Organizational Behavior

Six

Making Decisions

Making decisions is a critical task for most organizational members. It requires us to know when decisions are needed, develop alternative responses, select the most appropriate response, and ultimately implement our chosen course of action. As this chapter's navigator indicates, conventional and sustainable OB both offer a range of ideas to consider for each of these four steps.

Product recalls have been in the news with increasing frequency. Faulty products can be the result of flawed decision making in the design or production stages. Either way, poor decisions can cost a firm greatly in terms of repair expenses and loss of reputation, as Mattel and Toyota and other firms have experienced. In addition to poor decisions that create the faulty product in the first place, there is the decision as to whether to admit the mistake and recall the product.

The psychic rewards of working and succeeding in a major corporation proved unexpectedly seductive.

A classic and instructive example of a recall decision-making process gone awry is what doomed the Ford Pinto.

Imagine it is the early 1970s, and Ford Motor Company is working hard to develop its $2,000 Pinto, ...