Summaries, opinion articles, and discussion questions for class presentation

¶ … President's Search for Quality Decisions

Without the correct information and analysis, a president will not be able to make good foreign and domestic policy decisions. However, there is more to these decisions than just information. In order for a president to be successful, he also has to be able to make timely decisions and ensure he has enough support behind his plans to get them through Congress. Without all of those aspects working together, his likelihood of being an effective leader plummets. Quality decisions are very significant, but any president soon realizes that he has to make some compromises in order to get the support he needs. This can be a dilemma for a president who is very committed to his decision, but without compromise nothing at all will get done. How to make a quality decision and how that quality is measured must also be considered, both in light of how the president feels about them and how the public will feel about the decisions being made.

Personality has a lot to do with decision-making. No matter what else is going on in a person's life, who that person really is on the inside will still affect the kinds of decisions that person makes. One of the most important issues for a president to consider is whether he has the right personality to do the job effectively. Not everyone is capable of the job intellectually, but that is also true from the standpoint of how the person actually feels about the job and whether it fits with how he chooses to live his life. To that end, some presidents appear to make better decisions simply because they enjoy the process much more than others. I liked this article because it gave me a lot of insight into how presidents make their decisions and some of the things they have to think about. Most people do not realize how delicate of a balancing act a president must create to move things along. How does a president make the determination of what quality is, and how much of that quality can be compromised in order to get things done?

Article Summary: Traditional Approaches to Decision-Making

Many people make their decisions analytically. They keep emotion out of what they do, and they only look logically at the facts in an effort to make the correct decision. These types of decision-makers should consider which of their decisions is the most important, and work on that decision first. Once they make that decision, some of the other decisions they need to make may fall into place, or those decisions may be "made for them" based on their relationship to the first decision they made. The most important of their conflicts will be resolved for the best, and the smaller conflicts are things that they can address and more readily accept. As that takes place, these decision-makers learn more about themselves and about the world around them. If an individual does not consider all of the variables properly, though, he or she can end up with a decision that was not really in his or her best interest. It is very important to look at all of the options that are realistic when making a decision.