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Simon's Model of Decision-Making: Intelligence Phase

Herbert Simon proposed a three-stage model of decision-making: 1) Intelligence, where the problem or opportunity is identified and data is collected; 2) Design, where alternative solutions are generated; and 3) Choice, where the best solution is selected using criteria. Simon suggested decision-making involves distinct stages of understanding the problem, creating potential solutions, and choosing among alternatives.

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Vani Gangil
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125 views

Simon's Model of Decision-Making: Intelligence Phase

Herbert Simon proposed a three-stage model of decision-making: 1) Intelligence, where the problem or opportunity is identified and data is collected; 2) Design, where alternative solutions are generated; and 3) Choice, where the best solution is selected using criteria. Simon suggested decision-making involves distinct stages of understanding the problem, creating potential solutions, and choosing among alternatives.

Uploaded by

Vani Gangil
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Simon’s Model of Decision-Making

Herbert Simon made key contributions to enhance our understanding of the decision-
making process. In fact, he pioneered the field of decision support systems. According
to (Simon 1960) and his later work with (Newell 1972), decision-making is a process
with distinct stages. He suggested for the first time the decision-making model of human
beings. His model of decision-making has three stages:
• Intelligence which deals with the problem identification and the data collection on the
problem.
• Design which deals with the generation of alternative solutions to the problem at hand.
• Choice which is selecting the 'best' solution from amongst the alternative solutions
using some criterion. 
The figure given below depicts Simon's decision-making model clearly.

                                     

Intelligence Phase
This is the first step towards the decision-making process. In this step the decision-
maker identifies/detects the problem or opportunity. A problem in the managerial
context is detecting anything that is not according to the plan, rule or standard. An
example of problem is the detection of sudden very high attrition for the present month
by a HR manager among workers. Opportunity seeking on the other hand is the
identification of a promising circumstance that might lead to better results. An example
of identification of opportunity is-a marketing manager gets to know that two of his
competitors will shut down operations (demand being constant) for some reason in the
next three months, this means that he will be able to sell more in the market.
Thus, we see that either in the case of a problem or for the purpose of opportunity
seeking the decision-making process is initiated and the first stage is the clear
understanding of the stimulus that triggers this process. So if a problem/opportunity
triggers this process then the first stage deals with the complete understanding of the
problem/opportunity. Intelligence phase of decision-making process involves:
Problem Searching: For searching the problem, the reality or actual is compared to
some standards. Differences are measured & the differences are evaluated to
determine whether there is any problem or not.
Problem Formulation: When the problem is identified, there is always a risk of solving
the wrong problem. In problem formulation, establishing relations with some problem
solved earlier or an analogy proves quite useful.

Design Phase
Design is the process of designing solution outlines for the problem. Alternative
solutions are designed to solve the same problem. Each alternative solution is
evaluated after gathering data about the solution. The evaluation is done on the basic of
criteria to identify the positive and negative aspects of each solution. Quantitative tools
and models are used to arrive at these solutions. At this stage the solutions are only
outlines of actual solutions and are meant for analysis of their suitability alone. A lot of
creativity and innovation is required to design solutions.

Choice Phase
It is the stage in which the possible solutions are compared against one another to find
out the most suitable solution. The 'best' solution may be identified using quantitative
tools like decision tree analysis or qualitative tools like the six thinking hats technique,
force field analysis, etc.
This is not as easy as it sounds because each solution presents a scenario and the
problem itself may have multiple objectives making the choice process a very difficult
one. Also uncertainty about the outcomes and scenarios make the choice of a single
solution difficult.

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