Describe rational decision-making and how it is limited by cognition and culture.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The rational model of decision-making suggests that a decision-maker must have a clear goal and a
comprehensive set of alternatives from which to choose, which are themselves weighted according to
known criteria and preferences, and can choose the alternative that has the highest score. Steps in the
rational decision process are problem definition, Identify decision criteria, weight the criteria, generate
the alternatives, evaluate the alternatives, and select the optimal solution.
Cognitive limits: Managers always have limited time or resources that put boundaries on rationality, and
have come to recognize that the information that comes readily to hand is sometimes more useful than
information that managers need to work hard to get.
Cultural limits: Rationality or being motivated by self-interest might be defined differently depending on
how individuals from different cultures define themselves as interdependent with others or
independent from others.