MGT602 Business Decision Analytics Report: Decision Making Analysis

This report provides a critical reflection on business decision analytics, examining individual and group decision-making processes within the context of Torrens University of Australia. It explores key themes such as data sources, data analysis, and the impact of cognitive biases on effective decision-making. The report delves into a real-world scenario where leaders faced challenges in group decision-making, highlighting the influence of anchoring bias. It covers decision-making frameworks, tools like brainstorming and dialectical inquiry, and visual representations of the decision-making process. Furthermore, the report provides recommendations for improving decision-making effectiveness and concludes with a discussion of the importance of data analytics in strategic business decisions. The report also discusses the use of data analytics for making customer oriented marketing decision to address the operational inefficiencies. The report is a comprehensive analysis that aims to provide insights into improving business decision-making processes.

Running head: BUSINESS DECISION ANALYTICS
Business Decision Analytics
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
The organisation (Context and problem)...............................................................................2
Research Question..................................................................................................................3
Key themes.............................................................................................................................3
Individual and group decision making processes...............................................................3
The sources of data and analysis including the use of data analytics for the
organisational decision making..........................................................................................5
Influence of the biases in effective decision making process............................................6
Decision making framework..................................................................................................6
Decision making tools used...................................................................................................7
Methods..................................................................................................................................7
Visual Representation............................................................................................................8
Recommendations..................................................................................................................9
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References:...............................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
In this contemporary world of globalisation, the workplaces are changing rapidly in
parallel with the fast advancements in the field of technology and by means of
communication with the teams that are separated in terms of time and space. We in Torrens
University of Australia also adopt to this on a regular basis being a part of the global
organisation. We are required to take into consideration both the time and space along with
other several elements of diversity for collaborating effectively for the desired organisational
outcomes. In this paper I shall be critically reflecting on the important themes for business
decision analytics. I would elaborate on the themes like individual and group decision making
processes, the sources of data and analysis including the use of data analytics for the
organisational decision making along with the influence of the biases in effective decision
making process.
Discussion
The organisation (Context and problem)
The chosen organisation for this report is that of Torrens University of Australia. It is
to note that with the growing trend in market and the development in the science and
technology, we at Torrens University are also working hard to cope up with the challenges
and to work parallel with the fast advancements. However, very recently, we are facing some
issues in terms of decision making in our organisation. Last week, we decided to have a
meeting on one discussion about one of our major projects. The project require huge
investments and it is the main issue that we were discussing about. With the same, it calls for
good number of people to work one. So, the group comprised of 14 different individuals. The
leaders were facing challenges in breaking the destructive decision making patterns that was
emerging because of the involvement of so many people in the project. The biggest issue that

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I saw when it came to decision making for the leaders is the idea of the anchors. We tend to
put too much importance on our anchor. For overcoming the distraction of anchors, it is
required to pen down the decision that we need to make individually and along with that the
list of challenges and obstacles as well. With the same, it is also to note that as we were
working on a project that involves the foreign students as well, we were also required to take
into consideration both the time and space along with other several elements of diversity for
collaborating effectively for the desired organisational outcomes.
Research Question
What are the decision making challenges faced by the managers in the Torrens
University of Australia?
Key themes
Individual and group decision making processes
It is to note that individual decision making process are taken by a single individual.
On the other hand, the group decision making process involve good number of people in
making a particular decision. I prefer individual decision making process as it saves time,
cost and energy. Also, according to Olsson and Walker (2003), individuals are likely to make
more logical and prompt decisions than groups. My first preference in decision making can
be considered as rational. The decision making process involves a total of 7 steps and they
are:
a) Identifying the problem and defining it- Individuals are more likely to take more time in
identification of the problem. On the other hand, groups take less time as they involve
several members to work identifying the issue and defining them.

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b) Developing a clear objective- for developing an objective for decision making, it must be
ensured that they are measurable and specific. Both the individuals and the groups should
remember that the real issue needs to be borne in mind.
c) Seeking the facts and identifying the problem- In this step, collection of the available
information and data in relation to the problem are performed. These information are
required to be collected on the influence of economic, social and political factors.
d) Developing a model- The next step is developing a model. It is to note that model are the
representation of a particular situation. This model are the buildings, artefacts, plants etc.
For the individuals it takes less time and more effort to develop the model as the
manpower is less but the time that the groups take to sit together and work on it is not
required for the individual (Landsinger & Deane, 2005).
e) Evaluating the present alternatives- Here, all the possibilities present are assessed and
the results are evaluated.
f) Selecting the best solution- After assessing and reviewing the alternatives, the best are to
be chosen in order to bring in the best solution for the problem. In case of group decision
making process, sometimes, because of the involvement of many members, it becomes
tough to assess which one is the most suitable one as different people have different
opinions (Delic et al., 2016). On the other hand, in case of individual decision making
process, it takes less time and less conflicts. However, I would also like to mention that
sometimes, because of lack of diversity and lack of different opinions, individuals often
fail to bring in the best alternative for the proposed problem.
g) Implementing the decision and plan a course of action- It is the last step of the decision
making process. Here, people put together the action plan for implementing the decision.
There needs to be feedback and control after the implementation of the decision. It would
further give the individuals and the group members all the valuable information in terms

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of the effectiveness of the decision and to assess whether or not the taken decision would
be achieved with the designed objectives.
The sources of data and analysis including the use of data analytics for the organisational
decision making
For improving our data analysis skills and for simplifying our decisions we decided to
execute five steps of data analysis process. We defined the questions first. It is to note that in
our organisational or project data analysis, we need to start with the right question and were
set these questions in a measurable, concise and clear manner. With the same, we also
designed our questions for qualifying and disqualifying the possible solutions to our
particular opportunity and problem. Furthermore, we set a clear measurement priorities. We
first decided what to measure. For example, the total cost and capital required for the
completion of the project and the time that it would take. After that, we decided some metrics
to measure them. For example, we set a time table where the time frame for each of our
works and responsibilities are mentioned as if it is the deadline within which we were
required to complete our task. Here, we also considered the other factors like the benefits and
the total cost. Furthermore, we went for collecting and analysing the data after determining
what information and details can be collected from the current databases and sources about
the project. We collected those data first and then went through surfing internet, library data
base etc. It is also to mention that we always managed to organise the collected data in a log.
It is to mention that the amalgamation of highly complicated world, the huge
proliferation of the data and the pressing desire of staying at the forefront of the competition
has compelled the organisations to lay more emphasis on the use of analytics in order to drive
the strategic business decisions. According to Sumbal, Tsui and See-to (2017), “Data is the
new oil- and the best way for companies to access and understand it is to digitize their
processes”. The data analytics with its far reaching used cases and its various different

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applications has now been emerged as the key of the strategic business decision making.
Right from enabling the businesses for making the customer oriented marketing decision to
the process of helping them in addressing the important operational inefficiencies, the
analytics is changing the perception of the people towards the vitality of the data. Wang,
Gunasekaran, Ngai and Papadopoulos (2016) too in this context have opined that the data
analytics is making the most out of the customer patterns.
Influence of the biases in effective decision making process.
The bias impact happens throughout the life of an individual and usually has got a
tremendous impact on our decision making on both small scale and grand. I think our
cognitive biases have a major role to play in influencing the decision making. According to
Haselton, Nettle and Murray (2015), cognitive biases refer to the mental shortcuts and they
make a lot of sense as they are basically designed for helping us in surviving the hunter-
gatherer sense. As per Gehlbach and Vriesema (2019), biases often limit the innovative and
creative thinking ability of ours. As far as my knowledge, the cognitive biases could be split
into two different types and they are- emotional biases and information processing. The
emotional biases are harder to fix and change as they are dependent on our feelings, attitudes
and consciousness. On the other hand the information processing biases are the quantitative
errors of judgement that are very easy to be fixed along with the new information.
Decision making framework
Listing the possible
solutions
Setting a Time Scale and Deciding
Who is Responsible for the
DecisionRead more at:
https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/d
ecision-making2.html
Measuring the risks
involved
Deciding on the
Values
Gathering
Information
Assessing the Pros
and Cons
Making the necessary
decisions

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Decision making tools used
a) Nominal Group Technique- This tool is basically used for identifying the problems
and evaluating the alternatives in order to solve the problem. In this process, the
members of the group are required to spend about 10 minutes in writing their ideas
without doing any discussion (Witten, Frank, Hall & Pal, 2016). After reporting the
ideas individually, votes are given to the most preferred ideas. The chosen idea is
based on the voting and with the help of private voting, the strong members or the
leaders to the group do not have any influence on the results.
b) Brainstorming- It is a very widely used group decision making tools for generating
the ideas. In this process, the leaders conduct a session the question or the problem is
presented in front of the members (Paulus, Dickson, Korde, Cohen-Meitar & Carmeli,
2016). The members then offer their ideas in a round robin way. Those ideas are
written down in order to ensure that everyone is able to see them. This method helps
in generating some innovative ideas.
c) Dialectical Inquiry- This method ensure that the makers of the decision are
considering all the present alternative and are opposing the views in the decision
making process. The groups of people seem to be debating in their opposing views in
front of the decision maker. It helps in making an informed decision on the problem.
Methods
I chose to make use of Brainstorming session and it popularly helped me in generating
my decisions.

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Visual Representation
Figure 1: Visual Representations of Decision making process

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Recommendations
It is recommended that one should make use of effective decision making tools in
order to ensure that all the important aspects of the decision making are met. This will help
the process of decision making more effective and at the same time, would result in more
suitable solution. With the same, it would also help in avoiding the instance of taking wrong
decisions and options.
Conclusion
Hence, from the above analysis it is clear that effective and systematic decision
making process with considering the different tools of decision making is very important in
order to solve a particular issue or problem. The amalgamation of highly complicated world,
the huge proliferation of the data and the pressing desire of staying at the forefront of the
competition has compelled the organisations to lay more emphasis on the use of analytics in
order to drive the strategic business decisions. The data analytics with its far reaching used
cases and its various different applications has now been emerged as the key of the strategic
business decision making.

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References:
Delic, A., Neidhardt, J., Nguyen, T. N., Ricci, F., Rook, L., Werthner, H., & Zanker, M.
(2016, September). Observing group decision making processes. In Proceedings of
the 10th ACM conference on recommender systems (pp. 147-150). ACM.
Gehlbach, H., & Vriesema, C. C. (2019). Meta-bias: A practical theory of motivated
thinking. Educational Psychology Review, 31(1), 65-85.
Haselton, M. G., Nettle, D., & Murray, D. R. (2015). The evolution of cognitive bias. The
handbook of evolutionary psychology, 1-20.
Landsinger, D. & Deane, B. (2005). The Diversity Council best practices study. Anheuser-
Busch Study Sponsor for The Gil Deane Group, Inc. April 21.
Olsson, S., & Walker, R. (2003). Through a gendered lens: Male and female executives’
representations of one another. Leadership and Management Development Journal, 24
(7),387-396.
Paulus, P. B., Dickson, J. U. B. I. L. E. E., Korde, R., Cohen-Meitar, R., & Carmeli, A.
(2016). Getting the most out of brainstorming groups. Open innovation: Academic
and practical perspectives on the journey from idea to market, 43.
Sumbal, M. S., Tsui, E., & See-to, E. W. (2017). Interrelationship between big data and
knowledge management: an exploratory study in the oil and gas sector. Journal of
Knowledge Management, 21(1), 180-196.
Wang, G., Gunasekaran, A., Ngai, E. W., & Papadopoulos, T. (2016). Big data analytics in
logistics and supply chain management: Certain investigations for research and
applications. International Journal of Production Economics, 176, 98-110.

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Witten, I. H., Frank, E., Hall, M. A., & Pal, C. J. (2016). Data Mining: Practical machine
learning tools and techniques. Morgan Kaufmann.