Question

Apply the six-step rational decision making process to a real decision you make sometime this week. Describe how you apply each step of the process. Compare the decision-making process and results to a similar decision you have made where you relied more on intuition, emotion, or simple programmed rules or heuristics. Next, imagine that you have been hired by a web hosting and data services company to determine if Wyoming is a good fit for their business. Describe how the five macro forces of the external environment might impact their business in the state.

Answer 1

The six-step rational decision-making process involves a thorough approach to making decisions, contrasted with intuition or simple heuristics. For a web hosting company assessing Wyoming as a potential location, they must consider the five macro forces that could impact their operations, including economic, technological, sociocultural, legal/political, and environmental factors.

Step-by-step explanation:

The six-step rational decision-making process provides a structured approach to making well-thought-out decisions. When implemented in personal life, for instance, choosing a career path, it involves clearly identifying the problem, gathering information, generating alternatives, conducting a cost/benefit analysis, choosing the best option based on criteria and constraints, and finally implementing and evaluating the decision. Comparing this systematic approach to decision-making that relies on intuition or heuristics reveals differences in how each process may lead to varying outcomes.

For a web hosting company considering expansion into Wyoming, the five macro forces, including economic, technological, sociocultural, legal/political, and natural environment factors, would significantly affect their operations.

An economic analysis might reveal the cost of doing business and potential customer base; technological factors would include assessing infrastructure for hosting services; sociocultural aspects would pertain to local workforce skills and consumer behavior; legal/political considerations might involve state regulations; and natural environment conditions could implicate server cooling costs and risk of natural disasters.