WOP Decision making and creativity

Question 1

How does rational choice decision making choose the most favourable alternative

Answer 1

Calculating the probability of various outcomes from each of these possibilities and their expected satisfaction

Question 2

Define an opportunity

Answer 2

A deviation between current expectations and a potentially better situation that was not previously expected

Question 3

Explain the five main problems of problem identification

Answer 3

Solution-focused problem- assigning a solution before properly assessing the problem, this can be a problem when people use past experiences.
Decisive leadership- when leaders announce a plan or solution before properly diagnosing the problem
Stakeholder framing- When stakeholders (employees, customers, stakeholders etc) hide or provide information according to their own interests of biases this can affect problem diagnosing and how we view the situation.
Perceptual defence- People can fail to become aware of problems because they block out bad news as a coping mechanism.
Mental models- Sometimes our own existing mental models formed from past experiences etc can get in the way

Question 4

Name a few methods of improving the ability to identify problems

Answer 4

Acquiring new perspectives, having leaders that have the willpower to resist the temptation of decisive decision making and create a norm of divine discontent (never being satisfied with the current conditions).

Question 5

What is meant by bounded rationality?

Answer 5

The view that people are bounded in their decision making capabilities such as limited information, limited information processes and satisficing rather than maximising.

Question 6

What is the problem with goals

Answer 6

Problems are often ambiguous and problems can conflict

Question 7

What tends to occur when all the decisions are not available to the decision maker at the same time?

Answer 7

Sequential evaluation which leads to the alternatives each being compared to an implicit favourite alternative.

Question 8

Why does this implicit favourite comparison usually occur?

Answer 8

The need to minimise cognitive dissonance between their choices and their own beliefs and feelings

Question 9

What are the three main decision making heuristics?

Answer 9

Anchoring-adjusting heuristic (comparing all from an initial anchor), availability heuristic, representativeness heuristic (tendency to evaluate probabilities of events or objects by the degree to which they resemble other events of objects.)

Question 10

What is meant by a clustering illusion and what form of heuristic does this fall under?

Answer 10

The tendency to see patterns from a small sample of events when they are in fact random.

Question 11

What is meant by satisficing?

Answer 11

Satisficing is selecting an alternative that is good enough, rather than the alternative with the highest value.

Question 12

Why do people tend to satisfice?

Answer 12

People stop searching for alternatives the moment they find one option that is good enough.

Question 13

When is it hard to maximise?

Answer 13

When there are lists of alternatives

Question 14

What three ways do emotions affect alternatives?

Answer 14

Emotions form early impressions, influence the evaluation process and serve as information when evaluating alternatives

Question 15

How does emotion affect how much we pay attention to detail?

Answer 15

Negative emotion makes us pay attention to detail

Question 16

How does intuition occur?

Answer 16

Intuition is an emotional experience and a rapid non-conscious analytical process which is shaped over implicit processes over time through experience.

Question 17

How should intuition be utilised?

Answer 17

Intuition should be used in combination with a careful analysis of relevant information.

Question 18

How could you prove effective decision making in previous decisions?

Answer 18

Return to decisions in a different mood, think about the choices and use scenario planning, a disciplined method for imagining possible futures and reactions to events.

Question 19

What is meant by escalation of commitment?

Answer 19

The tendency to repeat an apparently bad decision or allocate more resources to a failing course of action.

Question 20

What are the four main reasons people continue with failing decisions?

Answer 20

Self justification- want to be seen as successful
Self-enhancement- makes your probabilities of success seem higher
Prospect-theory effect- People feel negative emotions stronger when experiencing a loss than positive emotions for a gain so will work harder to avoid losses on a bad decision.
Sunk cost- Make up for costs already spent or to avoid a closing cost

Question 21

What is the most effective way to avoid escalation of commitment? Why is this effective?

Answer 21

Make sure that the people evaluating decision are not the same people that made the decision. This minimizes the self- justification effect

Question 22

Name a second method of preventing escalation of commitment

Answer 22

establishing a pre-set level at which the decision is abandoned or re-evaluated.

Question 23

What is meant by creativity?

Answer 23

The development of novel ideas that are of use.

Question 24

What are the four stages to creativity?

Answer 24

Preparation, incubation, insight and verification.

Question 25

What type of thinking can incubation promote

Answer 25

Divergent thinking, reframing a problem in a unique way and generating different approaches to the issue

Question 26

How may insight work?

Answer 26

Insight probably works like a flickering light; ideas may come at random times and disappear as quickly as they arrived.

Question 27

What is meant by verification in this process?

Answer 27

Fleshing out the illuminated ideas and subject them to logical evaluation and experimentation.

Question 28

What characteristics are common in creative people?

Answer 28

Cognitive and practical intelligence, persistence, knowledge and experience and independent imagination.

Question 29

Do these characteristics represent creative output?

Answer 29

No, these characteristics represent creative potential, but the extent to which it represents creative output also depends on the work environment.

Question 30

Explain one of the most important conditions for creativity

Answer 30

A learning orientation; beliefs and norms that support the acquisition, use and sharing of knowledge and reasonable mistakes are tolerated and expected.

Question 31

Name some other conditions which support creativity

Answer 31

Motivation for the job itself, Open communication and sufficient resources, and low pressure doesn’t increase it but high pressure does inhibit it.

Question 32

What are the four types of creativity building activities?

Answer 32

Redefine the problem (included revisiting old problem set aside for a time)
Associative play (includes using games, analysis of all the characteristics and combinations of a product and taking existing unrelated products and applying them)
Cross pollination ( people from other departments in an organisation exchanging ideas or adding people to a team)
Design thinking (human centred, solution focused approach of using a mix of intuition and analytic thinking to clarify problems and generate innovative solutions)

Question 33

What are the four rules to design thinking?

Answer 33

Human rule- use multiple people
Ambiguity rule- creativity and experimentation are possible only when there is ambiguity in the problem and its potential solutions.
Re-design rule - Review past solutions to understand how those inventions tried to satisfy human needs and use foresight tools to imagine better solutions for the future.
Tangible rule - It is useful to build several low-cost prototypes to test ideas.

Question 34

What form of activity tends to draw creativity naturally?

Answer 34

Playful activities

Question 35

What is meant by employee involvement?

Answer 35

The degree to which employees influence how their work is organised and carried out.

Question 36

Explain why it is beneficial for the organisation to promote employee involvement

Answer 36

It improves decision making quality and commitment. Employees are also the senses for the organisation and are more quickly aware of customer problems than those higher up and this could result in a more efficient organisation.

Question 37

What does the optimal level of employee involvement depend on?

Answer 37

Decision structure; the more novel and complex a problem the higher need for employee involvement.
Decision commitment- If employees are unlikely to accept a decision without their involvement it is better to have some level of involvement.
Source of knowledge- If employees can contribute some knowledge lacking in people involved such as regarding customers then it is beneficial.
Risk of conflict- if employee goals and norms conflict with those of the organisation conflict, low levels of involvement is advised. Second, the degree of involvement depends on whether employees will agree with each other on the preferred solution.

Question 38

Differ between programmed and non programmed decision

Answer 38

Programmed decisions follow standard operating procedures; they have been resolved in the past, so the optimal solution has already been identified and documented. In contrast, nonprogrammed decisions require all steps in the decision model because the problems are new, complex, or ill-defined.

Question 39

What is involved in the rational choice decision process?

Answer 39

Identify problem, Decide decision process ( programmed or non programmed, identify alternatives, choose best alternative, implement choice, evaluate choice

Question 40

What characteristics does an independent imagination include?

Answer 40

Higher openness to experience personality, Lower need for affiliation motivation and higher self-direction/ stimulation values

Question 41

What are the levels of employee involvement?

Answer 41

High: Employees responsible for entire decision-making process
—Medium-High: Employees hear problem, then collectively develop recommendations
—Medium-Low: Employees hear problem individually or collectively, then asked for information relating to that problem
—Low: Employees individually asked for specific information but the problem is not described to them