Basics of Decision Making
Decision-making is about the how, what, why, when (and where) of a course of action and of how to overcome obstacles and to solve problems. Trewatha and Newport (1982) define decision-making as the process of selecting a course of action from among two or more possible alternatives in order to arrive at a solution for a given problem. Thomas (2004) adds that decision-making is what turns thought into action. A decision occurs when a solution to a problem is selected for implementation. It is important to note that decisions can be made either formally or informally. The four main aspects of decision making are the context, objective, options and the criteria. This paper explores how these components can be used to arrive at a decision.