Assignment 1: Informed Decision-Making Assignment (40%) 1. Assignment Overview Description:At work, you need to make strategic, tactical, and operational decisions. As these decisions have direct and...

Assignment 1: Informed Decision-Making Assignment (40%)

1. Assignment Overview

Description:

At work, you need to make strategic, tactical, and operational decisions. As these decisions have direct and lasting impacts on your organisation, you must be aware of distortions that may influence the quality of your decisions and use decision-making techniques such as mind-mapping, dialogue mapping, six thinking hats, and the soft system methodology, and/or employ information technologies such as big data analytics and artificial intelligence to improve decision-making processes.

In this assessment, you will produce a report explaining a decision-making process. The process can be one that you were personally involved in, or it can be described from a third-person perspective.

Word Count:2,000 words [+/-10%] excluding in-text and end-text referencing

2.Assignment Rationale

Although managers attempt to make rational and agile decisions, some unconscious distortions can influence their decisions. Explaining the decision-making process using Simon’s normative model allows you to identify the distortions and factors affecting the quality of your decisions and mitigate them by adopting effective decision-making techniques and technology.This assessment will assess your skills in critically analysing and evaluating situations and enable you to apply decision-making techniques to make quality decisions in authentic business problems.

3.Instructions

Select a decision that has been made in a complex decision-making workplace environment. This decision can either be one that you have taken part in at your workplace or one that you find from research of real-world examples.

In your analysis of your selected decision, undertake the following:

• Describe the problem/ opportunity requiring a decision.


• Explain the decision-making process using Simon’s normative model (intelligence, design, choice, and implementation).


• Discuss the distortions that influenced the quality of the decision.


• Determine the most appropriate decision-making technique and/or technology that would best mitigate the identified distortions and address the underlying causes of making low-quality decisions, in turn improving the decision-making process.


• Describe how the selected technique/technology can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of future decision-making processes.

Suggested problem/ opportunity includes:

1. Seeking a place to live in Perth

It is recommended for you to recall your professional experience, so that we can all learn from you!

My experience:

In December 2022, I arrived in Perth with my wife and two children to upgrade my qualifications and provide my children with the opportunity to learn about Western culture and education. Initially, we stayed with relatives. After a few months, we began searching for a house to rent for a few years. The rental market in Perth was highly competitive, and it took nearly a year to find a suitable house. Despite multiple applications through online platforms like Realestate.com.au and Domain.com.au, I faced numerous rejections due to high competition and my inability to bid higher rent. Eventually, I secured a house by offering more rent and providing all necessary documents as required by the real estate agent, Next-Move.

4.Suggested Structure

It is recommended that you use the following structure:

1. 
   Decision Overview

• Provide an overview of the situation.


• Explain the decision that was made

2. 
   Decision-Making Process

• Explain the decision-making process at relevant phases.


• It is essential to establish a clear link between the following phases. For instance, the alternatives should be evaluated in the choice phase based on the selection criteria listed in the design phase.


• Reference is not required in this section.

2.1 Intelligence Phase

• Explain the intelligence phase of the decision.

2.2 Design Phase

• Explain the design phase of the decision.

2.3 Choice Phase

• Explain the choice phase of the decision.

2.4 Implementation Phase

• Explain the implementation phase of the decision.
  
  

Note.

Please avoid providing general information about Simon's model or defining its stages.

3. 
   Distortions

• Provide at least two distortions.


• State the distortions in a way that is consistent with their definitions.


• References are not required in this section.

4. 
   Recommended Decision-Making Technique/Technology

• A clear link between recommended decision-making techniques/ technologies and discussed distortions is required.


• Support the recommended techniques/technologies with relevant references.

5.Assignment References

Your written work must comply with APA 7th referencing protocols including font type and size.

You are not required to limit yourselves to the contents and references provided. As long as the article is properly cited, students can use any published article as a reference.

However, among all references, you should cite at least one article from ABDC A*/A academic journals. This is to ensure that you have invested reasonable efforts in searching efforts. After the reference list, re-state the name of the ABDC A*/A academic journals which you had cited.

Note: Include page no for in-text referencing when you cite a source within the body of your text. Example: (Smith, 2020, p. 45). This will provide the specific page number(s) where the referenced information can be found.

6.Notes

• Use appropriate, high-quality sources where relevant and apply referencing protocols correctly to all sources (there is no limit to the number of sources you can use).

Rubrics