business

The rational decision making process requires careful consideration and deliberation of data; this takes time, making this method unsuitable for quick-decisions. In the age of fast-paced changes, seizing the opportunity at the spur of the moment plays a big part in success, and the rational model does not live up to this task. Moreover, delay in making and implementing a decision may result in dilution of the perceived benefit of such an alternative, for the benefits may accrue only when taken at that time. As such, this model finds use mostly in making long-term and policy decisions rather than short-term or floor level operational decisions.

Rational decision-making is steeped in conservatism, and errs on the side of caution. Many a time, the company makes it big when managers or leaders follow their gut instincts to take a gamble and seize an opportunity. Similarly, many times success depends on being the pioneer in the field, or the first to launch a new and untested product, which may find wide acceptance. Limiting decisions to analysis of available data may impede such approaches. The unavailability of past tends or information about such new products or opportunities causes rational decision makers to opt for more secure and conventional options.

Rational decisions are more structured and informed, but people making such decisions usually become unpopular, with the rank and file perceiving them as insensitive autocratic leaders. The basis of rationality is profit maximization or bottom line orientation, and interpersonal relations or emotions have no place in what constitutes “rationality.” Reliance on cold facts requires ignoring or paying secondary importance to sensitive human relationships. Over-reliance on the bottom line, with scant regard to human values, slowly but surely erodes the organization of its intellectual capital and resilience, sowing the seeds for its eventual destruction.

The fruits of rational decisions become apparent only in