Managerial Decision Making: A Reflective Report on Key Concepts

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MGMT20135 Assessment 2
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Reflection.........................................................................................................................................4
Theories from week’s learning activities.........................................................................................4
Importance or significance of above- presented theories................................................................6
Impact of the theories on decision making......................................................................................7
Self- knowledge, and self- development.........................................................................................7
Use of learning in future career and life..........................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
Critical thinking is an important skill for the managers to make any decision within the business
organizations related to all the activities and operations of the business. This report is prepared in
order to summarise as well as critically review the important theories as well as the concepts
learned during this course. All the theories and concepts will be evaluated in such a manner that
how they are useful in the decision-making skills of an individual. All the learning and the
insights gained from such unit will be discussed in this report along with a plan for the self-
development in the future. Overall this report will provide the reflection on the key concepts
learned during this course and their significance in the decision-making ability of the students.
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Reflection
This course of critical thinking and managerial decision making is an important course for
individuals to make further improvements in their critical thinking as well as decision-making
skills. I have adopted different new concepts in each week learning and I have used them further
in making improvements in my decision-making skills. There are different numbers of theories
that have been explained during this course. It is very important for the managers within an
organization to develop their critical thinking in order to make effective decisions for the
business which can ensure the success of the organization.
Theories from week’s learning activities
In the very first week of this course, we were taught about the concepts and definition of critical
thinking. It was taught to us that how critical thinking plays an important role in the decision-
making process of an individual is not only professional life but also in the daily routine life. The
most important theory or the concept learned this week is automatic versus critical thinking.
There is a difference between critical thinking and automatic thinking. The automatic thinking is
the weak foundation for the decisions to be made. The person makes the fast decisions in this
method and takes lesser time for getting clear and it takes more time to make the decisions. On
the other hand, critical thinking provides stronger foundations for making decisions. The
individual takes more time to get clear and then take a lesser time period in order to make the
decisions. This theory is very important concepts learned by me during this week (Shamoa-Nir,
2017).
In the week 2nd of the course, I got to learn several different concepts helpful in developing my
decision-making skills. I also got to learn about the ten tools of clarity in the week 2nd learning
of this course. The first tool of clarity is emptying the bucket. An open mind is a concept in
which there must be open thoughts in the mind of a person. For example, if the boss tells you to
meet in the office after office then the negative thoughts arise in the mind of a person. The
second tool is inspection and the third tool is why. The inspection is being made in order to
eliminate the ambiguity. In the next stage, there is identified the root cause through “why” in
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order to solve the problem in an effective manner. 4th and 5th tools are “so what” and “what is a
need” respectively. The next sixth and seventh tools are “anticipatory thinking” and “what else”.
In anticipatory thinking, it is being analyzed that what else should be done by me. Further “what
else” is useful in keeping the thinking going? On the 8th spot, there is the ingredient diagram
which shows the transition between the clarity as well as conclusions. The last two tools are the
vision and the thinking coach.
In the third week during this course, I learned about the concept of influencing and persuading
which is an important concept in order to make improvements in the decision-making skills.
Influencing is considered as changing the perception or the conclusion of other people. This is
considered more subtle than the persuasion. On the other hand, persuasion is directly causing
another person to adopt with our conclusion which can be sometimes quite different from our
initial thinking about something. The persuasion can be done by weakening their premise and the
influence can be made by forcing someone to adopt different facts (Hamzah, et. al., 2016).
Week 4 was also a very productive week. The most significant concept learned by me during
this week is the concept of Johari Window. This technique is used by the people in order to help
people in better understanding their relationship with self as well as others. There are four
windows in such technique which are open, blind, hidden as well as the unknown. Open widow
reflects the aspects known to me as well as known to others. The blind window reflects the
aspects which are known to others but not known to me. Hidden widow includes such aspects
which are known to me but not known to other people and at the end, unknown window covers
the aspects neither known to me nor to other people.
In the week 5th of this course, I found the most significant concept of different aspects of
decision making. It has been identified that the contexts are important. It can be said that the
increasing decision making initiates with identifying if the decisions that are required to be made
sit in one of the different categories of the context. These categories may be complex, simple,
chaotic, complicated as well as unclear. This concept is also important for individuals in order to
make improvements in the decision-making skills of an individual (Vilks, 2018).
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Importance or significance of above- presented theories
The themes, as well as the theories explained above from different weeks of the course, have a
great significance for me as they have helped me in developing my critical thinking and decision
making skills. The concept of automatic versus critical thinking is helpful for me as I am able to
understand that the decisions made after critically analyze the things and take a lot of time to
clear the things are more reliable than the decisions made very fast (Anatolievich Bachkirov,
2015). The best decisions can only be made after critically analyze the whole situation and taking
the time to make things clearer so that the right decision can be made. This theory is very
important for me to understand as it can be helpful for me in future to make effective decisions.
The ten tools of clarity are important tools and useful in an individual’s life because they bring
clarity on the subject matter while making any important decisions. The clarity of the concepts
can prove to be helpful for me in making the best decision regarding any subject matter whether
it is connected to my personal life or professional life. The next concept that I have chosen out of
all the concepts significant for me is the influence and persuade. Influencing can make changes
in the way of thinking of any other person. It is regarding force someone to accept certain
numbers of the facts. Understanding about these concepts can be helpful for me in future to be
able to identify the difference between the people influencing my decisions or persuading me. I
will be able to handle such situations further (Toner & Moran, 2016).
The concept of Johari Window is also a very important model which is used to make the self-
assessment. It will be helpful for me in revealing some important information about myself and
can be helpful for me to explore myself. I have learned about four different windows in this
model where I can explore what are the certain things which I know about myself and what are
the other things which other people know about myself. In the end, there is being chosen the
decision making contexts that in what context the decision is going to be or required to be made.
There are certain numbers of contexts included such as complexity, complications, simplicity as
well as chaos. It decides that in what category the decision should be made. This is an important
concept for me to be able to understand the value of the decision required to be made ( Gurney,
2015).
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Impact of the theories on decision making
The theories, as well as the concepts which I have learned during this course, are useful for me to
understand the importance of critical thinking as well as the decision making within personal life
as well as the professional life. These concepts have influenced my decision-making skills as
previously I used to make the decisions instantly. But after learning this course, I analyze every
situation in order to make the best decision (Azadegan, et. al., 2018). I have understood the value
of critical thinking while making important decisions in personal life as well as in professional
life. The Johari Window concept has also proven to be useful for me to know more about myself
and developing interpersonal relationships. It will also be useful for me to build good
relationships with other people. I will be able to know about my skills and where I am lacking in
my professional development. I have started being self- aware which is really helpful for me my
professional work as well as in my personal life (Holmes, et. al., 2015).
The theories learned from this unit are useful in making the influence on my decision making in
relation to the personal as well as the personal life I am having (Constantinescu, et. al., 2017).
Self- knowledge, and self- development
I have not only developed the theoretical knowledge but also developed my knowledge regarding
myself. I have got to know that I have great critical thinking skills as well as decision-making
skills which will help me in future in my professional development as a manager within an
organization. There may be a requirement of several numbers of skills such as problem-solving
skills, communication skills, leadership skills, decision-making skills, critical thinking skills,
technical skills as well as analytical skills. Out of all these skills, there are some traits which I
possess but there are some skills where I am lacking and I need personal development. I need to
make an improvement in my decision-making skills as well as communication skills in order to
be successful as a manager in the future. I possess food problem- solving skills, critical thinking
skills, technical skills as well as analytical skills (West, et. al., 2018).
I am going to make the improvements in my decision making in the future by applying different
concepts learned during this course. I will go further with the mentorship programs and will
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make the use of critical thinking skills in order to analyze the situation before making any
important decision.
Use of learning in future career and life
All the concepts learned during this unit are going to help me in my future to develop myself as a
manager. I will be able to make good decisions not only at my workplace but also in my personal
life. All the learning of this course is useful for me in order to make improvements in my
knowledge base, critical thinking skills as well as decision-making skills. In my future career, I
will make use of the different theories used in this course in order to make the decisions in an
effective manner so that those decisions can create huge success for the organization. I can also
make decisions for my personal life while using such theories and models explained in this
course.
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Conclusion
Critical thinking is considered as the purposeful way in order to enhance the thoughts beyond the
automatic and everyday way of thinking. This report has concluded the importance of decision
making as well as critical thinking skills within an individual to groom as a professional in the
future. There has been presented the reflection on the theories and concepts learned in this course
and their usefulness for future impacting the decision-making skills of an individual.
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References
Anatolievich Bachkirov, A. (2015). Managerial decision making under specific
emotions. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 30(7), 861-874.
Azadegan, Golara, Kach, & Mousavi. (2018). Corporate environmental investments: A cross-
national study on managerial decision making. International Journal of Production
Economics,199, 47-64.
Constantinescu, Pompiliu, & Constantinescu, Mădălina. (2017). Intuition in Managerial
Decision-Making. Journal of Advanced Research in Management, 8(2(16)), 112-119.
Gurney, D. (2015). Critical Thinking at Triage: Ask the Question! Journal of Emergency
Nursing, 41(4), 362-363.
Hamzah, Othman, Hassan, Razak, & Yunus. (2016). Conceptualizing a Schematic Grid View of
Customer Knowledge from the Johari Window's Perspective. Procedia Economics and
Finance, 37, 471-479.
Holmes, N., Wieman, C., & Bonn, D. (2015). Teaching critical thinking. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(36), 11199-11204.
Shamoa-Nir, L. (2017). The window becomes a mirror. Israel Affairs,23(4), 727-746.
Toner, & Moran. (2016). On the importance of critical thinking: A response to Wulf's (2015)
commentary. Psychology of Sport & Exercise, 22(C), 339-340.
Vilks, A. (2018). The Inverse Invisible Hand and Heuristics in Managerial Decision-
Making. Philosophy of Management, 17(2), 137-147.
West, D., Christodoulides, G., & Bonhomme, J. (2018). How Do Heuristics Influence Creative
Decisions at Advertising Agencies?: Factors that Affect Managerial Decision Making
When Choosing Ideas to Show the Client. Journal of Advertising Research, 58(2), 189-
201.
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