EFFECTIVE DECISION MAKING
INTRODUCTION
1. Decision making, together with leadership and communication heads the list of abilities desired of any commander and officers at all levels. Operational environment of the defence services, especially the Air Force, place an additional constraint of limited available time for decision-making with implications of the potential loss of precious human lives. Therefore, importance of the knowledge of the subject of decision making hardly needs emphasis.
Officers at every level are faced with varied issues related to human behaviour and management of resources involving men, material, money and time. All these issues which require attention, solution or answer are related to a kind of thinking, commonly known as problem solving. Decision making and problem solving at times are regarded as synonymous.
Decision implies choice from several or many possibilities. The time available for the preliminary work of gathering information and weighing up each option is not unlimited. Thus, the decision maker often would have to stop in time and take prompt decision to achieve organisational purpose and objectives. In this context generation of new ideas becomes an important facet of the decision making process. The enormous resources at once disposal makes it incumbent on the defence services officers to be innovative and thus reap the benefits of their creative skills.
AIM
The aim of this paper is to suggest steps to make ‘Decision making’ effective, simple and correct in the spheres of service related activities.
5. Decision Typologies. There are many types of decisions which you would be required to make as a commande ...