Rational Decisions in Organisations: Theoretical and Pracitcal Aspects

Managers in organisations must make rational decisions. Rational  decision making is the opposite of intuitive decision making. It is a  strict procedure utilising objective knowledge and logic. It involves  identifying the problem to solve, gathering facts, identifying options  and outcomes, analysing them, considering all the relationships and  selecting the decision.

Rational decision making requires  support: methods and software tools. The identification of the problem  to solve needs methods that would measure and evaluate the current  situation. Identification and evaluation of options and analysis of the  available possibilities involves analysis and optimisation methods.  Incorporating intuition into rational decision making needs adequate  methods that would translate ideas or observed behaviours into hard  data. Communication, observation and opinions recording is hardly  possible today without adequate software. Information and data that form  the input, intermediate variables and the output must be stored,  managed and made accessible in a user-friendly manner.

Rational  Decisions in Organisations: Theoretical and Practical Aspects presents  selected recent developments in the support of the widely understood  rational decision making in organisations, illustrated through case  studies. The book shows not only the variety of perspectives involved in  decision making, but also the variety of domains where rational  decision support systems are needed. The case studies present decision  making by medical doctors, students and managers of various  universities, IT project teams, construction companies, banks and small  and large manufacturing companies.

Covering the richness of  relationships in which the decisions should and must be taken, the book  illustrates how modern organisations operate in chains and networks;  they have multiple responsibilities, including social, legal, business  and ethical duties. Nowadays, managers in organisations can make  transparent decisions and consider a multitude of stakeholders and their  diverse features, incorporating diverse criteria, using multiple types  and drivers of information and decision-making patterns, and referring  to numerous lessons learned. As the book makes clear, the marriage of  theoretical ideas with the possibilities offered by technology can make  the decisions in organisations more rational and, at the same time, more  human.