Problem solving involves a lot of aspects, and not every particular aspect is significantly recognized. Problem solving and decision making goes hand in hand. Decision making goes into the real world and it is termed as naturalistic decision making. Decision making firstly focuses their attention on how individuals bring the experience to bear in making decisions.After all people differin many ways and these differences contribute to the type and quality of decisions they make. On its second step, extensive researches on the naturalistic process of decision making broaden their focus and determination from a single decision event to incorporate the elements of the context of decision.
Individuals first study the situation minutely and then read a brief history before making a decision based on the contents of the topic. Also works on decision making emphasizes the dynamic nature of the decision making procedure and takes into considerable ok account the complexities involved in the modern decision environments. These include the potentially enormous costs of making bad decisions which might result in extensive losses on behalf of the company. The losses might be in terms of both money, and loss of life. Reasoning online tests are conducted by the organization, to screen the recruited candidates and get the best possible hire for their company. Analytical and logical reasoning both are needed while making decisions. The thought process of the person should be very clear and distinct when he contemplates. Only a good decision can be obtained if a person is come and composed while exercising his reasoning skills.
The researches on naturalistic decision making arerelatively new phenomena, and it is still in the developmental stage. The application of this development has led to a fuller and perhaps and even more accurate and descriptive explanation of the decision making procedure. Since it unfolds in environments in which the accuracy of the descriptions and decisions is very important, this is mostly exercised by the organizational psychologists in business organizations. Thisnaturalistic setting lets the organizational and industrial psychologists to acknowledge the different facets of the research findings, derived from the decision making and reasoning ability of the individualswho come for interview and different psychological tests. This is the situation when decision making in real life environment is tested and the ability of a person to deal with different problematic situations and stresses is also assessed.
However, the assessment of the naturalistic decision making in organizational sectors is a bold step towards discovering how people make decisions in the real world situation. Since problem solving involves a lot of steps, let us look at the steps at a glance which are required to attain a gooddecision. Any decision taken can never be perfect it can just optimally fit into the situation and hand. Because with the change in situation the whole scenario changes, and hence the conclusion which is applicable for a particular situation may not be applicable for another. The first step towards the solving of problems is the identification of the same. The individual must be able to recognize the problem and the very existence of it and then only he can figure out what issues, goals and obstacles are involved with. Until unless an individual is able to identify the problem and understand the issues involved with, it is very difficult for him to move ahead with a solution. Any organization would not want an incumbent like that.
The second step towards problem solving is the formulation of a potential solution.While this also seems quite simple, it is actually very complex because solutions do not arise out of a cognitive vacuum.Theyrequire extensive critical thinking about the problem. And not only this the solutions are greatly dependent upon the information which are at the individual’s disposal, the information which are stored in long term memory, and those whichrequire to be retrieved effectively, in order to reach out at a conclusion. The more amounts of informationare available to the person, the greater the number and the wider the scope of potential solutions the candidate can generate from it. However the skills of the candidate also play a great role because whenextensiveamounts of information are available, the subject is often confused. This makes the candidate baffled, and leads to faulty decision making. Therefore, formulating a wide range of possible solutions is a very important step in an effective problem solving.
Thirdly, the candidate must be able to evaluate every alternative and the consequences associated with it. Because every choice comes with a unique consequence attached with it, and we are always given a multitude of options to choose from. We can only choose and the consequences follow. A bad choice therefore leads to bad consequences, which is obviously not desired in business situations. When a candidate evaluates whether a given solution will work or not, it brings him closer to the goal the organization wants to achieve. Also, the company wants to know whether there are any serious obstacles associated with it, or if there are any hidden costs, which will eventually culminate into a potential solution much less useful than it actually seemed at first.
In the final step, the candidate must try wholeheartedly for potential solutions and evaluate them effectively on the basis of the consequences they produce because quite often potential solution is only half effective. Although the potential solution in cases can bring us closer to where we want to be and what we actually want, but it does not always solve the problem completely or finally. And then the organization has to go for an altogether different strategy to solve remnants of the problem, and this way the cycle of the problem goes on and it never ends.
In the cases, where it is very easy to recognize that the solution will only be a partial one;it can be rectified or an associated plan is made along with it. But in many other situations, it is very difficult to know how effective the potential solution will be, until it is implemented.