More Effective Decisions through Synergy of Objective and Subjective Approaches

Abstract

The chairman of a major Japanese corporation recently visited the New York Stock Exchange and asked one of the US brokers what his time‐perspective was when making decisions. The reply was two seconds. The chairman reacted that when he made decisions the time‐frame was usually ten years. This story illustrates the need to look at decision making in a deeper and wider perspective. Presents an overview of different and complementary objective and subjective approaches to decision making, and relates them to different levels of the human mind. Effective decisions are seen as those arising from a synergy of these respective analytical and intuitive approaches. Subjective approaches are fundamental to the objective ones. In spite of this, research suggests that the majority of adults have not moved beyond the analytical level and reached a level of development where feelings and intuition are operationalized. Hence, there is a need to expand the conscious awareness of the manager and knowledge worker. To operationalize such a growth, one method for psychological development is introduced.

Citation

Harung, H.S. (1993), "More Effective Decisions through Synergy of Objective and Subjective Approaches", Management Decision, Vol. 31 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251749310046756