Fundamentals of Decision Making

Abstract

In institutions ranging from private households, to companies, and public administration, people on whichever hierarchical level are responsible for certain domains, and thus make decisions on a daily basis. As some responsibilities are of a rather simple structure and of comparatively small impact, e.g. buying rolls at the bakery, or ordering a cup of coffee at the cafê around the corner¹, the decision making takes place mostly in an intuitive way. Yet, there are many responsibilities which are of a complex structure or of great impact on the well-being of man and/or matter, and hence require careful preparation and analysis prior to implementing a decision. For a family, a complex decision is for instance whether, where, when, and how to build a home. A complex decision for a company executive is to determine which kinds of products to produce, or, respectively, which services to offer in which quantities at which price and with how many employees working on them. Governments take care of e.g. health-care programs or environmental protection legislation, and adopt defense strategies, while international organizations develop activities which affect peace, freedom, and prosperity on a global level.

And then again maybe this is not as simple: “The luhole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability luhatsocuer to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee — short, tall — light, dark — caf, decaf — lof at, nonfat — etc.”, Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) in You’ve Got Mail.