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E. Frank Harrison: College of Business, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, USA
Monique A. Pelletier: College of Business, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, USA
The authors agree with Herbert A. Simon who, in his classic work on the science of management decision making, treats it as a process synonymous with the whole process of management (Simon, 1960). When, in the process of fulfilling their duties and responsibilities, managers make decisions there is an expectation of success. Managers are invariably rewarded for effective decision making and criticized or censured for failure in decision making. The sine qua non of effective management is a track record of decision success. It is the most meaningful measure of managerial merit. It is the most significant contribution that management can make in any kind of formal organization.
Given the undeniable importance of management decision, it is useful to differentiate such decisions made in organizations from the countless other decisions made by anyone in the population at large. What is it, for example, that differentiates decisions made by managers in organizations from other decisions made by non-managers anywhere else? What is the difference between decisions made by managers in the performance of their duties and responsibilities and other decisions made by the same managers in a totally different setting? And finally, what differentiates decisions necessarily made by particular managers from similar decisions made unnecessarily by other managers? In essence, what is it that differentiates decisions that we normally and properly consider management decisions from similar decisions that are erroneously regarded as management decisions? What is it, for example, that distinguishes a genuine management decision from a bogus management decision? How do we tell one from the other? The purpose of this article is to provide managers who must make decisions and those who presume to understand and possibly aspire to the making of such decisions with the ability to make this crucial distinction. In so doing, we hope to extend the body of knowledge in this vital activity.
This article commences with a discussion of the significance of management decision, which intends to justify the emphasis imparted to it by the authors. Subsequent discussion deals with the principal means for focusing on management decision. For example: a...