Decision-making is the powerhouse of every project; decisions made at pre-conception, in-project and post -project stages of the project, defines the ultimate success of the project (Stingl and Geraldi 2017). The Business Dictionary (2018) defines decision-making as the logical selection of the most appropriate option from available alternatives. Similarly, Merriam Webster Dictionary (2018) states that decision-making is the act of making decision particularly with a group of individuals. Tiwary (2013) describes decision-making as the method or strategy adopted by an enterprise to actualise set goals. Reese & Rodeheaver (1985, cited in McFall, 2015, p7) suggest that decision- making deals with the core processes, which a decision or indecision is made from competing alternatives, and might be or might not be attributed to behaviour. Inaction, like resisting responding or dodging a stimulus can become a chosen alternative for execution and likewise behaviour may start from the decision-making process despite the absence of alternatives to consider; In this instance, the behaviour seems simple and automatic (McFall, 2015). Redish (2013) portrays these apparently automatic behaviours as decisions, even though the decisions are reached through less cognitive effort , also known as reflex actions or heuristics. Furthermore, Redish contends that reflex actions and automatic responses have the potentials of been altered through cognitive system, an illustration of this can be seen in an individual that places a palm on a hot burner and resists the urge to remove it because of an expected reward.

2.5 Historical Perspective of Decision Making

Decision-making is an act as old as humankind and the ancestors of modern humans made daily decisions based on interpretations of dreams, smokes, divinations and oracles (Buchanan and O’Connell, 2018). According to Gigerenzer (2011), modern decision-making dates back to the seventeen century; when Descartes and Pointcarre invented the first calculus of decision-making. Buchanan and O’Connell (2018) attributes the popularity of modern decision- making to Chester Barnard in the middle of the twentieth century; for importing the terminology “ decision-making” which was mainly a public administration concept to the business sector to substitute restrictive narratives like policy making and resource allocation. William Starbuck, a professor in Oregon University acknowledges the positive impact of Chester Barnard’s introduction of decision- making on managers by explaining that policy-making and resource allocation are