Advanced Research Methodology Applications: Qualitative

Assignment # 2

Title of Assignment:
Introduction and Literature Review
Submitted to:
Prof. Dr. Hafiz Zafar Ahmad
Submitted by:
Haris Mehmood
L1F16PHAF0010

Date: 04.04.2017
 Introduction

With the technological advances, global competition, re-alignment of organizational

processes with the markets, business decisions should be more compact. Business decisions have

been classified along a continuum from highly structured to highly unstructured. In structured

decisions, the procedures for obtaining the best solution are known in advance, and the

objectives are clearly specified. In unstructured problems, however, intuition, plays a large role

in decision making. The owners may seek help from exports, but the final decision generally

involves ad hoc analysis and a substantial subjective element.

Over the past decades it was indicated that generally successful business decisions

depends upon some factors. These factors include assessing business risk, investment

management, and identification of new opportunities or gaps in markets, technical analysis and

financial analysis.

Consideration is that if we all behaved optimally, costs and benefits would always be

accurately weighed, impatience would not exist, gains would never be foregone in order to spite

others, no relevant information would ever be overlooked, and moral behavior would always be

aligned with moral attitudes.

But the question is that how can we improve decision making? We believe the importance

of this question is somewhat self-evident: decisions shape important outcomes for businesses and

investors, and if we knew more about how to improve those outcomes, businesses and investors

would benefit. After all, errors induced by biases in judgment lead decision makers to under save

for wrong investment and engaging in needless business conflict. Given the massive costs that
can result from suboptimal decision making, it is critical for our field to focus increased effort on

improving our knowledge about strategies that can lead to better decisions.

The costs of suboptimal decision making have grown, even since the first wave of

research on decision biases began fifty years ago. As more economies have shifted from a

dependence on agriculture to a dependence on industry, the importance of optimal decision

making has increased. In a knowledge based economy, we propose that a knowledge owners

primary deliverable is a good decision. In addition, more and more people are being tasked with

making decisions that are likely to be biased because of the presence of too much information,

time pressure, simultaneous choice, or some other constraints. Finally, as the economy becomes

increasingly global, each biased decision is likely to have implications for a broader swath of

society.

As decision making research is relevant to businesspeople, investors, and many other

groups for whom failures to make optimal choices can be extremely costly. Assuming we accept

the importance of uncovering strategies to fend off decision making errors, the next question is

where to begin? To address this question, there should be relevant knowledge that judgment and

decision-making scholars have amassed over the last several decades about how to reduce biased

decision making that results in business failure.

Businessmen often lack important information regarding a decision, fail to notice

available information, face time and cost constraints, and maintain a relatively small amount of

information. The busier people are, the more they have on their minds, and the more time

constraints they face, the more likely they will be to rely on intuitive thinking. Thus, the frantic

pace of life is likely to lead us to rely on intuitive thinking much of the time and to make costly

errors.
 Albert Einstein once said, We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking

we used when we created them. So businessmen need to think out of the box to make their

businesses successful. Decisions based on intuition will lead to become fail probably. Businesses

need proper planned decision based on past trends and factors.

A few important insights about how to improve decision making have already been identified.

Judgment and decision-making scholars will focus their attention on the search for improvement

strategies in the coming years, seeking to answer the question.

Literature Review

The study was aimed at understanding the major factors that influence leadership

decision making in organizations. It presented that forms of participation are functional, when a

leader has the authority to make decision, when a decision can be made without stringent time

limitation, when the subordinate have the relevant knowledge to discuss and implement the

decision as well as when a leader is skilled in the use of participative techniques (Kerr & John W.

Slocum, 2006).

The study reveals that leadership decision making in organizations has emerged as one of

the most challenging, complex, and active areas of leadership and management future research.

Complex social systems suggest that the major reason for organizational failure lies in the way

decision makers think about and execute the change process (Smith, 2001).

Nahavandi (2004) identified good decision making as one of the key components of

leadership strategies in organizational management. All Leaders and other decision makers in

companies should understand that a leader is one who can lead a group of people to accomplish

common goals in the right direction, with cost efficiency, within the time frame, and achieving

the desired outcomes.

 A good understanding and the establishment of sound business decisions and policies are

very important for leadership in all businesses. Leadership is a functional one, meaning that

leadership is at the service of collective effectiveness (Fleishman, Korotkin, Mumford, Wallis, &

Yarkin Levin, 1991).

A good business decision comprised of a sequence of activities that involves leaderships

courage, and evaluation, as well as gathering, interpreting and exchanging information, creating

and identifying alternative courses of action, choosing among alternatives by integrating the

often differing perspectives and opinions of team members; and implementing a choice and

monitored its consequences (Thompson, 2013).

A good business decision is taken by skilled leader. The more skilled and educated

leaders are, the more likely they will feel confident in their abilities and competent to make good

decisions. For it is only the leader that understands the nature and principles of decision making

will be able cope with complex and challenging situations more effectively than the leader who

does not possess any of the ideas (Yukl & Lepsinger, 2005).

Claims that a good business decision is based on a leader who influences individuals or

groups within an organization, helps them in the establishment of goals, and guides them toward

achievement of those goals, thereby enabling them to be effective (Hsin-Hua Hsiung, 2012).

Decisions, no matter how big or small, impact organization in a major way. Its important

for leaders to evaluate the situation before making a decision. There are several important factors

that may influence leadership decision making in organizations. These factors include past

experience, cognitive biases, age and individual differences belief in personal relevance, and an

escalation of commitment as well as the influence what choices people make (Monzani, Ripoll,

& Peir, 2015)

 Understanding the factors that influence decision making process is important to

understanding what decisions are made. That is, the factors that influence the process may

impact the outcomes. The other major factors that can influence decision making include,

leadership style influence, a variety of cognitive biases, change, technology, politics,

communication, economic status, market cost, and social responsibility among other factors

(Tzinerr & Picke, 2015).

 References

Fleishman, E. A., Korotkin, A. L., Mumford, M. D., Wallis, M. R., & Yarkin Levin, K. (1991).

Taxonomic efforts in the description of leadership behavior: A general approach. Defense

Technical Information Center.

Hsin-Hua Hsiung. (2012). Authentic leadership and employee voice behavior: A multi-level

psychological process. Journal of Business Ethics, 107(3), 349-361.

Kerr, J., & John W. Slocum, J. (2006). Managing corporate culture through reward systems.

Academy of Management Executive, 19(4), 130-138.

Monzani, L., Ripoll, P., & Peir, J. M. (2015). The moderator role of followers? personality traits

in the relations between leadership styles, two types of task performance and work result

satisfaction. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology,, 24(3), 444-452.

Nahavandi, A. (2004). The art and science of leadership. Pearson Education.

Smith, L. T. (2001). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Social

Policy Journal of New Zealand, 1(17), 214-217.

Thompson, L. (2013). Making the team: A guide for managers. Pearson.

Tzinerr, A., & Picke, L. B. (2015). Authentic management as a moderator of the relationship

between the congruence of gender role identity - gender management characteristics, and

leader-member exchange (LMX). Journal of Business Ethics, 131(1), 107-116.

Yukl, G., & Lepsinger, R. (2005). Why integrating the leading and managing roles is essential for

organizational effectiveness. Organizational Dynamics, 34(4), 361-375.