Business Decision Analytics - Decision Style Analysis

a) Select and evaluate the usefulness of a range of decision making tools and reflect on your decision-making styles and contrast with other styles to determine the respective levels of rationality and intuition utilised

Context:

Changing workplace demands in the 21" century have called for greater flexibility in the ways managers form and implement decisions. Decisions made logically in environments free from time demands which are based on access to complete information and use of deductive reasoning are no longer robust enough or effective enough to address the complexities of modern decision making. Flexible application of decision preferences across contexts while meeting the needs of a variety of tasks can contribute to higher quality decisions, foster effectiveness of decision making, and allow decisions which provide positive implications for stakeholders and the community.

Assessment one has been prescribed to allow students to:
- Identify individual decision preferences and determine ways of bringing flexibility to the use of your decision style.
- Reflect on decisions
- Complete the MBTI identifying both primary and shadow side of decision making style
- Identify self-improvement and development opportunities

Section 1: Identify Own Decisions Preferences

The first task in Assessment One is to identify your own decision preferences by completing the Decision Style Instrument provided and noting the results as they apply to your own decision making.

Access the instrument and complete by assigning a rating to each of the statements shown. Note down your first responses to the statements provided (rather than dwelling for long periods on each) and complete the instrument in a single sitting. There are no right or wrong answers.

Analysis of Own Decision Preferences
Calculate your decision preferences by domain, by adding up your scores and calculating the mean or average values for each of the three preference domains.

Intuition-Mean Value          Compare your mean rating with Norm. Assign Low, Med, High
Logic-Mean Value              Compare your mean rating with Norm. Assign Low, Med, High
Balance-Mean Value           Compare your mean rating with Norm. Assign Low, Med, High

Use the mean values provided to identify your rating results as being:

Lower, Mid-range, or Higher than the mean rating norms shown.

Note down your results for each of the decision preferences and identify areas for possible self-development. Outline ways in which all three of your decision preferences could be moved to High. Make use of these understandings by sharing-exploring opportunities for change, improvements through the getting-giving of feedback in your mentoring-feedback discussions and writing up your insights, reflections, learning, and development plans in your Assessment 1 analysis.

Section 2: Keep a Decision Diary

Start a daily decision diary during week one of module 1 by noting down examples of decisions you have made during each day. Enter your experiences as one to two sentences in a simple word file.

Take the opportunity to regularly review and reflect on your Daily Decision Diary entries by asking the following questions of yourself and your decision making:
- Do you prefer acting on decisions that look right over those that feel right?
- Do you trust your gut feelings when making decisions;
- Do others encourage you to always be rational in your decision making;
- Do you prefer to be objective in justifying your decisions to others?
- Do your emotional responses count when dealing with problems,
Take a note of your responses and reflect on your thoughts and feelings about your decisions. Decide if your decision-making fits well with the tasks and the environments they are made in. Take a summary of your decision entries made to date along with you to your mentoring and feedback session and make use of this material in writing up your Assignment One.

Section 3: Identify Own Type and Shadow Side

Access the 16 Personalities site providing free access to a personality test styled along the lines of the pay -to-access MBTI.

Complete the Sixteen Personality Type Test (MBTI-related test) and identify your primary type by locating the four letter, alphabetic type category shown. Take note of your type and the descriptions associated with your type. Reflect on how your type provides insights into your interpersonal qualities, information processing, communication styles, and decision-making preferences. Note any surprises, disappointments, possible disagreements with the type category, related behaviours and information provided.

Type Scales: Four Scales of Ratings Between Extreme Behavioural Types

High Med Low Med High

Extraversion E X           I Introversion
High Med Low Med High

Sensing S X         N Intuition
High Med Low Med High

Thinking T X        F Feeling
High Med Low Med High

Judging J X                                                     P Perceiving

Example: Primary Type or Style   Shadow Type or Style

Example: Primary Type or Style Shadow Type or Style

Using this information, you are now to identify your shadow side. This is your less well developed or developmental side: The side which you need to build on and develop to ensure you make good use of information in forming judgments, your communication, relations with others and to bring balance to your information processing and decision making.

To identify the opposite, or shadow side, of your type you will need to use the figure above. Example: The Shadow Side of an ESTJ (Shown by X's) is an INFP Type (other side of scales)

If your type is say, ESTJ then identify the 'other side' by taking the four scales, E-I, S-N, T-F and J-P and locating the opposite side of your type, in this case, INFP.

Identify any differences in thinking styles and likely interpersonal behaviours between your primary type, and your shadow type. Reflect on these differences and map out some self-development actions, which could bring balance to your current type by minimising those differences. Take your thoughts and possible development plans along with you to your mentoring and feedback sessions. Discuss with a mentor-buddy your initial thoughts, feelings, results of your insights, possible development actions, and own learning.

Section 4: Participate in a Mentoring-Feedback Session
- Partners for in class students, will be will be allocated by your Learning Facilitator in the first session. For online students, the learning facilitator will allocate a partner-buddy after you post your personal introduction on the "Welcome and Introductions" Discussion Forum.

- Partners will be allocated based on maximum diversity of backgrounds to enrich your learning experience. Where possible, partners will be in similar time zones. More detailed guidelines for working with your partner are shown at the end of this assignment outline.

Working with a Partner-Buddy in Getting-Giving Feedback

Arrange to meet or contact your mentor-partner suggested by your facilitator with a view to getting-giving some feedback on ways that you both process information and make decisions. Be prepared to discuss your decision preferences identified and relevance to decision making on different tasks Please discuss both your primary and shadow types behaviour and thoughts and reflections on decisions listed in decision diary. More than one session may be required to adequately exchange, share perceptions, understanding of what is being discussed and implications for self-development.

Summarise the results of your feedback sessions with your partner -buddy. Make sure that you include reflections in summarising feedback you have received and given, and your interpretations of the process and value surrounding the following three (3) tasks:

1. Identifying and discussing own decision preferences and determining ways of brining balance to the three decision modes.

2. Discussions on the decisions entered in the Daily Decision Diary and reflections on own decision style, decision preferences and relations with the context in which decisions were made.

3. Identifying own type, preferred and lees preferred ways of thinking, feeling, relating to others and decision making with a view to building on own strengths and creating ways of overcoming own weaknesses.

You should include a summary in your assignment of the feedback that you gave your partner and your reflection on the feedback process. Feedback often says as much about the person who gives as the person who receives it. Extended feedback summaries can be included as appendices, where they will not be included in the word count.

Suggested format:
A possible structure for your Decision style Analysis is shown below. This is a suggestion only and is not mandatory.
Suggested format
Your Decision Style analysis should include the following
- Introduction: Brief statement to set the context for your work.
- Body
o Insights into your decision preference test results
o Reflections on decision styles from your diary
o Feedback on decision styles, relations to own type and to own shadow side
o Self-development strategies and discussions on intended and unintended consequences of changes, modifications to own style, likely impact on others.
Please ensure you make clear links to theory and conceptual frameworks that explain or clarify your experiences and feedback. (You could incorporate links to theory/models throughout your report or collect them in one section. The important point is that you anchor your submission with appropriate models or theories, and sources are referenced clearly.

- Conclusion: A brief statement that captures your key learning
- Recommendations for self-development: List of intended actions for self-improvement.
- Provide References in support of argument
- Appendices: Detailed, supporting information such as test results, outcomes of surveys, psychometric test results and planning templates should be placed in an appendix, where they will not be included in the marks allocated.

This Decision Style Analysis is to be written according to academic writing guidelines and must be submitted in compliance with the following;
1. You should make significant references to the subject material and substantial wider reading. A minimum two (2) academic (books & peer-reviewed journal articles) & two (2) other sources (newspaper article, trade publications, websites, etc.) must be used. These should be referenced in the APA style, both in-text and in your reference list. References to 'Wikipedia' or similar unsubstantiated sources will not be accepted.

2. The assignment is to include in-text citations and a reference list following the latest APA referencing style.

3. Submit Decision Style Analysis (with references) via the Assessment link in the main navigation menu in MGT602 Business Decision Analytics on the Student Portal. The Learning Facilitator will provide feedback via Grade Centre in the Student Portal. Feedback can be viewed in My Grades.