MAKING DECISIONS

MAKING DECISIONS
Decision-making preferences influence the way an organization
understands and acts on information. While information gathering
is a form of perception, decision making engages an organization’s
powers of judgment. In Jungian psychology and MBTI type
analysis, the terms thinking and feeling are used to describe the
opposing poles of decision-making preferences. (See Figure 2.3.)
Many business organizations, however, tend to cast a doubtful eye
Companies Are People, Too: The Concept and Promise 13
FIGURE 2.2 Information-gathering preferences.
Sensing
• First asks for details about each
situation
• Tends to do work in traditional
ways
• Provides specific, detailed,
step-by-step directions
• “If it’s not broke, don’t
fix it”
• Sets straightforward, attainable
goals
• More concerned about exactly
what the customer said
• Sales presentations with
substantial array of detailed
facts
Intuitive
• First asks, “What does this
mean? What might happen?”
• Tries to find new ways to do
work
• Gives the general direction in
which work should progress
• “Everything can and should be
improved”
• Sets inspiring, difficult-to-attain
goals
• More concerned about what
the customer meant
• Sales presentations that
enthusiastically present
possibilities
on the intrusion of feeling or emotion into the workplace, even
when they endorse the overarching values and practices associated
with the feeling preference.
Decision making in thinking organizations is guided by objective
principles, while feeling organizations rely on values. To
understand the distinction, it is helpful to note that principles have
a universal effect, applying equally to all people in all situations,
while values take into account individual interests, consequences,
and worth. A company with a thinking preference asserts the
importance of logic and relies on the objective critique as the best
way to reach conclusions. A company with a feeling preference, in
contrast, endorses harmony as a goal and tends to see criticism as
a form of confrontation. Decision-making preferences exert the
most direct impact on personnel matters, but also shape a company’s
self-image, its response to its competition, and its marketing
strategy.Thinking organizations embrace rules and regulations
that affect each employee equally, while feeling groups evaluate
personnel matters on a case-by-case basis. A feeling organization
can be extraordinarily, emotionally committed to displacing or
even destroying any firm—competitor, client, or vendor—that
steps on its values. In thinking organizations, the tendency to be
blunt sometimes spills over into public relations. While both sets
14 INTRODUCTION
FIGURE 2.3 Decision-making preferences.
Thinking
• Impersonal, “get down to
business” office environment
• Rules are rules
• Finds it easier to criticize than
to express appreciation
• Telling the unvarnished truth is
more important than being
tactful
• Logical, detached, and
analytical approach to
problems
• Getting the best quality is
more important than brand or
customer loyalty
• Little time spent on team
building or coaching staff
Feeling
• Warm office environment with
emphasis on group harmony
• Willing to bend rules under
some circumstances
• Finds it easier to express
appreciation than to criticize
• Being tactful is as important as
telling the truth
• Seeks solutions based on
company values, with
impact on people taken into
account
• Brand or customer loyalty is
more important than getting
the best quality
• Energized by team building
and coaching staff
of preferences have limitations and blind spots, each provides a
comprehensible context for effective decision making.
Information gathering and decision making are relatively insensitive
to external factors such as industry or market conditions.
Representatives of each of the types can be found in companies of
all sizes, in all industries, among extroverted and introverted companies
alike.