Managerial Decision Making - Assignment Example

Managerial Decision Making Task Managerial Decision Making Managerial decision-making revolves around a systematic thought process that requires business mangers to undertake before coming to an informed decision. In a business setting, there a manger has to make decisions from time to time, and sometimes on a daily basis. These decisions have a great impact on the prosperity or growth of the business. According to Wang (2011), every decision that a manger makes on behalf of the business must be in the best interest of the business.

Consequently, this forms the basis of demanding business managers to follow the laid down process of making important decisions that affect the smooth running and operations of the business as a wrong decision would mean a failure or collapse of the business. For instance, at one point in time when I was an acting Managing Director (MD) of Son’s & Son’s Limited, whereby the MD was out of office for a two weeks work symposium overseas, I decided to terminate the services of all the workers, supervisors and managers who were participating in a unionized industrial action demanding for increased compensation packages.

This demand for a salary increase was on the backdrop of a five-year streak of profitability in the company, and as such, the employees felt the company was in a better capacity to extend them a salary increase, which the company had not reviewed for the last eight years. I refused to go to the negotiating table with the workers’ union representatives and instead resorted to threats and intimidation to get the workers back to duty. The company owners and directors were on the other hand not ready to listen to any pleas from the employees for a salary increase as, this being a private company, the owners simply wanted to maximize their wealth at the expense of the workers.

As such, I was barred from holding any discussions with the employees thereby made good my threat and fired those who downed their tools and went on an industrial action. This was a very wrong move for me as a manager because it led to the loss of very experienced and talented workers who were with the company for years. They went to work with our company’s competitors, taking with them our industrial secret and policy strategies that literally shook the core of our operations. The departure of these workers from our company, after I fired them, nearly led to the collapse of the company in general.

This was because of increased competition from our competitors, and operating in a market structure that is perfectly competitive, it was impossible to take our competitors to court over producing products that were almost similar to ours. The company suffered a major loss of customers and controls of the market in general as even our loyal and trusted customers were opting for our competitors’ products at the expense of ours. This taught me a big lesson in decision making as a manager in a company.

Inevitably, I lost my job as the board put all the blame on me for the negative turn of events Given another opportunity, I would not make such as decision again. I would listen to the workers and possibly negotiate with the company owners to come to a bargain with the workers in order to keep the company afloat and profitable as it was before the industrial action. I would also apply the systematic process set for decision making in corporate bodies, which has a variety of steps leading to the right decisions that have a positive impact on the performance of the company (Wang, 2011).

The first step is to identify the problem, in which case was an industrial action by workers demanding a salary increment. The second step is to seek information relating to the problem, such the reasons leading to the workers sudden demand of a pay rise. The third step is to brainstorm for solutions, in which case would have required I organize a dialogue between the executive and the workers’ union representatives to hear their demands. The fourth step is the selection of an appropriate alternative after putting all factors into consideration.

For instance, I would agree with the workers to increase their salary but in four phases, spanning a period of four years in which case would be a win-win solution for both workers and the company owners. The firth step would be to implement the plan, by directing the finance department to review employee’s salaries by a quarter increases beginning the next fiscal year. The sixth and last step would be to evaluate the outcomes of the decision made, in which case both the workers and the company owners would be happy all the way to the bank.

References Wang, C. (2011). Managerial Decision Making Leadership: The Essential Pocket Strategy Book. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.