OB IS FOR EVERYONE
Do people really consider
every alternative when
making a decision?Is it okay to use intuition
when making decisions?Why is it that we
sometimes make bad
decisions?Why are some people more
creative than others?Why do some people make
more ethical decisions than
others?ike’s first “Corporate
Responsibility Report,”
published in October2001, confessed that making
Nike’s runners is “tedious, hard
and doesn’t offer a wonderful
future.”^1 Readers may have been
startled to learn that employees
in overseas factories making Nike
products were being harassed by
supervisors. Employees were also
asked to work far more overtime
than rules permitted. Finally, the
company admitted to knowing far too little about day-to-
day life in the factories, because it was not monitoring the
situation closely enough.
These admissions might have seemed shocking toanyone who had not expected Nike to acknowledge
what critics have been saying for years: Nike benefits
from unfair labour practices in foreign-owned plants to
which it subcontracts work. The company has since been
trying to improve conditions at its overseas operations.
Nike’s decision to publish a corporate responsibilityreport is just one example of the many decisions com-
panies face every day. Nike had also decided to move its
manufacturing to low-wage countries, an action that
has brought the company much criticism. So can organ-
izations learn to make better decisions?
In this chapter, we describe how decisions in organ-
izations are made. Decision making affects people at all
levels of the organization, and is done by both individu-
als and groups. Thus, we consider the special character-
istics of individual and group decision making. We also
look at how creativity, ethics, and social responsibility
are linked to decision making.N
293HOW SHOULDDECISIONS BE MADE?
After completing its first corporate responsibility report, Nike increased training for both man-
agers and employees at its overseas operations.^2 Managers were told that treating employ-
ees properly will lead to “improved productivity, reduced labour turnover and less sick leave.”
Nike thus evaluated its problem and came up with ways to resolve it, in order to reduce criti-
cism of its labour practices. How do individuals and companies make decisions?Adecisionis the choice made from two or more alternatives. Decision making occurs
as a reaction to a problem or an opportunity. A problemis a discrepancy between some
current state of affairs and some desired state, requiring consideration of alternative
1 Is there a right way to
make decisions?
Nike Canada
http://www.nike.com/canada/