Leadership Decision Making
Leadership and Decision Making
Introduction
Leadership is when one gives direction to a group or organization. Leaders consistently make executive decisions. It is important that leadership do not fall into psychological traps hindering them from succession planning, product development, and acquisition (Hammond, Keeney and Raiffa, 2006). According to “The Hidden Traps in Decision Making” article written by Hammond, Keeney and Raiffa (2006) delivers clear examples of traps people in leadership positions often experiences however, the authors give clear solutions in order to combat those traps. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the leadership decision-making process and its effects. This paper will contain a summary of the hidden traps in decision-making, related topics in business management, business articles supporting it, personal experience and application. The importance of this article is to show how decisions can lead to positive or negative effects. “The Hidden Traps in Decision Making” Hammond, Keeney and Raiffa (2006) discussed in the article on the importance of how decision-making can be the rise or fall to a business or organization. For decades, researchers have studied that the brain unconsciously makes decisions that are safe or less risky (Hammond, Keeny, and Raiffa, 2006). There are 6 major traps that people in leadership positions can unconsciously overlook. These traps include anchoring, status quo, sunk-cost, confirming evidence, framing, estimating and forecasting. The first trap is the Anchoring Trap that make decisions based off the individual’s past experiences. The trap often predetermines the outcome placing too much emphasis on past events, not taking into consideration other factors that play a role. For example, a basketball team may have been undefeated for the past 8 games however, there is a possibility of breaking the winning streak if
Introduction
Leadership is when one gives direction to a group or organization. Leaders consistently make executive decisions. It is important that leadership do not fall into psychological traps hindering them from succession planning, product development, and acquisition (Hammond, Keeney and Raiffa, 2006). According to “The Hidden Traps in Decision Making” article written by Hammond, Keeney and Raiffa (2006) delivers clear examples of traps people in leadership positions often experiences however, the authors give clear solutions in order to combat those traps. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the leadership decision-making process and its effects. This paper will contain a summary of the hidden traps in decision-making, related topics in business management, business articles supporting it, personal experience and application. The importance of this article is to show how decisions can lead to positive or negative effects. “The Hidden Traps in Decision Making” Hammond, Keeney and Raiffa (2006) discussed in the article on the importance of how decision-making can be the rise or fall to a business or organization. For decades, researchers have studied that the brain unconsciously makes decisions that are safe or less risky (Hammond, Keeny, and Raiffa, 2006). There are 6 major traps that people in leadership positions can unconsciously overlook. These traps include anchoring, status quo, sunk-cost, confirming evidence, framing, estimating and forecasting. The first trap is the Anchoring Trap that make decisions based off the individual’s past experiences. The trap often predetermines the outcome placing too much emphasis on past events, not taking into consideration other factors that play a role. For example, a basketball team may have been undefeated for the past 8 games however, there is a possibility of breaking the winning streak if
References: Chermack, T.J. (2003). Decision Making Expertise at the Core of Human Resource Development. Advances in Developing Human Resources. 5(4), 365-377. Duening, T. N., & Ivancevich, J. M. (2006). 7. Managing organizations: principles & guidelines (2. ed., pp. 148-166). Hammond, J. S., Ralph L. Keeney, and Howard Raiffa. (2006). "The Hidden Traps in Decision Making." Harvard Business Review. 1-11. Meredith, J.R., & Shafer, S.M. (2007). Operations management for MBAs (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Milburn, T. W., & R. S. Billings. (1976). "Decision-Making Perspectives from Psychology: Dealing with Risk and Uncertainty." American Behavioral Scientist 20.1, 111-26.