A Reflective Essay on Decision Making, Risk Management, and Analysis

This essay presents a self-reflective analysis of decision-making processes, risk management strategies, and decision analysis techniques within a professional context. It delves into the importance of informed decision-making, highlighting the need for comprehensive problem analysis and the potential consequences of both positive and negative decisions. The reflection extends to risk management, emphasizing the identification, prioritization, and mitigation of risks to safeguard organizational goals. Real-world examples, such as an oil refining company's challenges in obtaining legal permits and a hotel owner's proactive risk management strategies, illustrate the practical application of these concepts. The essay concludes by underscoring the significance of decision analysis as a structured approach to evaluating options and making informed choices in both professional and personal life, with the ultimate goal of achieving success through thoughtful and strategic decision-making.

Self-reflection 1
SELF-REFLECTION
Student name
Professor’s name
Course
Institution
State
Date

Self-reflection 2
Self-Reflection
1. Decision Making at Work place
Decision making is the process by which an individual or group of persons identify and chose the
best their best choice that is usually based on beliefs or even the values of the person to make
that decision. Decision making can also be referred to as the cognitive process; (Hartman, L.P.,
DesJardins, MacDonald, et. al 2014. Pp. 116) Where one acquires understanding and knowledge
and accompanied by evaluation and reasoning of a problem to come up with a solution. Decision
making always lead to both positive and negative results that affects the organization in way or
another ;( Anne Sen, et. al pp.79-93.) This will always result if the actions taken were wrong and
they didn’t fit the problem that was to be solved. In order to have a success and effective
decision-making at any organization, the people involved during the process must therefore have
enough knowledge of the organization, evaluate the problem and finally come up with a plan that
suits best (Wald and Reis, et. al, Pp.746-749.).
Decision making process always comes right after the process of problem analysis. Problem
analysis is where a person gathers enough information and ideas on the problem so that he/she
can chose the best decision to solve that problem. By following this, one will have understood
the facts regarding the problem and always result to success at workplace.
I have learnt that the human resource management and administration department is the busiest
and serious department amongst all the department in an organization. The responsibilities as an
intern in such an office are to assist the Human Resource Manager in the selection, induction and
recruitment processes, preparation of the payrolls as well as drafting letters that were to be
dispatched to their relevant offices. In this department, I have gained knowledge and skills

Self-reflection 3
concerning the procedures and activities that revolve around the department. The manager is
always the head of all other departments that included; finance, procurement, sales and market,
research and innovation and also the accounting department.
An intern is involved majorly in choosing a candidate for a given position; the tasks are to call
the candidate for the position and draft their final appointment letters when they passed the
interviews. When a vacant post in the organization arises, the candidate who was chosen didn’t
perform well in interview but he was still selected since he had 3 years of experience. Here, one
or the intern is not involved in the interview but present in the decision making process since
more is discussed with the human resource manager pertaining the post.
At the end of the year, there is always an appraisal process that must be carried out at the end of
fiscal year, the Human resource manager assumed how that employee failed during the interview
and focused on his performance that were very outstanding. Once an employee’s shows good
performance, he/she is appraised; salaries increased and the job ranks changed. While those that
do not perform retain their positions and never appraised.
The process of decision making in an organization is an important tool in the organization and
also in one’s personal life. Positive results are as a result of proper decision-making while
negative results are caused by bad decision making in both levels. Therefore, for one to get good
results, (Wainwright, Shepard, Harman, and Stephens, pp.75-88.) he/she should first understand
the problem, gather the necessary information and solve the problem and achieve success.

Self-reflection 4
2. Risk Management
Risk management is described as the process by which an individual or an organization
identifies, prioritizes and evaluates risks and uses resources to reduce and control the
effect of bad happenings (Chapman, et. al John Wiley & Sons pp. 97- 106). The main
objective of risk management is make sure that the occurring risks do not affect the
strategic goals of the business or the organization. Natural calamities, credit risks,
accidents are some of the major risks that affects a business (Lamb, pp. 93 -108). Events
that occur in a business are categorized into 2; positive and negative events. The positive
events are the opportunities that a business experiences while negative events are the
threats in a business. I have spent a good number of months witnessing how people fail in
their businesses that they very well start in the first years. The cure for the risk is always
in the mind of the owner of the business who came up with that idea. Before starting up a
business, the entrepreneur should first think of the necessary resource required to run the
business smoothly to avoid inconveniences.
The important resources for developing and starting a good business idea to realistic
include; adequate capital i.e. funds; for a large organization one might require to have
employees and therefore a larger amount of funds. The managers and owners of
organizations should have set extra funds to cater for any threats that might arise
threatening the business’s progress and running smoothly (Merkhofer, et al. pp. 204 -
212). They also ensure that the employees always work toward the realization of the
company’s goals as well. With this in their mind, a company facing threats will always
find its way out and comfortably continues running smoothly.

Self-reflection 5
When the idea of starting a hotel cling into one’s mind, it is very important to involve
other people who have been in such businesses. A manager always make sure that the
necessary items and apparatus for work are always available. The amount of funds that
needs to be set should be very in such that he do not face threats of falling (Lerman,
Eskin, Flower, George, Gerson, Hartenbaum, Hursh, and Moore-Ede, pp.231-258.).
Making everything available for work enabled his employees become very hardworking
and interested in their work always.
Just to mention the owner the amount of funds set aside to ensure that the natural
disasters are taken care of in occurrence. Reasonable profits was realized since the hotel
was running for 24 hours having enough and interested employees. Another contributor
to the profit was the availability of the common dishes in the location of the hotel. He
made sure that those the items to prepare those products were always available; they
never ran out of them.
On my view a hotel owner should be able to handle any risk that occurred regardless of
how difficult it is. Risk management to him or her is just a passing cloud that he/she took
care of very easily.

Self-reflection 6
Decision Analysis
Introduction
Decision analysis refers to a practical and orderly approach that is used in evaluation and
address relevant options adopted by most of the businesses and organizations in both
public and private sectors (Anne Sen et. al, pp.79-93. Bolton, pp.88- 103). It uses theories
and disciplines in the fields that include; management science, economics and also
psychology. The decision analysis can also be applied in personal life where an
individual wants to forego one thing for the other. Decision analysis go hand in hand with
design thinking where both are used in the digitized technology and in the businesses.
I have learnt that human beings are faced with problems and dilemmas and they end up
making choices over the others. They always find difficulties in choosing the color of
clothes to wear, the food to eat or even to continue sleeping or wake up. In other cases,
people are faced by difficulties in choosing the kind of car to purchase, or whether to take
a job or leave it. The decisions can be categorized into relevant and irrelevant problems
and therefore it is always advisable to first understand the results of a certain decision
before going its way.
I have witnessed an oil refining company that wanted to carry out drilling in certain
remote location. The company had all the instruments and resources for carrying out that
activity. But they didn’t know the process of acquiring the legal papers so as to carry out
the activities and turn their idea to reality. Watching their reactions at a distance, the idea
went on without being put into practice until it was a year. The contractor was always

Self-reflection 7
much concerned on the projects and therefore said that, that year would not end before
they start those activities.
Since decision analysis uses a process, they negotiated within themselves .i.e. the senior
workers and the contractor (Jasper, et. al John Wiley & Sons pp.80-92)
They started by pre-analysis where they clearly drafted their strategic goals and
objectives so that they don’t lose track when starting their activities. Making and coming
up with the best objectives was not a problem to them since they had hold meetings and
had common goals. They then set the amount that the project was to use and also the time
and deadline. Having set an appropriate deadline, they knew how much time they were to
take on each activity (Eidsvik, Mukerji, and Bhattacharjya pp. 83-104). The amount of
money set aside was to cater for the uncertainties that includes; accidents, natural
calamities and disasters.
In this case, one is not involved in the meeting and coming up with their strategic goals,
but involved in the decision analysis. The contractor who was the head of the activities in
that site, was also a critical thinker and with a wide range of experience since he made
sure that the tasks run smoothly without anything being left out.

Self-reflection 8
Bibliography;
Hartman, L.P., DesJardins, J.R. and MacDonald, C., 2014. Business ethics: Decision
making for personal integrity and social responsibility. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Anne Sen, B., 2010. Reflective writing: a management skill. Library
management, 31(1/2), pp.79-93.
Wald, H.S. and Reis, S.P., 2010. Beyond the margins: reflective writing and development
of reflective capacity in medical education. Journal of general internal medicine, 25(7),
pp.746-749.
Wainwright, S.F., Shepard, K.F., Harman, L.B. and Stephens, J., 2010. Novice and
experienced physical therapist clinicians: a comparison of how reflection is used to
inform the clinical decision-making process. Physical Therapy, 90(1), pp.75-88.
Chapman, R.J., 2011. Simple tools and techniques for enterprise risk management (Vol.
553). John Wiley & Sons.
Lamb, D., 2013. Promoting the case for using a research journal to document and reflect
on the research experience.
Merkhofer, M.W., 2012. Decision Science and Social Risk Management: A Comparative
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approaches (Vol. 2). Springer Science & Business Media.
Lerman, S.E., Eskin, E., Flower, D.J., George, E.C., Gerson, B., Hartenbaum, N., Hursh,
S.R. and Moore-Ede, M., 2012. Fatigue risk management in the workplace. Journal of
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 54(2), pp.231-258.

Self-reflection 9
Anne Sen, B., 2010. Reflective writing: a management skill. Library
management, 31(1/2), pp.79-93.
Bolton, G., 2010. Reflective practice: Writing and professional development. Sage
publications.
Jasper, M., 2011. Professional Development, Reflection and Decision-making for
Nurses (Vol. 17). John Wiley & Sons.
Eidsvik, J., Mukerji, T. and Bhattacharjya, D., 2015 pp. 83. Value of information in the
earth sciences: Integrating spatial modeling and decision analysis. Cambridge University
Press.