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Rational Decision

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The decision making is about both perception and rationality towards the problem or situation. Both decision makings are not perfect in an economic view, and both involve consequences that may arise. The rational decisions presuppose the best possible outcome and also reduce chances of potential risks and biases in the decision making process. Despite its accuracy, most everyday life decisions are made by individual’s perceptions due to its high demand in time and bound rationality. The perceptual decision makings are quick-step thinking process and can be effective in everyday activities. However, these perceptual decisions can be impinged upon the perceptual errors or distortions, leading to failure in selecting right decisions. In economic view, these perceptual decisions can be employed by entrepreneurs or managers to increment their assets of the organisations. Therefore manager should concentrate on both rationality and perception to make more appropriate decision making.

The rational decision making is a systematic process in identifying problems and generating most logical, effective choice to address the problem. To make rational decisions, the information must be sufficient and reliable, and low on risk level. The decision’s rationality depends on the specification of models, and different models impose different rational decisions. Managers evaluate these rational decisions and select the optimal decision. Marcel (2011, p. 371) states that a real-life decision problems can be framed into different models, which represents different rational decisions that could be made by an individual. He remarks on how rational decision making are effective and accurate in addressing the problem. The rational decisions reduce chances of potential errors and biases which may lead to huge impact on the company. Charles L. Citroen (2011, p. 493) commented that executives in thirteen companies all approached in rational decision makings. This demonstrates the significant role of rational managerial, decision making played in improving their assets of the organisation.

However, there are criticisms regarding to rational decisions due to its high demand in time and bound rationality. In recent fast pace environment, the time is crucial when deciding business strategies and rational decision approach involves high demands on time duration, which may not meet entrepreneur’s demands. Also in some cases, there are bound rationalities which prevent rational decision making process. As managers do not always have enough time or ability to process complete information about complex decision, they are compelled to select some alternative that promises to meet their objectives. This means that decision makings may now be under risk, uncertainty and imperfect information. Ali Abdollahi (2010, p. 1652) presents antirational decision-making which shows that the limitation on human’s capacity or bound rationality may affect individual to make decisions that may possibly brings worse decisions than the random decision. This demonstrates the limitation of rational decision making and perceptual decisions that are made in bound rationality. This reinforces the fact that the decisions making can not only be dependent on rationality but also perception.

Perceptual process of decision making involves an individual’s sensory impression to interpret the problem and selecting the choice from their instinct. This process may have diverse perception between people under same circumstances depending on their personal characteristics. The perception causes people to make wrong choices based on false information which may deal negative effects on themselves and their surroundings. It is important to delve deeper into areas of perceptual process to identify and avoid errors and biases in decision making process. Many people does not make rational decision but rather makes perceptual decision, 'behavioral research showed that people do not behave rationally and decisions are made on their experience and their perspectives towards the situation' (Sims et al, 2013, p. 2013). As many people rely on perceptual decision making, it is important for managers to concentrate on the perceptions from suppliers, customers and others to provide strategies that will attract more people. Arnold (2011, p. 796) states that sourcing managers need to understand potential customer’s perception and evaluate strategies. Due to these facts, the manager should concentrate on perception in decision making.

The perceptual decision making is subjective and each individual has different perception depending on their attitudes, interests and experiences. The individual’s interpretation and judgement can be influenced by various factors involving stereotyping and contrast effects. Stereotyping is when characteristics of individual are shared to others and it impels on how others makes decision. The contrast effect occurs when an individual is compared to other people on their social status standing. These factors can be managed through attribution theory which aids in perceptual interpretation by focusing on how people attempts to understand the situation or problem. The theory proposes that people’s actions are made by internal or external attributes which can be determined by distinctiveness, consensus and consistency. The purpose of making attributions is to achieve cognitive control over one’s environment by explaining and understanding the causes behind behaviours. Cort et al (2007, p.9) states that individual’s behavior can be interpreted under attribution theory, allowing themselves to successfully act upon their issues and increasing their probability of success. This shows that errors on perceptual decision making can be addressed by attribution theory. In economic view, managers should concentrate on both rationality and perception as they both involves different limitations and benefits in decision making.

In conclusion, the rationality and perceptions are significant in evaluating a judgement or decision. The rational decision makings may be accurate and precise but consequently it has high demands on time which may be problematic, especially in the current fast pace environment. The perceptual decisions can be affected by perceptual errors or distortions leading to failure in selecting right decisions. In economic view, these perceptual decisions can be manipulated by entrepreneurs or managers to provide benefits for their organisations. Thus, manager should concentrate on both rationality and perception on making their decisions.

Bibliography
Ali.A, 2010, ‘Anti-rational decision making’, African Journal business management, vol. 4, no. 8, pp. 1652-1653
Boumans,M. 2011, ‘The two model problems in rational decision making’, Rationality and society, vol. 23, no.3, pp. 371-400
Charles.L. 2011, ‘The role of information in strategic decision making’, International Journal of Information Management, vol. 31, no.6, pp. 493-501
Cort et al, 2007, ‘An attribution theory approach for understanding the internationalization of professional service firms’, International Marketing review, vol. 24, no.1, pp 9-25

Maltz.A, Carter.J &Maltz.E. 2011, ‘How managers make sourcing decisions about low cost regions: Insights from perceptual mapping’, Industrial Marketing Management, vol. 40, no. 5, pp.796-804.

Sims, Chris, Neth, Hansjorg, Jacobs, Robert, Gray & Wayne. 2013, 'melioration as rational choice', psychological review, vol. 120, no. 1, pp. 139-154

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