In organisations, decision-making stands out as an important element that is used to influence organisational efficiency and workplace satisfaction, alongside factors such as commitment and work engagement. Various approaches, like the model of organisational choice and naturalistic decision-making, delve into how organisations influence decision-makers, alongside factors such as commitment and work engagement (Ceschi et al., 2017). In recent years, affect and emotion have played an important role in the decision-making process (Zhang and Highhouse, 2018).
According to Zhang and Highhouse (2018), emotions that expand and highlight the influence of emotions on decision-making are listed into two types:
Immediate emotions – emotional impacts, as proposed by the risk-as-feelings theory, can individually influence risk perception during real-time judgment and decision-making, separate from cognitive evaluation
Anticipated emotions – occurs after a decision is made but still plays a crucial role in the decision process. Individuals often anticipate emotions through comparisons after a decision has been made.
In the pursuit of effective decision-making, in addition to enhancing quality decision-making while reducing mental effort and minimising mental effort, two additional primary goals are emphasised. Firstly, there is a focus on minimising the experience of negative emotions during and after the decision-making process. While not all decisions produce emotional responses, some choices carry emotional weight, and it is in the best interest to lessen negative emotional experiences associated with decision-making. Secondly, the aim is to maximise the ease of justifying a decision both to oneself and to others, emphasising clarity and unity in expressing the reasoning behind decisions (Beresford and Sloper, 2018).
According to Schwartz (2016), the integrated ethical decision-making model follows a four-stage decision-making process:
Awareness – during this stage, an employee acknowledges a situation and demands a decision that is consequential for personal well-being or that of others. During this stage, the employee identifies a minimum of two potential courses of action, which could include two ethically appropriate actions. This stage takes into account both formal norms, such as organisational policies, and informal norms within the environment, like team agreements.
Judgement – during this stage, the employee engages in multiple simultaneous processes, including; emotion, intuition, reason, rationalisation, while actively consulting with others for ethical decision-making or reviewing organisational documentation for clarification.
Intention – during this stage, the employee is motivated to take the ethical or unethical action based on the judgment formed in the previous stage
Behaviour – during this stage, the individual carries out the ethical or unethical behaviour (Alaybek et al, 2023)
The increasing significance of workplace decision-making has important associations for education, skill enhancement, and economic progress. In a world where automated systems handle most foreseeable and routine job tasks, the remaining work is becoming more open-ended. Education and training geared toward open-ended tasks will emphasise the development of information processing and decision-making skills and this development will enable valuable workers to independently determine the best course of action without direct supervision (Dessein and Santos, 2006).
References
Alaybek, B., Dalal, R. S., Dade, B. (2023). Individual differences in judgement and decision-making: Novel predictors of counterproductive work behaviour. Journal of Business and Psychology, 38, 1043-1059. doi:doi.org/10.1007/s10869-022-09843-x
Beresford, B., & Sloper, T. (2018, January). Understanding the dynamics of decision-making and choice: A scoping study of key of psychological theories to inform the design and analysis of the panel study. Social Research Policy Unit, 1-70. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjCrfGF_deEAxUJXUEAHSrRDhIQFnoECBEQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fpublication%2F238586666_Understanding_the_Dynamics_of_Decision-Making_and_Choice_A_Scopi
Ceschi, A., Demerouti, C. A., Sartori, R., & Weller, J. (2017). Decision-making processes in the workplace: How exhaustion, lack of resources and job demands impair them and affect performance. Frontier in Psychology, 8(313), 1-14. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00313
Dessein, W., & Santos, T. (2006). Adaptive organisations. Journal of Political Economy, 114(5), 956-994. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiXi7KPhNiEAxVtXUEAHQKCCGIQFnoECA0QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fciteseerx.ist.psu.edu%2Fdocument%3Frepid%3Drep1%26type%3Dpdf%26doi%3D96023d95c8ac5a4981e39bb8e0d2abbf7b3b62bf&u
Schwartz, M. S. (2016). Ethical decision-making theory: An integrated approach. Journal of Business Ethics, 139(4), 755-776. doi:10.1007/s10551-015-2886-8
Zhang, D., & Highhouse, S. (2018). Judgement and decision making in the workplace. In 2nd (Ed.), Handbook of Industrial, Work, and Organisational Psychology (pp. 611-633). Retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjI1qO18deEAxWQQEEAHXkGBLYQFnoECA8QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fpublication%2F317785311_Judgment_and_Decision_Making_in_the_Workplace&usg=AOvVaw2ZjHD9lj
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