Ch. 15: Time Constrained Decision Making

The most effective managers are ones who have successfully honed their time management skills and are generally skilled at making favorable snap decisions. We live in a very fast paced society and business culture, and it isn't going to slow down any time soon. Thinking on one's feet with limited time and information can often lead to poor decisions, but some individuals have fine tuned problem solving abilities allowing them to make these decisions with the least amount of complications. This blog will discuss this dilemma and how managers can ensure a better outcome when making snap decisions.

Image found at Unsplash @nate_dumlao

The text discusses how the processes that managers go through to make decisions are often done so with a lack of relevant information to make meticulous assessments and conclusions (Gulati, Mayo, & Nohria, 2016). These decisions can complicate the rational decision-making process. Ideally, the best case scenarios for making decisions offer plenty of time to optimize and explore all possible outcomes. It's during these times that managers may be required to come up with a solution that is good enough, often 80% accuracy being the common rule of thumb (Gulati, Mayo, & Nohria, 2016). This is called satisficing. The word itself is a portmanteau of suffice and satisfy and refers to compromising (What Is Satisficing?, 2013). The obvious drawback being that good enough is hard to gauge during times of limited stress and overall reduced allotment of times needed to make a thorough decision. What's good enough to one individual can be determined to be careless and indifferent to another. 

I often feel that I will leave something out that's critical if not given adequate time and space to complete a comprehensive evaluation of a given situation or decision. This is one reason I am not a procrastinator. When making a determination of what managers can do to ensure better outcomes in time constrained decision making, the first idea is try not to wait until the last minute to make the decision and think as much through as one can before finalizing the decision itself. Most decisions can be made with more time, if time is requested to make it. But, one must speak up to request this. When it is not available that's when decisions may be made is using our gut instinct and intuition. The text describes this as a form of "automated expertise" as it draws from linkages or connections to past experiences (Gulati, Mayo, & Nohria, 2016). However, this might lead to an increase in a availability heuristic bias, which places more value on the idea because it came into mind first and therefore it is more significant (8 Types of Bias in Decision Making – Timely Blog, 2017). 

Image found at Unsplash @miabaker

As you can see there are potential dangers for managers satisficing and making decisions constrained by time. Ideally, the most effective managers assess the risks associated with making these hasty decisions against the risks if they don't act hastily enough (Black, 2019). The uncertainties of these decisions have to be calculated and weighed accordingly. It's also important for these managers to understand their own biases that might lead to inaccurate judgments, as biases often cloud them. 

References

• 8 types of bias in decision making – Timely Blog. (2018, December 27). Memory. https://memory.ai/timely-blog/8-types-of-bias-in-decision-making
• Baker, M. (2017, July 27). MacBook Pro on brown wooden table beside white mug. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/cqkbESEkhjk
• Black, S. (2019, February 27). Barriers to Effective Decision-Making – Organizational Behavior. Pressbooks. https://opentextbc.ca/organizationalbehavioropenstax/chapter/barriers-to-effective-decision-making/
• Dumlao, N. (2018, February 10). Clear Hour Glass. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/5Hl5reICevY
• Gulati, R., Mayo, A. J., & Nohria, N. (2016). Management: An integrated approach. Australia: Cengage Learning
• What is Satisficing? (2013, July 26). HRZone. https://www.hrzone.com/hr-glossary/what-is-satisficing