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Unit 3: Planning and Decision-making

relevant, but some are more relevant than others. How does the decision-maker weight Notes
criteria? A simple approach would merely be to give the most important criteria a
number – say 10 – and then assign weights to the rest of the criteria against this standard.
4th Step – Develop the Alternatives: This step requires the decision-maker to list all the viable
alternatives that could possibly succeed in resolving the problem. No attempt is made in
this step to appraise the alternatives, only to list them.
5th Step – Evaluate the Alternatives: Once the alternatives have been identified, the
decision-maker must critically evaluate each one. The strengths and weakness of each
alternative will become evident when they are compared against the criteria and weights
established in step 2 and 3.
6th Step – Select the best Alternative: The final step in the optimizing decision model is the
selection of the best alternative from among those enumerated and evaluated. Since best
is defined in terms of highest total score, the selection is quite simple. The decision-maker
merely chooses the alternative that generated the largest total score in step 5.

Assumptions of the Optimizing Model: The steps in the optimizing model contain a number
of assumptions. They are:
(a) The optimizing model assumes there is no conflict over the goal.

(b) It is assumed the decision-maker can identify all the relevant criteria and can list all
viable alternatives.
(c) Under the optimizing model, the criteria and alternatives can be assigned numerical
values and ranked in a preferential order.
(d) It is assumed that the specific decision criteria are constant and the weights assigned
to them are stable over time.
(e) Under the optimizing model, the decision-maker will choose the alternative that
rates highest.

Predictions from the Optimizing Model: From the above mentioned assumptions, we
would predict that the individual decision-maker would:
(a) Have a clear-cut and specific goal.

(b) Have a fully comprehensive set of criteria that determine the relevant factors in the
decision;
(c) Precisely rank the criteria, which will be stable over time.

(d) Select the alternative that scores highest after all options have been evaluated.
4. Garbage Can Model: Sometimes the decision-making process in organisations appears to
be haphazard and unpredictable. In the garbage can model, decisions are random and
unsystematic. In this model, the organisation is a garbage can in which problems, solutions,
participants, and choice opportunities are floating around randomly. If the four factors
happen to connect, a decision is made. The quality of the decision depends on timing. The
right participants must find the right solution to the right problem at the right time.

The Garbage Can Model illustrates the idea that not all organisational decisions are made
in a step-by-step, systematic fashion. Especially under conditions of high uncertainty, the
decision process may be chaotic. Some decisions appear to happen out of sheer luck.
5. Implicit Favourite Model: The implicit favourite model is a decision-making model where
the decision-maker implicitly selects a preferred alternative early in the decision process
and biases the evaluation of all other choices.

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