MGT602: Business Decision-Making Tools Analysis Report

This report offers a detailed analysis of business decision-making tools, examining both individual and group decision-making processes. The report begins with an introduction that explains the data sources used, followed by an exploration of individual and group decision-making methodologies. It then delves into various decision-making tools, comparing their strengths and weaknesses, and provides two distinct scenarios illustrating the application of NVivo, Leximancer, and SAS Text Miner. The analysis includes data comparison and highlights the technological aspects of each tool, along with their limitations. The report concludes with findings and a comprehensive summary of the topic, providing valuable insights into the effective use of decision-making tools in a business context. The report also touches on the importance of collaboration, influence, and strategy in decision making, along with a focus on decision support systems.

RUNNING HEAD: Business decision making
Business analysis of decision-making
University
Word count

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Business decision making
Executive summary
This report presents the comprehensive analysis of Business decision-making tools. First of all,
an introduction is provided with explanation of sources of data. After this, there is explanation of
Individual decision-making and group decision-making. Then, there tools of decision-making are
explained and compared with their strengths and weaknesses. Two scenarios are provided
using three different tools. These scenarios provide glimpse over the technology related to 3
tools from the perspective of decision-making. The scenarios compare technologies of Nvivo,
Leximancer and SAS text miner. The data is provided to analyse and compare the tools in
detail. As mentioned above, strength and limitations of the tools are mentioned within scenario.
In the end, suitable conclusion is drawn along with findings related to topic.

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 3
Scenario A................................................................................................................................... 5
Analysis of data in scenario A......................................................................................................6
NVivo....................................................................................................................................... 7
Scenario B................................................................................................................................... 8
Analysis of data for scenario B....................................................................................................8
Leximancer.............................................................................................................................. 9
SAS text miner....................................................................................................................... 10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................. 11
References................................................................................................................................ 12

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Introduction
The business analysis has become important in the era of globalization to gain competitive
advantage and better insight over the business prospects. This paper explores the issue of
decision making in business organizations with providing valuable insight over the attest data
trends. The paper examines the issue in detail with emphasis on the latest technologies to be
used for individual and group decision-making. The complete analysis has been done based
upon scholarly resources present on electronic sources regarding the decision making.
Electronic sources have made the data-driven decision making more comprehensive with swift
repose technologies which provide better glimpse over the issue related to data mining.
Data mining has always been a crucial issue for studying the topic from various perspectives.
The managers and employees have oceans of data to be interpreted in the least time possible
using cost and time-efficient methods. The data can be obtained from electronic and non-
electronic means. Electronic means include web searching, online studies, social media sites
and various online channels along with Television which provides an ocean of data in minutes.
This leads to a comprehensive study with the use of latest technologies. This is the time and
cost-efficient method to retrieve data from the latest possible information available in seconds.
The non-electronic or traditional means of data mining are still effective due to their reliability.
They are more reliable than online sources leading to better insight over the topic. This includes
books, posters, meetings and any other traditional mean of data mining. Data mining has
become a major issue to contend with in the modern century with reliable information to be
provided and interpreted from various angles (Sarin, 2019). Electronic and non-electronic
means of data mining makes the study comprehensive with easy use of the latest methods to

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better comprehends the aims and objectives of the study. The data present in various forms like
text, audio, video, etc. makes the study effective for the latest methods used in the studies.
The individual decision-making in businesses is still relevant in the era of globalization because
of complex issues associated with implicit and explicit decision making processes. There have
been issues which need individual decision to cater to demands of the modern complex
decision –making situations with better insight over the issue of confrontation (Weinschank,
2019). The decisions made individually can be 3 times less effective than group decisions if not
implemented properly (Manson, 2018). This can lead to chaos related to major ideas associated
with a particular decision. The individual decision making is still relevant as corroborated by
findings which reveal that 95% of organizations still need individual-decision making at one point
of time or other. This has placed the individual decision-making at the forefront of ideas of
higher authorities or senior management which takes sophisticated and complex decisions to
daily executing projects. It has been corroborated by findings of many pieces of research that
individual decision making is effective in 63% of situation related exigencies. Sometimes, due to
nature of problem associated with the contingency or situation, the group decision making may
not be as effective as individual decision making due to top-down approach needed to cater to
requirements of the particular organization (Tappero, 2019).
Due to globalization, group decision-making has gained ground in the 21st century whereby
decisions are made collectively by engaging all relevant stakeholders in decision-making. This
entails formulation of policies and taking collective but mutually agreed to decision as per need
of the hour (Greenberg & Hershfield, 2018).
This may place an organization at a competitively advantageous position as compared to its
peers. Group-decision making is effective to resolve the issue in 80% cases as evident by
various researches conducted on the issue of group-decision making. The decisions taken by
the group are 75% more likely to be abided by the relevant authorities and individuals

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associated with decision-making. Thus, group decision-making leads to better implementation of
ideas at each level leading to better coordination and synergy for associated functions. Along
with this, the group decision making foster job satisfaction among employees leading to less
turnover and better retention of human resource management (Acharya, Bell, Simkhada,
Teijlingen, & Regmi, 2010).
Scenario A
The business case considered in this paper is a petrol station that has to decide on the use of
the online payment system to cater to the needs of the modern era. It can be inferred from
module 5 that there is a need to take each stakeholder into confidence with training provisions
for the employees working at the petrol station. For this purpose, there is a need to use the
latest means of communication so that group-decisions are made and change is implemented in
the organization without any resent from already employed individuals. There would be a need
for online transaction machines along with training for employees to make use of them. As per
module 6, Nvivo software can be used for this purpose leading to the better relay of concern
from senior management to employees with better synergy and coordination to implement the
change.
Analysis of data in scenario A
Data for the concerned petrol station can be taken from daily maintained records of transactions
happening in the course of work. Along with this, the other sources of data will be the amount of
petrol getting sold at the petrol station in a day or month. This will lead to deciding on the kind of

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training needed to be provided to employees along with the physical resources required to make
online payments.
Resources required Training Cost (in $) Time
Online payment
machines
Use of machines for
the purpose of online
transactions
5000 30th September, 2019
Additional workers Training to work on
petrol station
1000 10th October, 2019
Licensing
requirements
Communication with
government
authorities
500 10th October. 2019
The bias in decision-making tends to create gaps between decision-taking and implementation.
Bias in decision-making leads to fewer chances of its compliance among relevant persons
associated with the particular decision. This will lead to compromise with the very solution for
which decision has been made. Blind spots in decision making tend to avoid real findings in an
organization related to the particular issue. Assumptions made due to blind spots tend to ignore
the views of associated persons with dissatisfaction related to decision making processes and
decisions themselves. This may lead to disruption of work culture of an organization which
entails compromise with efficiency in the working of the organization (Greenberg & Hershfield,
2018).
For the considered organization of petrol station, the bias includes assuming all employees to
be equally tech-savvy leading to resentment among employees. Along with this, the blind spot is

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the indifference to the needs of modern era with assumption that each employee will embrace
the change without any resentment. This may led to exclusion of real findings while making the
decision.
NVivo- this is the modern decision-making tools which provide a systematic review of the
associate issue leading to better insight. There may be different genres of the population that
may lead to different views over the single topic. NVivo caters to need of group-decision making
in the modern era by providing better insight and contextual framework for carrying out business
processes. This leads to better decision-making ideas and simplification of the sophisticated
process associated with decision-making (Xiong, Wang & Li, 2018)
.
There have been certain limitations of this tool like it is time-consuming taking a lot of time to
present a contextual framework related to decision-making. Another major limitation of this tool
is that there is subjective analysis due to manual coding of ideas related to a particular issue.
Manual coding makes the task complex for an unskilled person to comprehend. Along with this,
there can be bias due to manual coding leading to questionable reliability. Along with this, NVivo
is not helpful for a specific method of analysis due to its nature of manual coding. Nvivo is a
modern tool that has certain weaknesses leading to bias in decision-making with the use of
complex techniques to make a decision (Stamarsk & Hing, 2015).
This tool is suitable for researcher-driven study with manual coding of data. It is highly effective
in small sample population with providing in interpretative results leading to better prospects of
decision-making by the use of latest technology. This is the reason it is used by three
mainstream sports journals for its daily use (Cohen, 2015). NVivo is reliable for these journals to
provide study-related decision and interpretation of data in a sophisticated manner with wider
implications for the whole organization and people associated with decision-making. This has
made the researches easy to be conducted and results analyzed to cater to the needs of the

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modern century. Nvivo is useful for various types of data like audio, text, photos, and videos
which makes the tool reliable for various functions associated with decision-making and data
interpretation. Semi-structured interviews along with systematic reviews can easily be analyzed
in this tool with the use of the latest trends associated with studies or researches.
Scenario B
The second scenario is of the company Tesla which wants to get the latest technology related to
internet of things invented by it so that sensor based technology is used in automated cars
manufactured by it. Sensor based technology will alert the person sitting in automated car about
the dangerous situation like potholes on road, water due to flood, fire in engine etc. For this, the
decision has to be taken collectively by key stakeholders
Analysis of data for scenario B
2 tools used for the purpose of analysis of data are Leximancer and SAS text miner. The
number indicates that group decisions made using data analyzed by Leximancer are effective to
persuade 60% of employees to implement the change. The organizations which have used SAS
text miner are able to implement the change without any resentment from employees in 62 %
cases.
Leximancer
This is the most commonly used tool used in modern time to analyze and interpret the results
related to various researches with wide applicability for various studies. leximancer can interpret
large amounts of data in the least possible time with the use of complex techniques in a simple
manner to better suit to needs of the time. Leximancer allows complex data to be analyzed

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simply with an understanding of basic concepts for associated individuals without any major
hiccups. The whole process of data interpretation is systematized and interpreted without bias.
Leximancer presents a transparent model for the researcher to analyze the data inserted in it
with an easy application of related concepts (Podcast, 2018).
First of all, there is a need to obtain a Leximancer map that concentrates on particular sections
of data. This makes the processing time efficient as only the most important data is taken up for
analysis leading to simplification of methods associated with the latest trends of data
interpretation. After this, it increases the size of theme bubbles and provides 3 to 6 most
important themes which can b concentrated on to make the study reliable for everyone including
future researchers (Courtney, Lovallo, & Clarke, 2013). Then, the theme bubbles are captured
with making sense of reliable data without hasting for the conclusion. Now refer to the Analyst
Synopsis to the right of the concept map. Analyst Synopsis allows the combination of
information of various sorts associated with the topics of study to be interpreted
comprehensively without any delay. Finally, each theme is put into own words with a
compilation of findings in the form of a summary. This summary is analyzed from various
perspective to arrive at a suitable conclusion which can be feasible through various methods
associated with the technology.
Leximancer is applicable for various types of data like photo, audio, and text. Like Nvivo, it is
useful for small sample size providing a glance over the topic of study in one go leading to a
better interpretation of the results as per the latest trends of study (Jordan, 2010). This is
suitable for exploratory and predictive study with a similar approach like manual handling of
data. This is better than NVivo as in this objective results are gained without any subject bias
which makes it a more effective tool to be used for decision-making.
The process is time-consuming with possible interference from the researcher due to manual
coding of data leading to subjectivity (Kase, 2010). There is no specificity about the method to

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be used and interpret the results. There can be different interpretations due to manual coding of
data leading to biased results and subjectivity, as mentioned above.
SAS text miner
This allows data mining from text results leading to reliable interpretations for studies conducted
over various topics. It allows the latest methods to be used for various studies with the use of
the suitable method as per need of the hour. SAS text miner is applicable only for texts, so it
has limited use with fewer chances of being used for another kind of data material like a photo,
audio, and maps (Farrell, Goh, Kahle, Margaret, Shackell & white, 2017). But this is a reliable
method to be used for simple analysis of complex problems associated with the data
interpretation and analysis of results. The results can be simply inserted into this software which
leads to arrangement and codification of data as per need. This makes the tool reliable for
various studies along with qualitative and quantitative searches
The data can be interpreted from various perspectives leading to better and sophisticated
interpretation with sound results related to the study. Along with this, there are no complex
algorithms involved to find out the results associated with the study (Team, 2017). There have
been several implications for it like easy handling of data, a requirement met by the latest
technological means, etc.
It can be used only for text leaving various other forms of data leading to limited reliability for
limited sources of study. Along with this, it is time-consuming with limited use of a specific
method which makes the study unviable for complex purposes. There is no comprehensive
analysis of data leading to different interpretations as per the researcher. This makes the study
unviable and results unreliable (Bradshaw, 2013). Therefore, this is not a common method to be
used for various studies.

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Conclusion
The latest technological means can be used for sense-making studies related to each topic
conducted by different methods. This has led to comprehensive study of the topic of interest
with widely available data for public. This makes the studies comprehensive and provides
reliable information for future researches to be conducted on similar issues. There tools
mentioned above are used by different business organization to analyse the data related to
decision-making.
References