My Learning Journal - Ethics & Decision Making

My Ethics and Decision Making class just finished the book, Judgment in Managerial Decision Making, by Max H. Bazerman and Don A. Moore, 2009.

Some of the areas in this book that stood out for me was learning about Bounded Awareness. Bounded Awareness is what people have that prevents them from noticing or focusing on useful, observable, and relevant data. I feel that tis is not good, because important information is left outside the awareness of most decision makers and useful information will remain out of focus for the decision maker.

An example of Bounded Awareness that I can remember was when I had experienced the Chicago Flood Disaster of 1992 that hit the underground tunnel sysem in the Chicago loop. This major disaster affected my company and we were forced to evacuate our building because we had no power and our sub-basement and basement levels of the building was flooded. We had to relocate or business to alterbate office space on the other side of the loop. Because I was the Facilities Manager for the company, I was involved with some of the major decision making with management during this memorable event.

The whole process thatI went through personally and professionally brought back many emotions that I had gone through, and I remember every detail as if it happened yesterday. This was a situation that started out to be a Negative Bounded Awareness and eventually turned into a Positive Bounded Awareness once people were able to give input and come up with the right solution. They made decisions that resolved some of the issues associated with this disaster, keeping in mind that it was for the good of the company's best interest.

Another section of the book I found interesting was on Negotiating. Negotiating is when two or more parties need to reach a joint decision but have difference preferences, they they negotiate. I learned that there is a Decision-Analytic Approach to Negotiations. That is, each party's interests and the relative importance of these interests provide the foundatin for thinking analytically about a negotiation. I also learned about Claiming and Creating Value in Negotiation, as well as what tools you need for creating value in negotiating.

This section in the book on Negotiating brought back many memories if my experiences with negotiating early on in my vareer in Facilities Management. I have had to negotiate different plans and ideas to implement that would continuously improve the services that the department would offer the company. I also would negotiate with manage management the purchasing of cost-effective items that  would save the company money in the long run and would be a good investment. Something else I was very proud of was negotiating the need for the company to implement a Fire and Life Safety program that would train and encourage employees to participate and enhance the safety and security awareness level in the company. All of these components that were implemented in he companies I worked for were made possible as a result of negotiation a decision making.

Judgment in Managerial Decisin Making is an excellent book and a gret tool for learning or improving your judgment and decision making techniques, as well as learning about or enhancing your negotiation techniques. This book also creates many ideas for opportunities to make better decisions.

Bye for now-

Laurie