The decision-making process has six different parts to it. The steps are identifying the problem, generate alternatives, evaluate alternatives, make a choice, implement your decision, and then evaluate your decision (Bateman & Snell, 2011). This process is used by everyone, even though at times some of the steps are skipped and we do not realize that we are using a process to come to a conclusion or decision.
I had a hard decision to make back in 2010 because I was getting laid-off from a job that I had been at for four years. They told me I would come back as soon as the company picked back up but they were not sure when that would be. So, I had to decide whether to get another job and move on from the job I liked or go to school and wait for them to call me back.
I had to evaluate what the choices were and the positives and negatives of either choice. During this I had to figure out what I would want to go to school for and what that would do for my family. I also had to evaluate what not getting another job would do to my family and my bills. I spent many days looking for jobs and looking at schools I thought I would like and after all this I could not find a job but I did find a school I liked. So there the decision was made. I was going back to school. I then had to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and my degree I would earn. I chose to open my own business.
I am happy that I went back to school. It had opened so many more doors and opportunities for me and my family. After I got my associates degree in management I was able to get a job pretty much anywhere I had applied. When I was debating on a job or going to school I had not really thought about the fact that being in school and also having a degree can lead you in the right direction to getting a job.
While writing this paper I realized that I do use the decision making process in order but it also made me realized that there are times when I do not evaluate my decision and what the outcome of that decision can lead too. The process seems to flow well when you have to make an important decision about your life, your family, or your future. I think that if I would have skipped the steps of evaluating the outcome of going back to school and just focused on the money that a job could give then all the doors and jobs that have started to open would not have and I would still be stuck in a dead end job that I may never get where I want to be which is a manager of a company. Sense I did follow the steps I am now a manager at a company that has been around for more years then I can remember.