions, often increasing the chance of success. Unfortunately, most executives dont use this strategy in their decision process. Executives often rush to decisions in order to remove the tactual sensation of uncert ainty by not coming to a decision. This impulsive strategy fails because the decision maker does not include enough key people in the decision process itself. If managers would be more confident and take the time to properly assess the decisions they face, the success rate would increase and therefore save much time and money.BibliographyWorks Cited1.Kroll, Karen M., Costly omission, Industry Week, July 8, 1998, p 20.2.Information Access Company, Avoiding stupid management moves, American Printer, March 1997, v218 n6, p 94.3.Nutt, Paul, Better decision-making a field study, Business Strategy Review, Winter 1997, v8, pp 45-53.