Category: Decision

Actions and judgments are often times clouded by the basic human need for belonging and acceptance, both in society and by one’s self. The individual searches for identity fueled by the need to find the place in the world in which they find comfort. In both Abraham Rodriguez Jr.’s short story “Babies,” and Ha Jin’s “The Bridegroom,” the reader is forced to acknowledge and examine the decisive moments people face when at the crossroads between choosing to devote themselves completely to the power of integrity and seeing the self as inseparable from society’s perceptions of who one can and cannot be, and what they occasion. Integration through individual self-construction, the construction of social identity related to an individual’s experiences, or by living in the margins of it all, inevitably leads to a fall into imprisonment in a false, distorted and circumscribed way of being.

The decision to live with integrity — through self-determinism, self-definition and self-expression — can be a very liberating experience yet it can be equally fatal. To live with integrity is to literally integrate one’s thoughts, opinions, experiences, and beliefs into acting in a way that is congruent with those understandings and principles. Although by being completely true to oneself an individual can fulfill this desire to live with integrity, preserving and protecting one’s personal identity, consequences are brought about when this identity is regarded as minor or powerless in relation to the dominant group in society. In “The Bridegroom,” Baowen who identified as a homosexual listened to what his heart sought in the end, admitting to the fact that he liked men, “[h]is lips curled upward as if he prided himself on what he had said” (p.234). Like most of the men in the Men’s World club, whom could be heard saying things such as: “Now I feel alive! Only in here can I stop living in hypocrisy,” (p.232) it was in this acceptance of the fact that he was homosexual that he could live his life with integrity. Unfortunately, the setting in which he found himself was one that viewed homosexuality as a “mental, moral disease like an addiction to opium” (p.244). It was described as a “social disease” (p.233), and a crime of “indecent activity” (p.232), in which the individual committing such a crime was considered disruptive in society. Ha Jin focuses metaphorically on sparrows to represent this tension between integrity and social conformity. A sparrow flying way behind a flock catches Old Cheng’s attention as he studies the effects of his handicap (a yellow string tied to one of its legs) on his integration into and ability to follow the group (p.243). In Chinese society, the individual pays an awful price for having what is considered an unusual trait. In comparison, the narrator in “Babies” sacrifices an important part of her identity to the powerful forces against her. The narrator would have loved to have a child but the realization of the consequence of having one kept her from such a reality. Her opinions on motherhood had to change as she re-evaluated her situation. In that sense, identity is always in the process of formation; it is about the process of ‘being’ and ‘becoming’. Although each person has their own individual personality, ideas and thoughts, every individual is shaped by the society and culture by which it is surrounded.

Identity is largely influenced by outside forces, uncontrollable to the individual, that can force a person into sacrificing aspects of their personal identity. One’s self is inseparable from society for the simple reason that an individual is to exist and live in relation to other individuals. Society shapes people and categorizes people into groups leading to discrimination. Thus, some individuals are required to sacrifice certain aspects of their identity in order to fit in. Baowen, had he conformed to society’s views, would have had to deny his sexuality in order to live without consequences, for not doing so led to him being institutionalized and eventually imprisoned. Misrecognition and misunderstanding of the term homosexual, which was an important aspect of Baowen’s personal identity, is what ultimately led to this oppression of which he faced the harsh consequences. He was perceived as a threat to the stability and national unity (p.233) thus measures were taken to make his identity small. Similarly, the narrator in “Babies” also had to keep her identity small. She was forced into accepting the fact that having a child was unacceptable and poorly looked upon in her situation, given that she would be a heroin-addicted, single-parenting, teenage girl trying to raise a kid without money or stability. Although she believed she “could be a great motha” (p.277) and would have loved to have a baby of her own, society’s influence and the certain prejudiced remarks in regards to the kind of life people in the narrator’s environment — including herself — lived, had her questioning and redefining her abilities and the way she personally identified. Stereotypes and demeaning reflections such as “[b]uncha junkies” or “dirt like you,” (p.281) had the narrator question her identity. Through her circumstances, society and the dominant group’s views dictated what was suitable and acceptable and what was not for her. Her social identity was made up of the labels projected onto her and didn’t quite align with her personal identity, so she made the choice to live according to society’s standards, sacrificing a significant aspect of her personal identity. However, sometimes it isn’t so easy to choose between sacrificing individual integrity or social acceptance.

The difficult decision that is choosing to sacrifice personal integrity or integration into society is one which an individual may try to escape by trying to be equidistant or rather midway in between the two, but living this way is no less limiting. When one tries to live in the margins of it all, not identifying totally to neither their personal identity nor to their social identity, it is undeniable that this individual refrains from living to a full extent. It is implausible to defy the principles of individualism and freedom of choice when trying to give in completely to societal conformism. This trial and error can be seen through Ha Jin’s character Old Cheng and his mentality. Cheng had built his life on appearances, related to his standing in society. In the Chinese society, ugliness and curves — those that Cheng doesn’t fail to mention in describing his nominal daughter — but also all individual differences, including homosexuality — portrayed in Baowen’s character — stand out as undesirable and conflicting to the overall social system. To fit in and avoid society’s judgments, without defying his sense of morality, Cheng was put in a position that would have consequences no matter what he chose to do for was impossible for him to avert the decision. The notion of integration and identity can be questionable when the relationship with an individual or place is shaped by a society’s narrow view. Even though he could have accepted to view Baowen fully as a good man even with this latter being homosexual; “What a wonderful husband he could have been,” (p.242) when he would step outside into society, he would have had to allow for the society to identify him differently, in this case, as a homophobe, for otherwise he would be going against what was viewed as politically correct. At first, Cheng tried to understand it and felt saddened by what was happening to Baowen (p.234, p.241), but in the end, he was forced to take position. He couldn’t allow what was happening define him and let personal integrity affect his ability for social integration. “Everybody thought homosexuality was a disease except for Doctor Mai, whose opinion I dared not mention to others. The factory leaders would be mad at me if they knew there was no cure for homosexuality. We had already spent over three thousand yuan on Baowen” (p.244). Nonetheless, Cheng “kept questioning in [his] mind, if homosexuality [was] a natural thing” (p.244) He dared not mention it though for people would know he had been on Baowen’s side all this time, and having a criminal as his son-in-law would affect his social and work status. In the end, all variants would lead to consequences, and he chose the one he thought was least painful to him; never seeing Beina again.

Whether one chooses to adhere to their personal values, to go along with what is expected by society, or to try and live without making a choice, the individual in question is always faced with consequences that don’t allow for a life without limits. Living fully with integrity will not allow for social integration and vice versa, while trying to avoid choosing to live through one or the other is impossible. In the end, integration through individual self-construction, the construction of social identity related to an individual’s experiences, or by living in the margins of it all, inevitably leads to a fall into imprisonment in a false, distorted and circumscribed way of being.

Operations management focuses on carefully managing the processes to supply and distribute products and services. Operations Management is worried with the running of the day-to-day operations of a business or other organisation as effectively and efficiently as possible. it’s of crucial importance altogether organisations, whether or not they manufacture products for patrons or provide a service.

Weirdly whilst much of what’s written about operations management is anxious with a type of decision-making solving of particular problems relatively little attention has been given to the broader decision-making process. We define the operations management decision-making process at this level, because the formulation of overall strategies for operations, typically involving inter-related areas of responsibility with operations management, and therefore the taking of choices in those areas within the pursuit of those strategies, all within the broader business context.

Decision theory, because it has grown up in recent years, may be a formalization of the issues involved in making optimal choices. in an exceedingly certain sense, a very abstract sense, to take care it incorporates research, theoretical economics, and wide areas of statistics, among others.

There are three essential categories of decision theory, each one of them explains a different type of the decision-making process. First one is the Descriptive decision theory which explains and examines how illogical people make their decisions. Second one is Prescriptive decision theory which provides instructions for people to make the best possible or optimal decision being given an unknown decision-making framework. Third and final one is the Normative decision theory which gives advice for making decisions given a set of values.

The definition of decision theory in POM may be a general approach to deciding that’s suitable to a large range of operations management decisions: Capacity planning, Product and repair design, Equipment selection, and site planning.

Decision Theory is characterized as: a collection of future conditions, a listing of alternatives, and known payoff alternatives. To use the decision-making theory, a call maker must follow a particular process first. the method is: the 1st step is identifying possible future conditions or state of nature, then step two is developing a listing of possible alternatives, step three is determining they payoff related to each alternative for each possible future condition, step four is estimating the likelihood of every possible future condition, and lastly step five is evaluating the alternatives supported some decisions, criterion, and choose the most effective alternative.

The decision theory terminology is split into four points. First point is that the goals to be achieved: Objectives which the choice maker wants to attain by his actions. Second point is that the decision maker: Refers to a personal or a corporation. Third point is that the courses of action: Also called “Action” “Action” or “Decision “Decision Alternatives”. they’re under the control of top dog. and therefore, the fourth and final point is that the States of nature which is an exhaustive list of possible future events. top dog has no direct control over the occurrence of particular event.

There are three sorts of environments of deciding. First type is deciding under certainty, during this environment relevant parameters have known values, so when it’s known for sure which is of the possible future conditions will happen just choose the choice that has the most effective payoff under the state of nature. In a situation involving certainty, people are reasonably sure about what is going to happen once they make a call. the data is obtainable and is taken into account to be reliable, and also the cause and effect relationships are known.

Second type is deciding under uncertainty during this environment it’s impossible to assess the likelihood of varied future events. Decisions are sometimes made under complete uncertainty. No information is obtainable on how likely the varied states of nature are. There are five approaches for deciding under uncertainty. First approach is that the Maximin approach: during this approach the choice maker must choose the choice with the most effective of the worst possible payoff. Second approach is that the Maximax approach: during this approach the choice maker must choose the choice with the most effective possible payoff. Third approach is that the Laplace approach: during this approach the choice maker must choose the choice with the most effective average period of any of the alternatives. Fourth approach is that the Minimax Regret approach: during this approach the choice maker must choose the choice that has the smallest amount of worst regrets. Fifth approach is that the Hurwicz criterion: during this approach the choice maker must choose the alternatives with best mixture of optimism and pessimism values. There are two criterions to Hurwicz’s approach. First criterion is that a is that the coefficient of optimism. Second Criterion is 0< α

A common example of decision theory comes from the prisoner’s dilemma during which two individuals are faced with an uncertain decision where the end result isn’t only supported their personal decision, but also on it of the opposite individual. Since both parties don’t know what actions the opposite person will take, this ends up in an uncertain decision framework. While mathematics and statistical models determine what the optimal decision should be, psychology and philosophy introduce factors of human behaviors to suggest the foremost likely outcome.

Third type is deciding under risk, during this environment certain future events have probable outcomes. during this variety of decision-making decisions are made under the condition that the probability of occurrence for every state of nature will be estimated, A widely applied criterion is anticipated cost (EMV). EMV is that the most appropriate approach when the choice maker is neither risk averse nor risk seeking, and it helps determine the expected payoff of every alternative, and choose the choice that has the most effective expected payoff. While making decisions under a state of risk, managers must calculate the probability related to each and every option on the idea of the available information and his experience. For example, when a manager starts to think about launching a new product, he has to correctly examine all of the changes that comes with the launch of a new product like the production cost, the cost of the launch itself, the price that will be set for the product once it hits the shelves, the capital investment required to start the manufacturing process, the potential market size, and what percent of the total market it will portray. Risk analysis includes quantitative and qualitative risk evaluation, risk management and risk communication and supplies managers with a more powerful understanding of the chance and also the benefits related to a suggested course of action. The selections represent a trade-off between the risks and also the benefits related to a selected course of action under conditions of uncertainty.

One of the best ways to analyze a decision is to use a decision tree. Decision trees can help organizations form and run complex information. Decision trees are decision models that answer a selected question supported a matter structure and certain circumstances. These models are presented technically within the kind of a tree structure and are made available to the user through a digital and interactive tool. As a rule, a decision tree starts with an origin meeting point, after which it branches into various possible outcomes. These outcomes then cause additional meeting points until one reaches the correct end product. Therefore, the aim of employing a decision tree is to present the desired information to the user within the most effective way, employing a rational question form, providing relevant information, and avoiding irrelevant questions and unnecessary diversions. Traditionally, decision trees were utilized by organizations for deciding what the best possible outcome is. In practice, though, we see that they could offer an answer to several other problems that both companies and government institutions face, due to their particularly large application. The common factor between the different applications is that knowledge is created in such a way that even users with less significant knowledge can easily get the proper outcome. One isn’t limited to only simple answers or decisions though; one may also prefer to have the utilization of a decision tree end in the picturing of a result within the type of a document and risk analysis.

In April 1985, Coca Cola took biggest risk by changing its classic Coke’s formula and introduced new coke. Pepsi was in full demand at that time because of popular Pepsi challenge. The main turning point for the company was when people thought that new coke tastes like Pepsi and not Classic cola. The market value started declining and company received more calls than ever for bitter taste of new coke. Soon the company realized failure of the product though they tested the product for four years before launching it.

Studies show that though enough testing and documentation was done but Coca cola failed to make decision considering emotional behavior of people. Here comes the concept of intelligent risk taking. The process helps to make decisions based on past events and enables to predict most accurate future outcomes there by staying with current market trend and increasing company’s brand value. But seeing from business intelligence and decision-making point of view the company’s stocks became low up to a point that company had to stop producing new coke and replaced it with original Coca Cola that enabled them stay in market.

New coke was called the “Biggest Marketing blunder of all time” (New Coke | History, Response, & Facts. (2020)). The main reason for this failure was when Coke decided to sweeten its drink because of their competitors .As an organization every company has its rivals but maintaining stability in market is based on response of consumers. Coke at that time came up with rival strategy without considering impact of it on people. It failed in proper sentiment analysis where people’s emotions and behavior should be understood before making decisions. Before bringing any new product, it requires analysis, background checks, affects of it on people, advertisements and research. The company claimed that it spent about $4M for this but still the product failed reason being lack of intelligent decision making. Keeping risks in consideration instead of replacing it with old product Coke would’ve added new product. But the lack of proper analysis of blind test among people who preferred new coke instead of classic coke impacted in taking wrong decision of maintaining just one product. Hence, instead of just launching new product based on social influence to beat Pepsi Coca cola should’ve considered consumers behavior too.

Coca Cola performed beta testing where product is tested in real world conditions on consumers before launching the new coke. The users were not aware which product they were tasting, and the survey results showed people preferred new coke more than the classic coke. Coca Cola failed in beta testing because people were misled about how new coke would be presented in market. Beta testing is usually performed where a product is tested on intended audience and targeted group of people to predict how future results would be but here the case was beating the taste of competitors like Pepsi and replacing classic product with a new one. Studies show the main reasons of failure were:

1. Replacement of product.
2. Misleading focus group.
3. Constricted tunnel vision.
4. Limited use of Business Intelligence and decision-making ability.
5. Failure in testing strategies.
6. Inefficient resources for proper analysis.

A company’s success depends on what type of thinking and strategies they apply. Here, Coca cola used both convergent and divergent thinking where divergent thinking included open ended idea generation method-one new idea leading to another. In contrast convergent thinking includes applying past ideas and following same pattern to derive expected results. Divergent thinking that Coca Cola applied included taking risks and i.e. replacing entire product instead of adding new product and convergent technique included applying previous patterns of research and testing. Therefore, not following one certain technique in uniform way lead to negative results and failure. Based on evidence certain steps should’ve been avoided like decision bias i.e. making decision based on numbers. It is true that numbers play an important role that helps to decide downfall or success of product, but it should not be disregarded that company also took steps pertaining to bias based on memory structures. They misapplied it as they launched new coke relating it to previous diet coke that was a success. Use of BI tools and decision tree applications would have given different outcomes and potentially saved the company.

Today’s businesses can learn from this coke’s failure and make decisions by considering consumer’s sentiments. Example: If a new product is to be launched customers opinion on social media can help decide the company if the replacement or new launch would be a good choice or not. There should be transparency in any decisions that company makes, and people should not be misled about company’s future intentions. Hence, consumer preferences in real-time can help organizations decide negative or positive feedback along with saving company’s valuable time and efforts. These preferences can be noted and tracked in real time with use of Business Intelligence tools and processes. The new Coke failed bringing down the company’s reputation and consumers. The impact was terrible, and its value was overpowered by Pepsi cola that was biggest competitor of the company during that time. The company agreed that it was the biggest risk taken in history of developments done in the organization. It sent a powerful signal to the world that risks should be taken but not at cost that it degrades company’s values and hinders growth. The company learnt an important lesson and need of intelligent risk taking. We can conclude from this case that it’s never the case of not experimenting new things but also focusing on execution of existing methods rather than always being in race for innovation.

In today’s world the company is using AI and big data to know which drinks the customers like more from where and it easily helps them keep a track of numbers where users use their product more. The company learnt from the past experiences and is now using augmented reality that enables technicians know where fixes of machines are required and where technical assistance is needed. The company is also expanding their brand online and it now allows to blend different flavors according to consumers needs.AI also allows to track photographs of Coke posted online and daily or monthly consumption trend can be analyzed. This helps where the coke was consumed more at which time and helps to find if there is any relation of consumption related to time. Hence, BI has a big impact on company’s decision making and insight gaining process. In conclusion, any company should make decisions based on consumers sentiments and not compromise with the standard original product by replacing it with other item in hoard of competition.

References

1. Ismail, S. (2014). 3 Ways Companies Can Encourage Smart Risk Taking. Retrieved 4 June 2020, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238543
2. Coca Cola.the-story-of-one-of-the-most-memorable-marketing-blunders-ever. (2020). Retrieved 4 June 2020, from https://www.coca-colacompany.com/news/the-story-of-one-of-the-most-memorable-marketing-blunders-ever
3. The New Coke Flop. (2020). Retrieved 4 June 2020, from https://www.history.com/news/why-coca-cola-new-coke-flopped
4. Coca-Cola: Driving success with AI and Big Data. (2020). Retrieved 6 June 2020, from https://www.bernardmarr.com/default.asp?contentID=1280
5. New Coke | History, Response, & Facts. (2020). Retrieved 5 June 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Coke
6. Pdf Coca Cola https://www.academia.edu/32379476/DONT_MESS_WITH_COCA-COLA_INTRODUCING_NEW_COKE_REVEALS_FLAWS_IN_DECISION-MAKING_WITHIN_THE_COCA-COLA_COMPANY

Morality is the relationship between right and wrong in human behavior. Simply put, it is a system of right and wrong principles. A dilemma is just a difficult decision, which means that you must choose between two or more. In other words, a dilemma is a situation where there are two possible solutions. A moral dilemma is a situation or problem in which a person is faced with a dilemma between good and evil.

There are several types and common points of moral dilemmas, which are divided into the following categories: epistemological and ontological dilemmas, self-imposed and world-imposed dilemmas, obligation dilemmas, cognitive moral dilemmas, involving a situation, two or more of them. An optional moral conflict is between them and the moral subject hardly conflicts. Moral requirements are higher than other requirements. In other words, the moral subject does not know which choice is morally right or wrong. For example, I should fulfill my promise to my daughter and participate in the competition as soon as possible, but on the way to the competition, I saw a sick elderly person who needed to be taken to the hospital. Where are my royal duties? We cannot deny that there are ethical requirements here, but we must note that we want to understand the situation more deeply. Does entering the game in advance achieve an important goal? How serious is the sick old man’s condition? In fact, in this case, it is difficult for you to choose which option is morally correct. In addition, one option must be at least the other. It just requires greater wisdom about the situation, so it is called a cognitive moral dilemma. These requirements conflict with each other, and these conflicting moral requirements will not overlap with each other. The point is that neither of the moral requirements is stronger than the other so the moral subjects hardly know the conflicting moral requirements. For example, a police doctor cares for the needs of injured police officers during a protest. However, two policemen urgently need blood transfusions. Also, currently, only one bag of blood is available. Who should the doctor give a blood transfusion to? We cannot say whether blood transfusion to police 1 is more ethical than blood transfusion to police 2, and vice versa. A self-imposed moral dilemma is caused by the improper behavior of the moral subject. For example, Cornelius is running for the presidency. During the campaign, he promised to the indigenous people in his area to bring them good roads, lower prices, and better water just to win their votes, but at the same time, he sought financial support from other countries. Fortunately, Cornelius won the election but faced the dilemma of fulfilling its promise to the indigenous people, allowing foreigners to encroach on the country’s mineral resources. In fact, through his actions, Cornelius created a situation in which he could not get rid of these two obligations. A moral dilemma imposed by the world means that certain events in the world place moral subjects in a situation of moral conflict. For example, James is in a state where he is asked to choose his sister or brother, who will be sent to the gas chamber in England. As a doctor, only the James family will have immunity. If you don’t choose which one should survive, Dr. Von Chris Niemand will send them both to their deaths. James chooses his brother Andrew to go to the gas chamber. His sister Jane was sent to another country.

Moral dilemmas have their own ways of dealing with them in daily life, that is, as agents of moral dilemmas, in life, we sometimes come across moral dilemmas that test our psychological power and judgment. When facing an ethical dilemma, there are many factors to consider. Who is involved and why? Does action need to be taken, and if so, what is its role? Perhaps it is best to tell others about the dilemma and let them decide what to do. There may be other solutions that are not easy to see at first.

Regardless of the situation, there are some tips to help resolve ethical dilemmas. Although this format may seem difficult to do, it is usually the best way to handle the situation. First, should not be too biased in one way or another according to the situation. It is important to use logic to force people to consider as many points as possible to find the best solution. Logical thinking can also help a person calm down and relax, rather than being too emotional to make a reasonable decision. Understandably, due to the nature of the dilemma, this is impossible in some cases. In this case, it is best to wait until the mood is less unstable before making a decision. The pros and cons of every decision are a bit tricky because every decision has only pros and cons. No matter what happens, using the pros and cons list can reveal other factors that may influence the decision. For example, suppose a person and his best friend are studying at a university. They saw how their best friend stole the laptop from the ICT lab. They confronted their friend and convinced him to return the laptop, but he refused. Now, do you report the best friend in your life to the campus police, or are they silent about it and assume the college can bear the loss? This is not an easy decision for most people, but weighing the pros and cons can help. If they don’t know how to report their friend, the friend may continue to do so, which may affect the college’s ability to conduct business thereby influencing other people’s laptop use. However, if they report their friends, they may lose their best friends forever. Which decision will cause the least pain or injustice to all parties involved? Sometimes, regardless of the decision that is made, some people will get hurt. If this is unavoidable, it is better to know who is involved and how they will be affected. For example, suppose a manager is told to fire some employees. Should the manager fire the production line staff, the sales staff, the accountant, the main office, or the delivery team? Managers may find that it is better for the company to lay off just one or two employees in each department, rather than lay off the entire department. In this way, each department is minimally affected without affecting the dilemma, and there will not always be right or wrong answers. In fact, there may be several wrong answers. It is up to everyone to decide the best way to handle their situation.

At the end of the day, people facing moral dilemmas will be challenged mentally, morally, or spiritually to make the best decision.

As we say, we live once. This means that the opportunities provided by life should be used as much as possible. But how do you know that the chosen path is correct? So often we have to make decisions, think about it, or is it what I want?

Already from elementary school, we have a choice – what to do next? Join a high school, gymnasium, go straight to the profession or do nothing? The choice is in your hands, the parents can help you or they will choose your place. It is so individual. Someone already knows what they want, While I was in elementary school, I had the idea after graduation I could learn about Computer Systems Technician. Why? I don’t really remember anymore. Not that I really liked to work with pc, but at that point, apparently, it was something enticing. However, after finishing elementary school, I decided to join a gymnasium before choosing. Was it the best option? I do not know.

Three years of no better or worse decisions that taught something new, changed life and led forward. But when these gymnasium school years were past, I came back to the choice – what next? In one year, I spent a couple of months on a summer holiday in England. I knew what life was there. maybe go away? Or go to university, get a profession?

I’m inclined to learning, but the next dilemma followed? What to learn? Pleasure for those who have already realized what they like, who is interested in something, but I didn’t. I completed career tests, talked to people.

I have been studying at the university for about a year, I have been working part-time (not in the profession I was studying and I cannot say that I was excited about what I was doing because working with papers has never tempted me) to support my parents and already realize that this time will not be the case a profession in which I would like to work. I have understood it for several years now, after finishing school. If I regret my choice? No, because I learned a lot, but I realize that if I had the opportunity to turn back time, I might still join a professional high school and then a university. Why? Because then now I would be two professions and perhaps one of them would be closer to my heart. But who knows it.

If you are one of them, I wish you find the one thing whats like your heart, what you can happily call yours. It doesn’t matter if it’s your job, your hobby or anything else. The key is to make your own decisions, learn from them and find what you are looking for.

Decision trees are a popular form of algorithm used in machine learning predictive modelling.

Classification and Regression Trees (CART) refers to decision tree algorithms that are used for classification and regression learning.

The definition of a decision tree based on categorical targets (classification) as seen in the diagram below; the same concept holds if our targets are real numbers (regression).

Decision Tree

Decision tree algorithms are nothing but if-else statements that are used to forecast an outcome based on results.

This is a simple example of Decision Tree to play badminton outdoor.

Recursive partitioning is used to construct a decision tree: each node can be divided into left and right child nodes beginning from the root node. These nodes can then be separated further, and they can become the parent nodes of their children nodes.

For example, looking at the image above, the root node is Outlook and splits into the child nodes Sunny, Rain and Overcast based on the outlook. The Humidity and Wind node further splits into two child nodes.

So, how can we figure out where the best splitting point is for each node?

Starting from the root, the data is split based on the attribute that yields the most Information Gain (IG). We then repeat this splitting step at each child node in an iterative process until the leaves are pure — that is, all samples at each node belong to the same class.

In fact, this can lead to a very deep tree with a lot of nodes, which can lead to overfitting. As a result, we usually prune the tree by limiting the maximum depth of the tree.

The difference between the impurity of the parent node and the number of the impurities of the child nodes is the Information Gain; the lower the impurity of the child nodes, the greater the information gain.

Maximizing Information Gain

We need to specify an objective function that we want to optimize using the tree learning algorithm in order to divide the nodes at the most informative functions. Our goal is to maximize the information gain at each split, which we describe as follows:

Where, f is the feature to perform the split; Dp, Dleft, and Dright are the datasets of the parent and child nodes; I is the impurity index, Np is the cumulative number of samples at the parent node, and Nleft and Nright are the number of samples in the child nodes.

For binary decision trees, use the equation above. If you have a decision tree with a lot of nodes, you just have to add up the impurity of all of them.

Classification Trees

It’s an algorithm with a fixed or categorical target variable. The algorithm is then used to determine which ‘class’ a target variable is most likely to belong to.

Consider the example besides for a general classification tree of Male & Female.

Regression Trees

A regression tree is a method of predicting the value of a target variable. You would want to estimate the sale prices of a residential home, which might be a continuous variable, as an example of a regression style problem.

This can be determined by both continuous variables such as square footage and categorical factors such as the type of residence, the location in which the property is located, and so on.

When to use Classification and Regression Trees

Classification trees are often used when a dataset must be divided into classes as part of a response variable. In most of the cases, the classes Yes or No are used. In other terms, there are only two of them, and they are mutually exclusive. In certain cases, there may be more than two classes, in which case a classification tree algorithm form is used.

Regression trees, on the other side, are used where the response variable is continuous. A regression tree is used, for example, when the response variable is anything like the price of a home or the temperature of the day.

Regression trees are used in problems that require prediction, while classification trees are used in problems that require classification.

How Classification and Regression Trees Work

A classification tree splits a dataset into categories based on data homogeneity. For example, let’s say there are two factors that influence whether or not a customer can purchase a certain phone: income and age.

If the training data shows that 95% of people over 30 bought a smartphone, the data is split at that step, and age becomes the tree’s top node. The data is now “95% pure” as a result of this division. When it comes to classification trees, impurity measures like entropy as well as the Gini index are used to calculate the homogeneity of the results.

In a regression tree, each of the independent variables is used to match a regression model to the target variable. After that, each independent variable’s data is split at multiple stages.

The difference between predicted and real values is squared at each point to get ‘A Sum of Squared Errors’ (SSE). The SSE of the variables is compared, and the variable or point with the lowest SSE is selected as the split point. This process is repeated indefinitely.

Advantages of Classification and Regression Trees

The aim of any classification or regression tree analysis is to generate a series of if-else conditions that make for accurate prediction or classification.

Based on a series of if-else variables, classification and regression trees yield correct predictions or predicted classifications. They usually have a number of benefits over typical decision trees.

1. The Results are Naïve

The interpretation of classification or regression tree results is relatively simple. The findings’ simplicity aids in the following ways:

• It enables the classification of new findings in a timely manner. This is because evaluating only one or two logical conditions is much easier than computing scores for each category using complex nonlinear equations.

• It can also lead to a simpler model that describes why the results are classified or predicted the way they are. For example, if-then statements make it much simpler to understand business issues than complex nonlinear equations.

2. They are Nonparametric & Nonlinear

Classification and regression tree approaches are well adapted to data mining because they do not require any tacit assumptions.

Regression and grouping Relationships between these factors can be shown by trees that would not have been feasible using other methods.

3. Classification and Regression Trees Implicitly Perform Feature Selection

Feature selection, also known as variable screening, is a crucial aspect of analytics. The top few nodes on which the tree is divided are the most critical variables within the set by using decision trees. As a consequence, function discovery is carried out automatically, and we don’t have to repeat the process.

Limitations of Classification and Regression Trees

There are several examples of classification and regression trees where the use of a decision tree did not yield the best results. Some of the drawbacks of classification and regression trees are mentioned below:

• Overfitting: When the tree is overfitted, it takes into account a lot of noise in the data and produces an inaccurate result.

• High variance: In this case, a small variation in the data will result in a large variance in the prediction, impacting the outcome’s stability.

• Low bias: A very complicated decision tree normally has a low bias. This makes incorporating new data into the model very challenging.

Conclusion

The classification and regression tree (CART) algorithm is one of the most basic and oldest algorithms. It’s a technique for predicting outcomes dependent on a collection of predictor variables.

They’re great for data mining because they don’t need any data pre-processing.

As opposed to other computational models, decision tree models are simple to understand and execute, giving them a significant benefit.

Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare in the late 16th century is a well-known story about a pair of star-crossed lovers. The plot is centred on the affair of two youthful lovers from long-standing rivals. Romeo and Juliet’s tragedy is either a result of haste or fate. The story’s catastrophe is not restrictedly an outcome of haste or fate, but evidently, both of the themes contributed to the cause of the disaster. Romeo and Juliet’s hasty actions of escapism lead to the sequences of their misadventure. The efforts of Romeo and Juliet’s families and friends aid them to perform impulsively leading to calamity. Romeo and Juliet’s connections to the inevitable and predetermined fate directed them to their tragic end. In Shakespeare’s creation of the play, his writing choices relating to fate, impact the personas’ decisions.

Hasty Decisions: The Path to Tragedy

Romeo and Juliet’s hasty actions of escapism lead to the sequences of their misadventure. At the balcony scene, Juliet thinks “It is too rash, too unadvis’d, too sudden” to exchange “faithful” vows so shortly. She compares it to the “lightening”, how it flashes and disappears before anybody can even say it “lightens”. Shakespeare used this to suggest how quickly their love is drawing up with impetuous haste, displaying Juliet’s slight maturity that they should wait longer to determine if it is true “love”. Having said that, Juliet does not stay on her decision about how exchanging promises was too sudden, from this point on it severely affects the play. However, Juliet simply leaves Romeo stating if his “love be honorable”, to send her a “word tomorrow” for their “marriage” to proceed. This foreshadows Juliet indirectly tricking him, to ensure he intends to devote to the wedding (Romeo blatantly takes the chance). Denoting Juliet, herself, swiftly changed her mind and committed to marry him the next day knowing the family dispute may cause violence or separate them. Yet, they still rapidly took measures, promoting their grievous end. Furthermore, when Romeo goes to beg the Friar to immediately “marry” him and Juliet “today”, the Friar questions him how he had “so soon forsaken”, how he gave up on Rosaline. Romeo proclaims “Doth grace for grace and love for love allow. The other did not so.” He overcomes his puppy love with Rosaline, having more of a chance with Juliet as she returns his love. This demonstrates how young Romeo is misinterpreting lust and physical emotion for true love. He stands on “sudden haste” to wed Juliet, the day they met, without even thinking twice about it. They both are trying to get away and forget their other relationships like Romeo’s lovesickness with Rosaline and Juliet’s unwanted marriage with Paris. Indicating that, Romeo moving on so quickly from Rosaline means he isn’t truly in love with Juliet, after all, Romeo attended the ball for Rosaline and he later found Juliet. This not only shows their escapism is one of the causes of rushingly bringing the young lovers together but also how their unwise decisions regarding moving with urgent haste for their wedding and immediately come about a plan to secretly elope caused their tragic end. Romeo and Juliet’s rushed acts in regards to their infatuated love steer the way towards their series of demolition.

Influence of Family and Friends: A Catalyst for Impulsivity

The efforts of Romeo and Juliet’s families and friends aid them to perform impulsively leading to calamity. When Romeo beseeched the Friar to get himself and Juliet married, he disagrees as Romeo had “another out to have”. This displays how the Friar is modestly wise for a small moment as he thinks Romeo is moving too quickly in regards to who he is loving. As he says “they stumble that run fast” He implies Romeo should slow down mentally and physically in his love or will descend in his life (as he does). Subsequently, the Friar is effortlessly convinced and hastily accepts to get them covertly wedded as he states “I’ll thy assistant be. He does this on the subject of turning the foes’, “rancor to pure love”, which is immoral and utterly wishful of him to do so. Ironically, his plan works out, their family feud does progress from hatred as they come to peace, but only after the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. They realize how much destruction it has caused and reconcile each other. Having said that, this exemplifies how the Friar irresponsibly jumps to conclusions rapidly without fully considering them and their consequences throughout the play. His actions are guiding the lovers in making more numerous ill-advised decisions leading them to their decease. After this action, When Juliet asks the Friar for a plan, he advises Juliet to “Take thou this vial, being then in bed” where she is in a deathlike state for 42 hours letting her and Romeo reunite at a certain time in the “Capel’s monument”. The Friar’s initial hasty moves to marry Romeo and Juliet means he has no alternative here than to perform a wild plan to assist Juliet to evade having to marry Paris. With this insane plan, the misunderstanding occurs and leads to their demise. Nonetheless, Juliet’s parents were a significant influence leading to their plans to escape. Juliet’s mother rushingly says her “careful father” arranged a marriage with the “noble” “Paris” occurring in three days. They hastily put the marriage in place thinking it would make Juliet happy in the grieving of Tybalt’s death when she is actually depressed by Romeo’s “banishment”. Though Juliet refuses, her parents berate her immensely, Lord Capulet threatening the thirteen-year-old “worthless girl” that she either goes to Church on Thursday or she “shall not house” with him. The audience is shown to illustrate how her social position affects having her voice being heard. She never had a say in expressing her wishes or making decisions which influence her life. This presents how Juliet wants to escape from the pressure of her family to marry someone she does not truly like being around when she has already exchanged vows with Romeo. Her parents gave her such short notice of her marriage with Paris and Lord Capulet even brought it a day closer. Their coercive acts rapidly transformed her thoughts, impacting her in promptly producing a crazy and foolish plan with the Friar; so that she and Romeo can unify and escape, conducting their desolation. Moreover, the Nurse contributed to Romeo and Juliet’s deaths by encouraging their love and being at variance with her advice, she says “I think it best you married with the county.O, he’s a lovely gentleman!”. She completely changed her views and devalued Romeo, comparing him as a “dishclout” to Paris after all the times she “praised” him. Consciously knowing about Juliet being married to Romeo, she suggests Juliet would be just as happy with marrying Paris. Juliet, feeling betrayed, disagrees with the now, untrustworthy confidante. Making Juliet infuriated, she thought she would find her own solutions (such as having the power of taking her life) or find a “remedy” with the Friar. This leads her to not inform the Nurse of her absurd plan to fake her death leading to grave misconstruction. Romeo and Juliet’s families and friends assist them in acting hastily and immaturely which clearly lead to a series of unfortunate events.

Fate’s Inescapable Grip: Steering the Star-Crossed Lovers

Romeo and Juliet’s connections to the inevitable and predetermined fate directed them to their tragic end. As Romeo goes to the Capulet’s ball, he “fear[s] too early” and has this sudden feeling of worry that the party would be the inception of something unfortunate which is “hanging in the stars. Something that will end up having his “life” “bitterly “expire”. This conveys Romeo’s notable association with fate as he undergoes multiple episodes of a notion of misfortune throughout the play. He implies his life ends due to suicide in favour of being with Juliet in spiteful death. He mentions “hanging in the stars” as he lets the audience make a connection to the prologue, raising he is “star-crossed” making the stars work against their relationship. As he states in a fearing way, he may go to the monument “too early”, as if he went in normal time, he would be there just in time when Juliet wakes up. Foreshadowing the other early events, being Juliet’s early marriage with Paris, as well as the lovers’ early deaths. Fate being predestined had to make Romeo go early causing their ill-fated tragic events. For all that, before Romeo kills Tybalt after the killing of Mercutio, he says “This day’s black fate” will affect the future, starting something terrible in the coming days. Indicating his action destroyed his future with the beloved Juliet. He cries out “O, I am fortune’s fool!”. This firstly foreshadows how Tybalt’s murder was destined, making Romeo a victim of his uncontrollable fate and having his future ruined. When he says he is the “fortune’s fool”, he is referring to how he is being mocked as a model of amusement, by the god or his destiny. This means fate has played him as a fool as he never had great destiny from the moment he was born. His encounters with fate were always negative. All the tragedies that occur from this time forth, is unfortunately determined by Romeo’s terrible mistake. Moreover, when Romeo finds out misleading information about Juliet’s death, he yells out “I defy you stars!”. He declares, openly refusing to obey his destiny or concentrate on the stars’ positions as he would rather be in death, still passionately loving Juliet than imagining life without her. This directed him to his quick action of a suicide prompt from poison, causing Juliet to stab and kill herself with Romeo’s “dagger”. This coincidently satisfies Shakespeare’s disastrous destiny of tragic lovers. While Romeo and Juliet “farewell” each other, Juliet mentions how her “ill-divining soul” sees him as “one dead in the bottom of a tomb”. Juliet entreats fortune, “O fortune, fortune! All men call thee fickle”. Her “ill-divining” soul has a premonition and is foretelling the future where she is visualising Romeo’s death, predicting it is the last time they’ll be together interacting. She predicts this knowingly she’s against her Capulet family values while in a relationship with her exact rival, Romeo Montague. She indeed recognizes this will most-likely, will end up in a tragedy due to the family quarrel. Additionally, Juliet begs for “Fortune” to stop being so “fickle” and unpredictable, to make up its mind by being kind to unvarying “Romeo” who’s known for “faith”. This expresses Juliet’s perspective that she thinks her fortune’s fickleness is in control of their affection. She asks the fortune to send Romeo back home soon, but the instability of fortune, the audience’s knowledge of the stars being against their will and the muddled plan doesn’t end up how she wished it to, causing a wake of destruction. This influences the outcome as it was all the stars’ ill-fated plan to reunite the Montagues and Capulets but in a way causing the killings of several people including the tragic young lovers. The bonds that Romeo and Juliet have to the unavoidable fate direct them to their disastrous conclusion.

Shakespeare’s Craft: Fate and Decision-Making

In Shakespeare’s creation of the play, his writing choices relating to fate, impact the personas’ decisions. Significantly, the first lines in the prologue mention that a “pair of star-crossed lovers take their life”. Stating their “fearful passage” led to their “death-marked love”. In the play’s starting lines, Shakespeare already reveals the significant message of the play, but this allows the audience to comprehend and appreciate the forms of the predestined fate. As Shakespeare mentions the “star-crossed lovers”, he refers to how the stars were completely opposed to Romeo and Juliet’s relationship, letting the viewers know about the unlucky children’s tragic fate. He included this due to most of the characters believing in fate, the Elizabethan England back in the day, they were fairly superstitious, blaming fate, the constellations’ positions, or heavenly creatures influencing incomprehensible human destiny. They “take their life” indicating that the series of destruction consequently cause the lovers to woefully commit suicide noting their “death-marked love”; Due to fate’s cruel plan, the rival families’ conflict was resolved by nothing but their own “children’s end”. In addition to fate, an important character in the play, Friar Lawrence accuses the fate of his actions. The Friar discovers the letter hasn’t gotten through to Romeo, he cries “Unhappy fortune” was responsible for restricting the letter from him. As Juliet wakes up from her deep sleep and realizes that Romeo is lifeless, without hesitation, the Friar blames it on how “A greater power than we can contradict hath thwarted our intents”. This suggests how the Friar doesn’t want to take responsibility for his actions, he blames it on fate. Though it is fate’s wicked plot, the Friar significantly contributed to their demise. He encouraged and secretly let Romeo and Juliet married, later, creating an insane scheme that was completely misconstrued. He simply states that an exceptional power (fortune) that “we” cannot contest, ruined their plan of action. This signifies how fate always has a way of coming through. There could have been some small changes and the lovers would be alive. If there was no plague, the letter would have gone to Romeo. Romeo could have gone to the tomb seconds later or Juliet could have woken up seconds earlier. If the Friar went to the tomb before Romeo, both could be saved. This implies fate’s powerfulness and it’s intentions, leading to finally have the lovers die of suicide. This whole story was a failed plan of reuniting the lovers but in another aspect, it was a successful plan, these perfect sequence of events finally reunited the two opposing families, the Capulets and the Montagues but it took several significant lives to wind up to the resolution. The characters’ decisions associated with fate are affected by Shakespeare’s composition of writing in the play.

Conclusion

All things considered, Romeo and Juliet’s rushing actions due to escapism lead to a trail of destruction. The relatives of Romeo and Juliet assist them to perform hasty and impetuous actions promoting their unfortunate end. The associations Romeo and Juliet have with predestined fate conduct their unlucky outcome. Shakespeare’s structure of writing influences the roles played in the story. Romeo and Juliet’s tragedy occurred because of both of the themes, haste and fate. Haste was played by multiple characters throughout the play producing further difficulties and complications, Fate was an inevitable power which many events were caused by. Since the stars were crossed and against the relationship for the lovers, this caused their tragic end but finally unified the families’ feud. Haste and Fate majorly contributed to the powerfully unfortunate story of Romeo and Juliet.

The significance of the human decision is beyond what can be described with a mere cause-and-effect structure. All choices ultimately influence any given outcome that an individual happens to experience. Furthermore, provided that an individual has absolute control over what actions they choose to make, what they perceive as right from wrong may differ from another. ‘All American Boys’ by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely and ‘The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates’ by Wes Moore encompass this concept in its entirety. Both novels corroborate each other in that the protagonist struggles with the decisions of themselves and those around them. That being said, all choices are made on behalf of an individual’s perception, but given that other perspectives may vary, there will always be positive and negative consequences.

It is an individual’s right to make their own decision, given that they do so based on their own moral compass. As in the case of ‘All American Boys’, tensions rose within the community after Rashad was savagely beaten by officer Paul Galluzzo, the blame being placed upon the notion of racial prejudice. However, in explaining to Quinn why he made the decision he had made, Paul stated: “There was a woman in the store. The kid took her down because she caught him stealing, I went in to protect her, and then he went after me, okay?…I was protecting the lady. I was just doing my job” (Reynolds and Kiely, 209). Paul’s testimony supports that he acted on his own moral compass. Though it may not have been the correct decision, his perspective of the situation altered his choice and consequently influenced the surrounding community.

Likewise, Rashad’s father had acted similarly on his own accord in that he had shot a young black male in the belief that he was about to pull out a weapon. In reflecting on the moment to Rashad he explains that he “had been in so many other situations where things had gotten crazy. A hand goes in a pocket and out comes a pistol or a blade. And all I could think about was making it home to you, Spoony, and your mother” (Reynolds and Kiely, 235). The stigma of the ‘typical’ criminal had ultimately influenced Rashad’s father. His previous experiences had all involved similar circumstances, and he was only attempting to prevent another dangerous incident by choosing to shoot the young man. Like Paul, Rashad’s father had based his decision on his moral compass. He chose to do what was right given the context of the situation and, as a result, had to face the consequences. Granted, Rashad’s father explains that he had made his decision under the mindset of coming home to his family once more. It is not explicitly stated whether or not Paul had thought the same when he arrested Rashad, but he did in fact act on his own instinct, just like Rashad’s father.

Given that perception affects decision-making, the perspective of one’s situation may also be interpreted differently by others. In ‘The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates’, the other Wes Moore was faced with the constant struggle of financial limitations. Consequently, he was often involved in the drug industry in order to provide his families an income, despite being reminded of the dangers by his older brother, Tony. Wes sought change by enrolling in the Job Corps program, but it soon became evident that having multiple families was “breaking Wes down. Alicia complained that he was not giving her enough money to provide for the kids they shared. Cheryl was now constantly calling him about wanting more time with the kids-which meant she wanted more money to take care of them. His mother needed more money because she was raising both Wes’s and Tony’s kids” (Moore, 145). Wes was disadvantaged by the fact that he needed to provide for multiple people. One may disagree with the distribution of drugs as a source of income. However, to Wes, the drug industry was the only viable solution to provide for Alicia, Cheryl, and his mother. Despite this, his decision to continue to be involved with drugs only lead to a downward spiral in that he began to partake in more dangerous tasks to receive money.

That being said, the consequence of an individual’s decision has the potential to yield both positive and negative effects. This is explicitly described by Colonel Murphy in ‘The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates’, where he says: “When it is time for you to leave this school, leave your job, or even leave this earth, you make sure you have worked hard to make sure it mattered you were ever here” (Moore, 133). Murphy emphasizes that the choices made by an individual are what truly contributes to their significance in the world. Wes Moore, the author of the novel, lived a childhood of poverty, often slacked in his education, and maintained a rather rebellious attitude. Because of this, his relationship with his mother began to deteriorate and she was eventually convinced to send him to Valley Forge Military Academy. Moore was disciplined and following Murphy’s words decided to pursue the position as a second lieutenant in the Army. His decision to have no motivation towards school indeed hurt his relationship with his mother. But by doing so, Moore was allowed to restructure his life and found a deep passion for the military.

It can be argued that some decisions directly have either a positive or a negative outcome. For example, it can be said Paul Galluzzo’s decision to arrest Rashad in ‘All American Boys’ was solely negative. It fueled the hatred of the surrounding community and opened the conversation to racial prejudice and police brutality. Though that may be true, Rashad’s incident accomplished much more than infuriating the community. It sparked the movement in which supporters would march for Rashad; the community utilized their outrage in a protest that would tackle the notion of racism. As stated by Quinn, “That’s why I was marching. Nothing was going to change unless we did something about it. We! White people! We had to stand up and say something about it goo, because otherwise it was just like what one of those posters in the crowd outside school said: OUR SILENCE IS ANOTHER KIND OF VIOLENCE” (Reynolds and Kiely, 292). Paul’s decision to beat and arrest Rashad, though he based it on his moral compass, was indeed unjust. But the significance of the event encouraged the community to take action and express their thoughts in the form of protest. There was not a sole outcome, but rather a combination of both positive and negative results. What had happened to Rashad was unfortunate, but the community refused to remain silent, as Quinn had described, and avidly challenged the concepts of racial prejudice and police brutality through the march.

Furthermore, I have personally experienced a decision that I made in which it was never entirely positive or negative. Like Quinn in ‘All American Boys’, I was faced with the conflict of expressing my thoughts following the events of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. It was difficult for me on whether or not I wanted to participate in the school walkouts that were taking place. The intention was to honor the victims of the shooting, as well as attract the government’s attention to consider reformation of firearm laws. Though very reasonable, I did not feel confident that the walkouts would promote change. That being said, I had to either remain silent and conform with those who did the same, or take action to attempt to bring about change in society. I did indeed participate in that it was a step towards a possible larger movement. Nevertheless, though the walkouts did not have any significant influence over society, it was not necessarily a negative outcome. I made the decision to participate, and in doing so, I was able to witness the emotional power that young individuals can have over a situation.

The individual’s right and opportunity to make a choice based on what they perceive as right from wrong ultimately contribute to positive and negative consequences. As in the case of ‘All American Boys’, both Paul and Rashad’s father relied on their moral compass to make a decision. However, given that the perspective of a situation may vary among others, an individual’s decision may not always be ‘ideal’ and consequently will have both positive and negative consequences. Both Wes Moores struggled with unreasonable decisions throughout their lives. However, the author Wes Moore was allowed to improve at Valley Forge as a result of one of his decisions, whereas the other Wes Moore had to resort to the drug industry due to financial limitations. The outcomes of situations are based on certain choices that an individual may make, but due to their perception of the circumstances, the possibility of having both positive and negative consequences is inherent.

Some people believe that they are free, particularly in making their own decisions. But as for me, I don’t feel free because I believe that a lot of external factors influence making my own decisions.

First and foremost, sometimes our family makes decisions for us like you must wear these clothes and you must choose these courses. For example, when I finished tenth grade, I decided to choose the arts stream because it is easiest as compared to medical, non-medical, and commerce, but my parents forced me to choose the medical stream because they thought that this stream was best for me to study as compared to other streams. They do not want to know about my interest. Thus, at that time I am totally dependent on my parents to make a decision for my life.

Moreover, when we make any decision, it depends on our budgets. If we do not have enough money, we are not able to make decisions on our own, that time we depend on someone else or our parents. For example, last year I wanted to buy a Honda car for myself and my family because when we use public transport, it takes a lot to reach our destination. If I have my own private vehicle, I reach my destination very easily and I am also able to save time. When I went to the shop and told them that I wanted to buy a Honda car, they presented a lot of colors to me. Finally, I like a car, when I asked them what the price of that car was, they said eleven lakhs. I was totally shocked. I was not able to buy a car because I did not have enough money to buy that car. I felt very shy at that time because my friends were also with me. So, when we make any decision, it depends on our budgets also. We are not free to make our own decisions according to our own needs.

Furthermore, people, including me, take a lot of responsibility when they do any job and household work. Sometimes they do not have enough time to do things for themselves to relax their mind and for their family because of work pressure. They are more likely to depend on jobs and household work as compared to making some decisions on their own because of lack of time, as well as workload.

Having said all of the above, I don’t consider myself completely free, particularly in the context of making my own decisions, because there are many things that affect that.

INTRODUCTION

Adam Smith’s economic theory Laissez-Faire had support from numerous classical economists, but this individualistic theory had devasting outcomes. Then all the industrial relations were administered by the management. Over time, society was shifting gears from laissez-faire to social welfare society. Administrative law was expanding its horizon, and therefore socio-economic justice obliged the executives to implement a statutory safeguard to its employees. The entire process of disciplinary action is a challenging responsibility. A manager cannot slack an unproductive employee on its free will; he will have to initiate disciplinary proceedings as per the rules of services. If the management does not follow the principles of natural justice, the abrupt dismissal will get challenged for the violation of the same. The disciplinary committee cannot be biased and pronounce the decision without giving the fair opportunity of hearing the employee against whom allegations of misconduct are alleged. The management has to establish his alleged misconduct, and the employee has to defend himself.

The principle of natural justice is not novel to us. This principle is as archaic as the system of dispensing justice. This principle’s importance is such that it is continually there. It is alike ‘an essential inbuilt component’ of justice dispensing mechanism. It is undoubtedly a robust defence against any judicial or administrative; order or action, adversely affecting the substantive rights of an individual.

UNDERSTANDING OF ‘NATURAL JUSTICE’

Natural justice is a procedural safeguard against any arbitrary or unfair decision of a domestic or an administrative tribunal; this decision should affect the person’s rights. It is a term which is used to indicate procedural rights in English common law. The whole concept of natural justice revolves around two elementary principles. First, the judge of a proceeding should not form a predisposition on the merits of matter without hearing all the parties. Although, every judge has their own opinions, views and preferences that does not mean he/she is not going to apply his/her mind judicial while pronouncing the final judgement. The genuine certification of a judge is that adjudication of a case is not at all affected by the judge’s prejudice. A judge decision shouldn’t get influence from prejudices; moreover, the basis of the judgement should be the laws and facts based on evidence recorded before the courts. The second elementary principle is that all parties involved in a dispute have the right to be heard. No person should be unheard before the court of law. Every party should be allowed to state their case. Modern-day experts lay a great deal of emphasis and term it as a fundamental requirement of the rule of law. If a legal proceeding conducted according to due process of law and that judgement shall be a just and a fair decision, free from the arbitrariness of administrative authorities.

The principle of natural justice is not indicative of this contention that justice done to one party should be an injustice to the other party. Therefore, the rectitude of law is in maximising the pleasure of beneficiaries and depreciating the pain of others. To be specific and accurate, natural justice insinuates fairness, reasonableness, equity and equality.

ORIGIN

The principle of natural justice signify justice according to one’s conscious. Derived from the Roman concept (jus naturale) and Greek concept (Lex naturale) which meant good conscious, natural justice, natural equity or moral law. This phrase for the first time used in the case of Maclean vs. The Workers Union and subsequently it has been stated as follows.

“The phrase is, of course, used only in a popular sense and must not be taken to mean that there is any justice natural among men. Among most savages there is no such thing as Justice in the modern sense. In ancient days a person wronged executed his own justice. Amongst our own ancestors, down to the thirteenth century, manifest felony, such as that of a manslayer taken with his weapon, or a thief with the stolen goods, might be punished by summary execution without any form of trial… The truth is that justice is a very elaborate conception, the growth of many centuries of civilization; and even now the conception differs widely in countries usually described as civilized”.

Lord Evershed, in Vionet v. Barrett (1885 (55) LJRD 39) remarked, “Natural Justice is the natural sense of what is right and wrong.” The principle was more strengthened in courts of equity in England. This principle has its roots in ancient literature also like the duties of a judge. Eventually, meaning and concept of natural justice has expanded its horizons over the past centuries. Striving to more humanize the principle.

SALIENT FEATURES OF THIS PRINCIPLE

The salient features of this principle are-

• The allegations should be precise and specific. They should be produced in writing. Only for the specific provisions which have been violated by the accused charges will be levied.
• If there is a formal enquiry, reasonable time should be provided to the alleged accused to furnish a reply of the allegations and prepare his/her defence.
• The person who has been appointed as an enquiry officer should be unrelated to the incident. While administering the enquiry, he/she should be unbiased. Enquiry officer is not permitted to appear as prosecution’s witness.
• A prior recorded statement of any person should not be presented for the record of the formal proceeding.
• Examination of all the prosecution witnesses should be done separately, and no other witness should be present while a statement, of a particular witness, is being recorded.
• The accused or his/her representative for defence should be furnished with a fair opportunity to cross-examine the prosecution’s witness.
• The accused shouldn’t be compelled for furnishing evidence against himself/herself and cannot be examined as a witness until he volunteers.
• The prosecution should be provided with a fair, reasonable opportunity to produce and examine defence witness.
• Enquiry officer’s finding should only rely on the evidence recorded for the legal proceedings, and his findings should not rely on documents or records that are not brought to the notice of the accused.
• The hearing authority should not proceed ex-parte until it is evident from the demeanour of the accused that the accused is deliberately absent from the proceedings and dissipating the time. Moreover, the inquiry officer should be equally convinced about the same.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The principle of natural justice is undoubtedly an essential ingredient in our judiciary. The conclusive impact of this principle is evident to all of us in public administration. This compliance now proceeds beyond administrative proceedings. It is no longer a simple administrative decision-making process to decide what is obligatory to as acquiesce with the natural justice. Even the judges have realised that application of Natural justice in certain cases in not easy as it appears. “No matter is more difficult to solve, none has more persistently engaged the attention of thoughtful mind”, than the problems of natural justice.

This phrase ‘natural justice’ is often used by scholarly judges, but the phrase is of coursed used in general populace, and it must not be regarded that the concept of natural justice is prevailing among them. The contention of judges is this because the concept of justice is not limited as it has evolved over centuries.

While the Indian Judiciary have always upheld this principle, but often due to some or other controversial decision a question has been raised about the applicability of this principle. In the case of Harla vs. The State of Rajasthan AIR 1954 SC 524, Justice Bose made the following observation:

“Natural justice requires that before a law has become operative it must be promulgated or published. It must be broadcast in some recognisable way so that all men may know what it is…”

In the case of AK Gopalan vs. State of Madras AIR 1950 SC 27, a writ of habeas corpus was filed under Article 32(1) by Gopalan. He challenged his detention, under the Preventive Detention Act IV of 1950, on the pretext of violation of his right to personal liberty. In this case, many judges’ views on ‘procedural due process’ differed with one another. Patanjali Shastri, J. observed: “…no procedure is known or can be said to have been established by such vague and uncertain concept as the immutable and universal principles of natural justice.”

Justice Faizal Ali observed: ”I am that aware that some judges have expressed strong dislike for the expression ‘natural justice’ on the sound that it is too vague and elastic but where there are well-known principles with no vagueness about them, which all the systems of law have been respected and recognised, they cannot be disregarded merely because they are in the ultimate found to be based on natural justice.”

In the case of New Prakash Transport Co. Ltd. vs. New Swarna Transport Co. Ltd. 1950, SCR 88C, J. Sinha has even accepted this principle for some cases, but he refused to accept in other cases and was of opinion that natural justice means a fair process or result. Further, he said that natural justice is ‘high sounding expression’ to reflect jes naturale, but also, he called this principle as ‘confused and unwanted transfer into the ethical sphere’ for some purposes only and for other purposes he referred this principle as ‘vacuous’.

Out of many questions arisen, one was raised that whether the principles of natural justice were also applicable to the administrative bodies. In AK Kraipak vs UOI 1969(2) SCC 262, it was observed that there’s a fine line between the administrative powers and quasi-judicial powers which is quite thin and is being obliterated, and then set out the common-sense principle that one has to look to the nature of the power conferred, the framework of the law conferring that power, the consequences ensuing from the exercise of that power, and the manner in which that power is expected to be exercised. The five-judge bench, then concluded, what to me remains one of the most important principles ever articulated by the judiciary, when it said that, “under our Constitution the rule of law pervades over the entire field of administration”.

Gopalan’s case decision was overruled in the case of Maneka Gandhi vs. Union of India AIR 1978 SC 597. It was observed that the judges in Goplan’s case has interpreted the term ‘personal liberty’ in a narrow sense. It was also observed that the approach of Patanjal Shastri, J. for “procedure established by law” and “due process of law” is not correct, as there is overlapping between them. It was held in this case that any unfair decision of administrative authority can have devasting effect than a quasi-judicial body’s decision.

Some of the above cases even questioned the concept of natural justice and their interpretation of natural justice was narrow. Some cases focused on the positive impacts of the natural justice and have expanded their horizons.

CONCLUSION

The principle of natural justice is new concept to the judiciary. It has evolved over the period from an idea to a fundamental ingredient of justice in any domestic or administrative tribunals. The principle could have strengthened only because it was accepted by the judiciary with a futuristic approach to lay down the formation for fair and reasonable adjudication process. No question could be raised on justice dispensation system. Though, the principle faced criticism and was even called as ‘unwanted in ethical sphere’, but the principle’s foundations remains still intact and continued to remain an guiding rule for the administrative authority.