The Tational Decision-Making Model in a Civil Engineering Organization (Essay Sample)

THE RATIONAL DECISION-MAKING MODEL IN A CIVIL ENGINEERING ORGANIZATION
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Introduction
The decision-making aspect of the processes of an organization plays a central role in fostering an effective approach top handling the challenges experienced. Particularly, civil engineering organizations need to make rational decisions that would facilitate their sustainability in the engineering and construction industry. For this reason, the adoption of a theoretical decision model has gained popularity in civil engineering organizations as managers seek to develop solutions that would bolster the organizational performance (Triantaphyllou 2013, p. 45). Importantly, the decisions could fall under the strategic, operational, or administrative elements of organizational undertakings. As such, the theoretical decision model embraced ought to consider the nature of the issue prompting the decision. In this regard, the rational decision model could apply fully in a civil engineering setting since it comprises of logical steps that guide the decision-making process. Therefore, this paper seeks to provide a description and illustration of the rational decision model with regards to its application pertinent to the strategic, operating, and administrative aspects of decision-making in a civil engineering organization.
The Rational Decision Making Model
The rational decision-making model offers a systematic and logically sequenced strategy to making decisions. When embracing the rational decision-making model in the civil engineering atmosphere, decision-makers including CEOs and managers are guaranteed a logical and orderly approach to decision-making. The logic and order aspects of the model get realized by the framework’s sequential steps that guide the manner in which managers approach the problem before identifying a solution that suits implementation and evaluation afterward. As such, the rational decision-making model comprises of eight steps that would assist civil engineering professionals to arrive at sound decisions that solve issues in an efficient manner. Notably, the decision-making process guided by the said model starts with identifying the problem and ends with evaluating the decision implemented. The figure below demonstrates the sequential steps involved in the rational decision-making model (Pei 2013, pp. 699-702).
Figure 1. The Rational Decision Making Model
As depicted by the diagram above, the rational decision-making model could considerably assist the management of a given civil engineering organization to logically and orderly approach the various problems that prompt practical decisions. Importantly, managers in the civil engineering organizational atmosphere ought to understand the assumptions of the model so as to understand the manner in which it works to ensure successful implementation. The model assumes that the problem prompting the decision-making undertaking ought to be clear and unambiguous. Additionally, the decision-makers need to have known options by identifying the viable alternatives and the suitable criteria. What is more, the decision-makers need to assume that alternatives and criteria identified are subjective to ranking and weighing to for purposes of ensuring preferences clarity (Pei 2013, pp. 703-704).
Further, the decision-maker ought to bear the constancy of the particular decision criteria and the stability of the weights allocated over time. Also, the rational decision-making model assumes the absence of cost or time constraints so as to avail adequate information for making decisions. Finally, decisions makers in the civil engineering fraternity need to assume that the yield the maximum payoff concerning the value of the choice alternative realized using the rational decision-making model (Byrnes 2013, 49-57). Therefore, illustrating each step of the decision-making model would significantly foster and understanding of its application in the civil engineering setting.
Identifying the Problem
The initial step in the rational decision-making model entails the identification of the problem that required the development of a decision to combat its escalation into detrimental outcomes (Triantaphyllou 2013, p. 49). The problem facing the civil engineering firm could be perceived or felt and thus, identifying the problem before defining it acts as a crucial step in the rational decision-making process. For instance, the technicians on site undertaking construction works could regard the equipment or resources used as inefficient thereby consider it as a felt problem while the top managers regard it as a perceived problem. Therefore, identifying the need and defining it to all the stakeholders involved would facilitate a mutual understanding of the issue at hand in a bid to solve it collectively. As such, everyone in the in the organization ought to have a matching frame of the reference pertinent to the opportunity, need, or problem.
Establishing a Decision Criteria
After identifying and defining the issue, the next step in the rational decision-making model entails the establishment of decision criteria. In this respect, the decision-maker selects variables that determine the outcomes of the decision. In establishing the decision criteria, the civil engineering managers chooses the relevant metrics required to arrive at a reliable decision (Byrnes 2013, 59). In this context, the interests, preferences, and values of the organization come into play and thus, the top management identifies the criterion that is relevant to their area of specialty, civil engineering. The factors that fail identification at this phase of the rational decision-making model acquire regard as irrelevant to the decision-makers.
Weighing the Decision Criteria
In this step, the decision-maker allocates the weights to the identified measures to determine the most significant criteria. Here, the management team in a civil engineering organization engage in a ranking of the criteria in a manner that depicts the relevance of the identified criteria in solving or addressing the problem, need, or opportunity successfully. Then again, the decision-making team established a "first cut" pertinent to weights of the decision-making criteria before reviewing and revising their results to guarantee reasonableness (Gal, Stewart, & Hanne 2013, pp. 30-32).
Generating Alternatives
After weighing the decision criteria, the decision-maker proceeds to generate the alternatives that would solve the problem successfully (Triantaphyllou 2013, p. 57). Here, the management of the civil engineering organization endeavor in the consideration of probable solutions by coming up with a list. At this point, the decision-maker needs not to engage in appraising the alternatives besides developing a list. For instance, in the case involving the technicians experiencing the inefficiency of the equipment on-site, the management could consider brainstorming alternatives including reparation, servicing, and upgrading the resources. Doing so allows the team to facilitate the evaluation of the options in the succeeding step.
Evaluating the Alternatives
The evaluation of the alternatives listed forms a crucial part of the rational decision-making model. Here, the management of an organization engages in the analysis and evaluation of each of the alternatives identified based on the earlier developed decision criteria (Byrnes 2013, 68). Therefore, the decision-maker gets to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the different alternatives by considering the criteria and weighs developed in the second and third phases of the rational decision-making model respectively. For instance, the team could analyze and evaluate the reparation, servicing, and upgrading alternatives so as to identify the most efficient intervention for the equipment inefficiency issue affecting the technicians.
Choosing the Best Alternative
The decision-maker then progresses to select the alternative that would result in the most desirable outcomes. The management needs to know that the best decision should be founded on the alternatives that depict the strength to handle the opportunity, need, or problem satisfactorily (Pei 2013, p. 706). For this reason, the rationality of the model in this phase manifests in the consideration of the alternative with the highest score. For example, if upgrading the civil engineering equipment would result in improved performance of the technicians, then the alternative holds water in that case.
Implementing the Decision
The implementation phase of the rational decision-making process epitomizes the whole undertaking. Here, an allotment of the required resources for the implementation of the decision based on the best alternative takes place. As such, the management team oversees the application of the decision to ensure a smooth execution of the decision (Baumann et al. 2014, p. 26). For example, the civil engineering organization could avail the necessary resources required for the acquisition of the upgraded equipment so as to solve the problem affecting the technicians in a satisfying manner (Gal, Stewart, & Hanne 2013, pp. 47-50).
Evaluating the Decision
An evaluation of the decision acts as the last step of the rational decision-making model since it weighs or gauges the impact of the implemented decision. In this respect, the evaluation process seeks to assess the effectiveness of the decision in solving the problem undermining the efficiency of the organization (Ilankovan, Ethunandan, & Seah 2015, pp. 63). For instance, if upgrading the equipment used by the technicians led to improved performance, then the decision would be regarded as effective.
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