Individuals make decisions from alternatives, largely influenced by their perceptions. Individual decision making is an important factor of behavior at all levels of an organization. Decision making occurs as a reaction to a problem. That is, a discrepancy exists between the current state of affairs and some desired state, requiring us to consider alternative courses of action. Unfortunately, most problems don’t come neatly labeled. One person’s problem is another person’s satisfactory state of affairs.

Every decision requires us to interpret and evaluate information. We typically receive data from multiple sources that we need to screen, process, and interpret. Our perceptual process will affect the outcome. We should consider how our perceptions of the situation influence our decisions. For instance, many perceive that saying no is uncomfortable, and often after saying no we will feel obligated to say yes to subsequent requests. In fact, people are so uncomfortable saying no that they may agree to unethical acts.