Judgment and Decision Making

JUDGMENT AND DECISION MAKING Name: Grade Course: Tutor’s Name August 11, 2010 TOPIC NO 1-READING 8.1: Linstone, H. (1984), Chapter 4, ‘Our Proposed Perspectives. In a socio technical system, problems and issues are dealt with not only through the technological aspect but on a social one as well. The socio technical systems can be viewed in multi perspectives, technical perspective (T), organizational perspective (O), and at a personal perspective (P). Though they can be viewed independently, the other perspectives add some valuable insights to create a balance. The technical perspective involves figurative analysis, probabilities, quantitative terms and information categorization. In the organizational perspective a policy is analyzed by questioning how the policy will affect the organizations place or stability. Rules and regulations are followed. All solutions can be found in the procedural manual. The organizational culture is important as it reflects the organization’s values. The O perspective is crucial in each group as it helps the group in making decisions. The O perspective maybe indistinct and requires more than in-depth understanding to be brought to light. In O perspective, short change actions are prioritized rather than long term changes. The staffs are afraid of making errors, a characteristic which is criticized in this era of changing society where flexibility is a requisite to changing technology. The personal perspective views the world from an individual’s point of view. A modern executive will need to make decisions that at times may go against his personal believes. The individual’s personality, intuition, leadership and self interests are recognized. Effective organizations have been organized in such a way that the individuals self interests are used to align with the goals of the organization. The P perspective is dominant in politics. Understanding the P perspectives can help in understanding the O perspective as the personal perspective can be used to create an organizational culture. Integrating the perspectives is crucial in the modern world. Individuals and organizations will need to keep changing the perspectives. The P perspective can be changed to be the organizations perspective especially where the executive is a dominant individual among those who make a difference. New technology requires major T perspective. The executive will apply his own plus the office staff P perspective and the department’s O perspective as he takes advice technical advice from the operations managers T perspective. Personal Experience I was involved in the implementation of an enterprise resource system (ERP) in the office where I worked. There was a disagreement between the IT staff and the other staff who were going to be the program users. The IT staff had a strong view that the implementation period was impractical, that for it to be fully implemented it required at least a six months trial period. The rest of the staff members were in a rush to have the system running as there were deadlines on the closing of the organizations financial period and waiting for six months was going to interfere with invoicing customers. Late invoicing would mean reduced collections. This would reflect a reduct...