Fitness Centre Final Copy

DECISION MAKING PROCESS 12

The Decision Making Process[Name of the Student][Name of the Institute][Date]

AbstractDecision making is known to be the most crucial activities of the Health and fitness training centre. It is various effective decisions that build up the success of the place either related to purchasing the right equipment, feasible cost, and membership offers. Everything needs to be planned and strategic to have the necessary impact. In this essay, the procedure of decision making will be discussed. There will be two models decision making analyzed the bounded rationality model and rational decision making.

Table of ContentsAbstract2Introduction4Discussion4The Rational Model5Identify the Problem5Generating Alternatives5Evaluating Alternatives6Choosing an Alternative6Implementing the Decision6Evaluating Decision Effectiveness7The Bounded Rationality Model8Triggering the Decision Making Process8Conclusion8References10Appendix12

The Decision Making ProcessIntroductionIn the Health and fitness training centre, decisions are made at all levels. The owner or manager is responsible for making necessary decision regarding the strategies and goals of the designated place. In order to achieve these goals either they are short term or long term, they require tactical decisions to be made in order to accomplish them. The support staff performs the assigned task and contributes their suggestion to the necessary operational decision for smooth functioning of day to day activities. There are different types of decisions made at individual level in the Health and fitness training centre, for example the management takes care of the overall place, the floor manager is responsible for appointments and memberships, technical staff for checking the equipment, and fitness coach for improvised decision related to the health of the client. In short, there are multiple decisions involved; the decisions analyzed in this paper are as following:1. Where should be the Health and fitness training center be located?2. Should a new fitness training center be established or an old one should be renovated?3. How many members can be catered by the Health and fitness center?

DiscussionTo achieve a desired outcome, decision making is a process that helps in selecting from the possible alternatives (Eisenfuhr, 2011, p.98). In this definition, there are three main elements present. Firstly, the choice related to making a decision is made from a number of options; such as the members can be catered according to feasibility of the coach, timings, demand of the client, or even through assigning personal trainer. Second part of decisional making process is that from the alternatives a simple and final choice needs to be reclaimed for instance the Health and fitness training center needs to be renovated or constructed from scratch. It is necessary to consider all aspects regarding the budget, place, space, and the interior. The final element is accomplishing the desired result which involves the mental activity that decision maker is engaged in which lead to achieving the target or purpose, for example where to locate the fitness centre in main commercial area or near the housing society (Brown and Moberg, 2004, p.48).

The Rational ModelDecision making regarding administrative task is considered to be rational. It is assumed that the Health and fitness training centre management take decision under known circumstances: they are aware of the options, they know the result, they know the criteria of decision, and they are capable to identify potential choices and implement them accordingly (Towler, 2010, 45). As per the rational model, process of decision making can be divided into six steps (Schoenfeld, 2011, p.244) (Appendix: Figure 1).

Identify the ProblemThe aim of the Health and fitness training centre is to facilitate the customers with physical training. Every segment and unit of the Health and fitness training centre has different goals to accomplish, it can be increase in memberships, success stories, staying abreast with new techniques, new technology, and new approaches of healthy lifestyle. When these goals are established they become basis of problem areas identification, evaluating the action to be taken, and evaluating the result of decision. An effective decision will help the Health and training centre in achieving the goal. Any obstacle in achieving this goal is considered as a problem which needs to be resolved.

Generating AlternativesWhen the problem has been identified, next step is finding the possible solutions for the problem. These alternate solutions will be developed, when there are goals set by the Health and fitness training centre to achieve through making a decision. It depends on the identified problem; either it is related to increasing marketing activities, or finding new techniques, once the goals are established, it is necessary to find the alternatives in order to reach them. There must be thorough information collected related to the generated alternative, along with their impact after implementation. The solution should be well researched regarding the possible outcome of each alternative and what needs to be selected to get the required result (Hastie, 2011, p.76).

Evaluating AlternativesIn this step all the alternatives gathered are evaluated. While evaluation of the alternatives, it is necessary that the management of the Health and fitness training centre responds to the three questions: the alternative considered is feasible for the problem identified? Is it satisfactory? And what will be the impact of the selected alternative? The first question implies: Is the alternative feasible to implement according to the situation, can it be done. In second question concern are raised whether it addresses the problem. The final addresses what will be the consequences of the alternatives. It is necessary that the people are agreeing to accept the decision and it implementation. In case people are not willing it would lead to failure of the process. The decisions in Health and fitness training centre are mostly led by competition and demand of the customers.

Choosing an AlternativeDecision making process is incomplete without knowing what will be the consequences and effectiveness of a decision. When the desired outcome is not achieved from the implemented decision, there are several reasons behind it: the problem was identified incorrectly, evaluation of alternatives was not satisfactory, and implementation was not proper. The most common possible reason among there are insufficient definitions of the problem. In case the problem is defined incorrectly, the selected alternative will not produce desired outcome after implementation.

Implementing the DecisionAfter the selection of possible alternative, the Health and fitness training management faces the issue of decision implementation. When a decision is not implemented properly it is destined to be failed. Hence it is important to consider some of the aspects before implementing a decision (Ahmed, 2011, p.154). 1. The management of Health and fitness training centre should clearly understand the selected alternative: It is necessary that the selected decision is communicated to all the staff involved in the process. Effective implementation of decision is only possible through effective communication between the parties involved. 2. Health and fitness training centre management should boost the alternative selected for acceptance among the staff and portray it as necessary for operation functions: To commit the staff to support the decision made regarding the selected alternative, it is important that all the benefits derived from the decision are discussed with the staff. In such decision making usually consultative or informal leaders are involved, they discuss with their subordinated the possible results. The outcome of the alternative should endorse enthusiastically. Hence, the person not involved in the previous steps should be explained regarding the substantial success that will be achieved from the decision making process.3. The management of Health and fitness centre should provide enough resources to implement the alternative successfully: It is always an organizational priority to setup a budget and schedule their actions which they are planning to adopt. The decisions that require more investment for instance more staff, new place, increase in cost for technology investment, etc. should be planned according to the budget. 4. Health and fitness training centre management should design practical timelines for implementation: There are many supporting decision needs to be taken to successfully implement a single decision. The management needs to face the cost require for the change and timeframe for implementation. It is necessary for the management to know either the will take the process step by step or all the implementation will be process at once. 5. Responsibilities of the tasks should be assigned clearly by the management: The tasks should be assigned very carefully of what should be done by whom? There is a combined effort required in every administrative and business problem. Every person should be aware of the role they have to play in the implementation phase of the decision process.

Evaluating Decision EffectivenessDecision making is a never ending and continuous process, hence it is very important to evaluate every decision. It does not end after consent of the management whether to implement or not. With the help of evaluation, the management speeds up the process of decision cycle by studying the necessary information (Bubnicki, 2003, p.63). A new analysis of the problem is generated, in case the alternative decision fails to be successful. In the new cycle there is a new analysis of the problem, alternatives are evaluated again, and a new alternative is selected.

The Bounded Rationality Model In the above discussed rational decision making model, the decision maker appears to entirely rational. In case the decision maker is totally rational, it would lead to having perfect information: all the alternatives are known, consequences of determined, and a complete preference scale is established. The alternative steps in the process of decision making are continuously leads towards alternative selection which would cause maximization of solution related to problem decision making. Most of the time the management is not aware of the existing problems, in case they are aware, they do not look for the possible potential solutions to the problem by systematic search (Nielsen, 2011, p.58). They are often limited due to cost issues, time constraints, and processing information ability. In these situations a partial list is created with alternative solution derived from their own experience of the problem based on their intuition, creative thoughts, and even in some cases advice from others. These type of leaders are usually authoritian, in this model of decision making rationality is very limited. The term bounded rationality was coined by Herbert Simon (1982, 1997, 2009), to explain the decision maker willing to take the best decision but with less possible solution and alternatives.In comparison to the rational decision making, the following principles are applied in bounded reality: 1. Often these decisions are based on inadequate and incomplete description of the exact nature of the problem witnessed. 2. For future consideration, the decision makers will never be able to generate possible alternative solutions. 3. Incomplete evaluation of alternatives, as it is impossible to forecast accurately all the issues associated with all the alternatives.Decision making is a part of everyday activity in the Health and fitness training centre. In this business everyone is making a decision, however the management is paid to take the crucial decisions for smooth functioning. Leader can be either formal, imformal, authoritician, etc. Along with the routine operations, the main task of management is taking the necessary decisions regarding the growth and identification of core competencies of the business. It is the quality of these decisions that works as a predominant factor for instance the decisions taken effectively by the management will contribute to their performance (Gilboa, 2011, p.84). These decisions influence the performance of the Health and fitness centre and also welfare of its members, community, and owner.

Triggering the Decision Making ProcessIn case the problem is not resolves either the problem is not clearly defined or the alternatives are not selected appropriately. It has been suggested by many experts that major problem are resolved by attempting several alternatives in a row, with slight improvement from every alternative (Hicks, 2005, p.127). Through evaluation it is decided whether a new decision is required or not in the decision making process.

ConclusionAmong the daily operation and activities, decision making holds immense importance in the Health and fitness training center. To ensure the business grows and gains success, it is highly dependent on the effective decision making. I have learned from this research that the process of decision making is based on choices. There are several steps involved in this process such as problem identification, alternative generation, alternative evaluation, considering an alternative, decision implementation, and decision effectiveness evaluation. The process of decision making is defined in two major approaches in this research. It is evident that the rational model defines decision makers rationally; they are looking for perfect information to even make minor decisions. Decision maker, social and organizational systems are not naturally perfect which leads to imposition of limitation on the ability of decision makers to process information for critical decisions (bounded rationality), the decision makers face restriction in searching for solution that are comparatively more favorable.

ReferencesAhmed, P. K. (2011). Innovative management: Context, strategies, systems, and processes. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. P.154Brown, W. B., & Moberg, D. J. (2004). Organization theory and management (8th ed.). New York, NY: Wiley p.48. Bubnicki, Z. (2003). Analysis and decision making in uncertain systems. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag. P.63 Eisenfuhr, F. (2011). Decision making. New York, NY: Springer p.98Gilboa, I (2011). Rational choice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press p.84Hastie, R. (2010). Rational choice in an uncertain world: The psychology of judgment and decision making. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage p.76Hicks, M. J. (2005). Problem solving and decision making: Hard, soft, and creative approaches. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning p.127.Kepner, C. H., & Tregoe, B. B. (2005). The new rational manager (rev. ed.). New York, NY: Kepner-Tregoe.March, J. G. (2010). Primer on decision making: How decisions happen. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.Nielsen, H. (2011). Bounded rationality in decision making. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Manchester University Press p.58Schoenfeld, A. H. (2011). How we think: A theory of goal-oriented decision making and its educational applications. New York, NY: Routledge, p.244Simon, H. A. (1982). Models of bounded rationality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Simon, H. A. (1997). Models of bounded rationality: Empirically grounded economic reason. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Simon, H. A. (2009). Economics, bounded rationality, and the cognitive revolution. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.Towler, M. (2010). Rational decision making: An introduction. New York, NY: Wiley. P.54Ubben, G. C., Hughes, L. W., & Norris, C. J. (2011). The principal: Creative leadership for excellence in schools (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson.Verschaffel, L. (2011). Use of external representations in reasoning and problem solving: Analysis and improvement. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.Zopounidis, C. (2011a). Multiple criteria decision aiding. New York, NY: Nova Science Publishers.Zopounidis, C. (2011b). Handbook of multicriteria analysis. New York, NY: Springer.

AppendixFigure 1: Decision Making Process