It's been a while but i'm back to post my opinion on yet another fun filled day of management class. I am going to write about a special decision making process project we went through on march 7th. The project was very interesting. After getting our exams back. our professor gave us the opportunity to decide on many things about the exam as well as the next exam we have. Such as curves, omitting questions, anything we could think of, except of course everyone getting an A. The only downside is everyone must agree on all of the suggest, it must be unanimous. As a class of (by estimation) over 70 students, it required the whole period to figure out what everyone wanted.
There are 5 specific ways that people handle decision making situations:
1)Compete to win
2)Avoidance
3)compromise
4)Accomodation
5)Collaboration
There was a lot of each way going around throughout the class. We were given a time limit of one class room, and things often got chaotic, especially towards the end. There were a few leaders that really helped maintain order and keep things organized.
Personally, i ended up choosing avoidance. I was very eager to participate in this project due to doing pretty poorly on the test. However i am really not all that greedy of a person, and when i heard there was a curve and extra credit, my participation in the decision making process dwindled. I ended up choosing the avoidance way and basically saw the whole thing to its end. As an observer i saw a lot of interesting behaviors, what sparked the most passion was the option of having a essay or not having an essay. I myself didn't want an essay, but was not going to heat up an argument at the risk of losing the curve, so i left it alone. Thinking back, perhaps participating would have been worthwhile. There was a lot of compromising happening, but the truth of it was most of the compromising ended in stalemates, a lot of the highest grading on exams had the upper hand in making decisions. I would say those were the ones that were competing to win. They were very aggressive and did not back down even when people were shouting. And why should they? With the upper hand there was little risk to losing their position. There was a lot of collaborating as well, with many people approaching the professor to try to negotiate the terms of the project. All in all it was an enjoyable experience, though at that time i really needed a tylonel after all headache it put me through.
Ultimately, even with what i know now. I don't believe the decision for having an essay or not having an essay could have been changed. However, our minds were divided early because of that topic and it kept us from creating more creative and desireable ideas for exams. Sometimes, a little cooperation goes a long way, and ultimately i feel we all missed out on some great ideas.
