Final answer:
Managerial decision making is a blend of routine and strategic choices, with programmed decisions being routine, and nonprogrammed decisions being unique and tailored for specific situations, especially in design work where a structured design process is crucial.
Step-by-step explanation:
The nature of managerial decision making encompasses both routine and strategic elements, requiring a careful balance between regular, repeated decisions and those that are novel and complex. Within this context, programmed decisions refer to those that are routine in nature, involving well-established processes for handling situations that occur frequently. On the opposite end, nonprogrammed decisions are unique, requiring specific solutions tailored to address new, unstructured problems often facing managers.
In the realm of design work, this differentiation becomes particularly apparent. The decision-making process in design is seldom predictable, often requiring both types of decisions to be made. As such, engineered products and their complex systems necessitate numerous decision types, emphasizing the importance of having a structured design process. This process aids in making the team's decision-making explicit, well-documented, and more likely to address all relevant issues with reduced risk of oversights.