Whether or not to Prepare for Disaster Research Proposal

Whether or not to Prepare for Disaster - Research Proposal Example A disaster can take many forms such as terrorist attacks, earthquakes, snowstorms, floods, among others. Therefore, it is  crucial  to make a decision on whether or not to prepare for a disaster before it occurs. Preparing for a disaster provides better  management  of crises and enables people to be well prepared when the actual  disaster  occurs. It also enables faster and effective response to disasters, and faster recovery of  business  after a disaster. Moreover, it is necessary to  create  an emergency plan and  ensure  it  is backed  daily on-site or off-site in a secure location (Ferrell and Linda, 2010). However, some people may not  find  it necessary to prepare for disaster due to various reasons. Others may fail to  prepare  due to lack of resources like money and time. Hence, it advisable to choose the  best  decision making model in order to make a  proper  judgment. This paper will explain how the 5-step decision making model can be used to make a decision on whether or not to prepare for disaster. The 5-step decision making model The 5-step model is straightforward and easy to use when making a decision compared to other models.  It consumes less time than other models because it consists of only five steps to follow when making a decision.  The first step is to  define  the  situation  or to identify the problem. ... It is the most time consuming  stage  in the process of decision making, which makes it a challenge to the decision maker. However, when it is not possible to get all the information, people  are forced  to rely on their intuition. The third step involves gathering alternatives (Brassard and Ritter, 2010).  When making a decision, there are other alternatives that a person can use;  thus, it is necessary to  list  other available options.  The list should  contain  other options that one is seriously considering and those that  fit  the main objective of the decision making process.  Listing many  unnecessary  options only makes the decision making process more difficult than it should be,  and also  prolongs the time it should  take  to make a decision. After developing a list of other available alternatives, evaluate the options.  This is the fourth  step  which involves assessing and ranking of the listed options. Single out the most p owerful options then  develop  a list of criterions to use when assessing these options. When ranking the options,  choose  an appropriate  scale  such as a 10  point  or 100 point scale, depending on the complexity of  the  decision  and the  total number of criterions that  have been used  to  assess  the options (Graduate school of business Administration, 2010).  After ranking the options against the chosen criterion, assign weight followed by  specific  scores to each option.  Finally multiply the scale score with the assigned weights then add the total scores of each option and make a decision. The decision making  step  is the final  stage  when making a decision using the 5-step model. However, it is the most difficult step that many