Problem Solving Strategies in Business - Assignment Example

Running head: PROBLEM SOLVING Problem solving Performance of organization mostly depends on policies of organization. There are two different types of policing: problem oriented and community oriented. This paper gives details about both type and concludes by giving action plan for reducing crimes. Problem solving Introduction An organization can be defined as social unit (human groupings) that have been deliberately constructed and reconstructed to seek specific goals. Some examples of organization are business corporations, military units, schools, churches, and police departments. Characteristics of an Organization are goal, rationally planned division of labor, authority, power, and communication responsibilities, set of rules and norms, and presence of one or more authority centers which control the efforts of the organization and direct them toward its goals. On the basis on these, organizations can be divided in two types: Bureaucratic and Agile. The Bureaucratic Organization Control governance or bureaucratic governance is the organization where control is centralized at the top of an organization, and then power is distributed in a top-down, hierarchical fashion (PauL, 2000). It consists of many layers of managers and prestigious job titles and is guided by written policies and rules. The manager is the boss, and authority trickles down from there. In this type of governance, Management is primary and leadership comes secondary. In Bureaucratic Organization the managers decide on what types and quality of services are best for the community. Community, The people served, does not have any identity. Power is centralized at the top of the department and deemed as having clearly defined boundaries. Opportunity to achieve and be rewarded (e.g., promotion, a better job) are limited to those that daily demonstrate a commitment to the top managers (Gemmy, 2008). Problem oriented police organizations are Manager-leader governance systems: bureaucratic in nature, and grow in top-down fashion. . It is filled with pitfalls as transparent loyalty, weak commitment, low trust, poor communications, and zero risk taking. The manager may want to empower others, but the staff usually prefers to be highly inflexible (Gemmy, 2008). Bureaucracies' organizations have numerous formalized rules and regulations. they not only provide employment for a very significant portion of the world's population, but they also make critical decisions that shape the economic, educational, political, social, moral, and even religious lives of nearly everyone on Earth and that is why They are among the most important institutions in the world (Sprimont, 2007) A bureaucratic organization has six safeguards Rulification and routinization: an organization of official functions bound by rules. Administrative acts, decisions, and rules are formulated and recorded in writing. Rules save effort by eliminating the need for deriving a new solution for every situation (Sprimont, 2007). Division of labor: Labor is decided by top management Hierarchy of authority: The organization of offices follows the principle of hierarchy; that is, each lower office is under the control and supervision of a higher one. Expertise: The rules that regulate the conduct of an office may be technical rules or norms. It is thus normally true that only a person who has demonstrated an adequate technical training is qualified to be a member of the administrative staff (Sprimont, 2007). Structure: two basic structures, the line and the staff. Both structures can be arranged four ways: purpose, process, people (clientele), and place where services are rendered Span of control: The span of control concept deals with the number of subordinates a superior can effectively supervise. No supervisor can supervise directly the work of more than five or, at the most, six subordinates whose work interlocks (Sprimont, 2007). When the number of subordinates increases arithmetically, there is a geometrical increase in all the possible combinations of relationship that may demand the attention of the supervisor. The Agile Organization "Organizational structure, once created, should be flexible and responsive to the developing needs of the organization and changes" -David Packard Community oriented policing requires the agile organization, Bottom-Up Empowerment. It favors flexibility; action; simplicity; and empowerment. The leader is the senior partner and authority is bottom-up. In this, the leader, in concert with his or her work team, communicates with the community to decide what is best for the customers. The people served are viewed and served as individuals, as singularly unique, unlike bureaucratic ones. Every employee is empowered. The purpose of the department and its divisions is determined by people representing all levels and job assignments within the agency. The changes of career growth and job accomplishments are unlimited and not tied to a particular manager or preferred supervisory style. Thus, in agile type of a governance system, leadership is primary and management secondary (Pettit, 2007). Seven key characteristics of an agile organization are: Speed: Today's environment, demands speed, in almost every case, from decision making to performance making to communications to services. Boundarylessness: Agile organization works on motto "there are many right ways". Boundaryless behavior is a rewards system that recognizes the adaptor or implementer of an idea as much as the originator. Creating this open, sharing element magnifies the enormous and unique strength of an organization-an endless stream of new ideas and best practices (Barnett, 2008). Stretch: It means "Nothing is impossible." It inspires people and captures their imagination. Simplification: The straight forward communication should be used with one other and customers. It improves improve their quality, their cost, and their speed in reaching the intended consumer and the efficacy of statistics, budget data, and the like will be measured by their simplicity (Barnett, 2008). Rethinking: Rethinking should be done at least on an annual basis. The best one can be set as the standard and rest can be compared. While comparing focus should be on performance objectives, quality objectives, and cost objectives. Continuous improvement: ongoing evaluation of everything that an organization does can be conducted. If improvements are linked with some form of an incentive or recognition incremental improvements will be seen before the service reaches a peak or goal. Team leadership: Team leadership means a swarm of people acting as one, unlike in bureaucratic where manager leads. Action Plan: For the delivery of high quality police services, an agile organizational structure, which has a bottoms-up, empowered management system, is needed. This gives rise to police agencies that can create new knowledge that results in value-added services. Success now and in the future will depend on police employees who have a passion for the profession and who generate new ideas-ways of doing things that result in new knowledge, which in turn result in innovative and unique services, for these current and future demands. Drastic increase in crimes can be handled in several ways like: Increase no of officers on watch: Areas can be allocated to each one and daily records should be maintained. Usually one officer is allotted responsibility of more than one area and gets order from more that one supervisor, so allocating specific areas help to reduce crimes with help of the concern officer. Proper training should be given. It helps officer to tackle several crimes. Data analysis of current and past year crimes can be done and thus Community's needs must be identified and Mission statement should be set. Mission statement helps to identify what is important in providing professional police services, meet the expectations of residents, businesses, and people in general. The police chief should ensure that the goals are in writing and are clearly understood by all employees. The managers and/or supervisors can discuss goals and objectives with all employees. Objectives must be clearly defined. At the same time measurable results in expected time should be mentioned. Public awareness programs should be initiated. These sorts of programs will give them idea about crimes in surrounding and encourage them to speak out their problems and be attentive. Feedback from community should be taken and given high priority. Based on feedback needs of community can be decided and accordingly actions can be taken. Suppose crimes are increased in night time than bicycle patrols in uniform and plain clothes can be appointed. Continuous monitoring of crime reporting, by district and location, can help to identify pitfalls and decide action plan in order to overcome those. Reference Pettit, Ross. "The Agile organization". June 2007 www.agilejournal.com Barnett, Liz. "Tackling Tough Topics: Architecture, Retrospectives, and Testing." April, 2008 www.agilejournal.com "Creating an Agile Organization." June 2000. Paul, Johnson. "A glossary of political economy terms". May, 2000. www.auburn.edu Gemmy, Aelen. "Management modern". 1998 www.telecollege.dcccd.edu Sprimont, Thomas. "Challenges to Bureaucratic Organizations In the Modern Business World". June, 2007. < www.managementjournals.com> Read More