The Significance of Decision Making - Essay Example

?Running Head: report Business Decision Making in London Olympics of the of the of the Table of Contents Introduction........................................................................................................................3 Snap shot of business decision making.............................................................................3 Defining business decision making...........................................................................4 Nature and processes of business decision making..................................................4 London Olympics illustrating the application of business decision making..................5 Theme one- The way we do business.........................................................................5 Theme two- Individual responsibility........................................................................5 Theme three- Recruitment, development and transition...........................................6 Theme four- Involvement and Engagement..............................................................6 Theme five- Catalyst for Legacy...............................................................................6 Theme 3: Recruitment........................................................................................................7 Theme 4: Sustainability.....................................................................................................10 Theme 5: Procurement......................................................................................................11 Conclusion..........................................................................................................................14 References..........................................................................................................................15 Introduction Business is getting all the more complex, uncertain and globalized. The mantra for success today is planned activities and selection of best option amongst alternatives presented. This task is undertaken and simplified by management practice termed as decision making. Decision making is resorted to by managers in all situations where they get stuck as to which course of action to choose from. This paper addresses the significance of decision making and highlights its importance in the context of London Olympics. Being the mega event of the year 2012, London Olympics presents plethora of circumstances and opportunities to base decision upon. This is the point where managers need to use their intuition, intellect and knowledge to arrive at the most reliable, valid and fruitful decision. Various processes and techniques covered under decision making are elaborated upon by making use of three strategic decisions- recruitment, procurement and sustainable operations. Decision making process applied in each of these and subsequent benefits and limitations of each decision are also highlighted to identify any gaps and recommend solutions for them. Snap shot of business decision making Decision making in layman terms refer to selecting a course of action which is the most suitable and is capable of delivering the desired results, from a list of available alternatives. In business scenarios, managers are presented with plethora of situations where they are supposed to take rational and valid decisions. These may be taken purely on the basis of intuition or prior experience, but such dimensions for decision making can neither be transferred nor can ensure the achievement of desired results. Hence, decisions in business parlance are ought to be taken by carefully analyzing the situation, the pros and cons of each alternative and prioritizing the factors which favour the acceptance or rejection of a particular alternative. Especially in businesses, every alterative has to be contrasted against factors like cost effectiveness, strategic disposition, value addition, responsiveness, et cetera and then zeroing in on one of the alternatives which finally become the decision. Defining business decision making Various researchers and scholars have provided different perspectives on decision making. In the words of Felix M. Lopez (Jain 2004:113), “a decision represents a judgement, a final resolution of a conflict of needs, means or goals, and a commitment to action made in the face of uncertainty, complexity and even irrationality.” Thus, decision making also serves as a useful tool to guide the future path for business functions and operations. It is in a way synonymous to planning function of management because planning also aims to provide a framework upon which to base future activities. Nature and processes of business decision making Business decision making being a tool applied under complexities and uncertainties is characterized by intellectual thinking and a selective process which basically aims at rejecting unviable and irrelevant options to get at the best alternative. Since alternatives are present in every scenario of life and business, decision making also spreads across all the functions and levels of a businesses. This makes it a continuing process where the prime objective is to attain the goal through a mix of intuition, experience, intellect, judgement and analytical factors built upon in the decision making process. The process of business decision making commences with the diagnosis of the problem for which decision has to be made. Careful selection of available alternatives is done, either through previous experiences or current changes. In this respect, participation of other members, staff, employees and third parties often leads to discovery of more alternatives. After the alternatives are made available, every single option is analyzed and compared against others. The one which demonstrates clear distinction in terms of risks, benefits and limitations makes to the final decision to be chosen and implemented. London Olympics illustrating the application of business decision making Since its inception, Olympics have been touted as the most spectacular event held after every four years on the globe. Being a mega event, it assumes great responsibility and strategic importance for the nation arranging for the events. London Olympics scheduled to be held in the year 2012 are again going to be an extravaganza in the cultural, economic and sports fraternity across the globe. Olympics signify huge diversity and celebration of traditions and values from different parts of the world. Keeping this baseline in mind, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has charted out five major themes (London2012 2008) which will guide the actions and development of the entire staging and arrangement of the event. Theme one- The way we do business This first and the prior most theme is actually a guideline for all subsequent themes as it seeks to explain how the Olympics event is going to align itself with its stakeholders, partners, suppliers and what ways of working is it going to adopt. The tagline of London Olympics is ‘diversity and inclusion strategy’ which is self explanatory in terms of how ODA is going to manage local and international events, how communication will proceed and what decision making techniques will be adopted by it in exercising control over different activities. Theme two- Individual responsibility Theme two strives to prepare the culture needed for a diverse and inclusive strategy to be implemented. In it, personal biases and influences are tried to be done away with, by the use of clearly defined roles, responsibilities, attitudes, expected behaviors and development of toolkits which detail the entities involved as to how they have to proceed. Theme three- Recruitment, development and transition Handling a diverse audience and sports community can be a daunting challenge if there is no skilled, diverse and competent workforce. As such, this theme highlights the strategic importance of recruitment, selection, training and development of a workforce which itself is diverse to understand the nitty-gritty of people being welcomed. Though Olympics is a timeline specified event, yet the recruitment function here is one of the strategic decisions which include proper planning, structuring the approach, identifying the need and sources of talent recruitment and also providing them adequate training to handle complex and uncertain events. Theme four- Involvement and Engagement One of the critical success factors in business parlance is stakeholder awareness, involvement and engagement. While some stakeholders are attached to a business because of some vested interests, some fall in the category of stakeholders due to their power of influence on the functioning of the business. For London Olympics also, apart from suppliers, partners, contractors, vendors and other interested stakeholder groups, there are NGOs, environmental groups and critics which form the category of influential stakeholders. Such stakeholders can prove to be a boon or a bane for the success of Olympics, depending upon how they are being informed, involved and entertained. Theme five- Catalyst for Legacy This theme seeks to create a non-forgettable experience of Olympics for different class of people. From business men to volunteers and from sportsmen to youngsters, ODA wishes to create a legacy of London Olympics which has something in store for everyone. The above five themes depict the framework upon which all the activities of ODA will be based and every single business decision will be taken only after integrating the guidelines stated by each of the above mentioned themes. Also, they serve as regulatory guidelines or pre-defined standards to be sought after in case of deviations, ambiguities and non-adherence. To illustrate better the concept of decision making and its application in the context of London Olympics, three themes and respective processes have been chosen. These activities include recruitment, sustainability and procurement corresponding to theme 3, 4 and 5 respectively. Theme 3: Recruitment Workforce of a business is now considered its primary asset today. This is so because it is the human capital which is going to handle the concerns of finance, customer care, marketing, relationship building and others. Especially in the case of event management, intangible factors of quality, responsiveness, care giving, understanding and catering to the diverse needs of individual people are the cornerstones to success. London Olympics also think on similar lines and as an effort to realize its ‘diversity and inclusion strategy’, it has replicated the same decision to its recruitment function. Figure above shows the diversity strands and their representation in the London Olympics workforce. This is essential from the point of view of building cultural legacy because like minds attract each other and a diversity rich audience cannot be welcomed or entertained without having people from various backgrounds, perspectives and approaches. The decision making process applied in bringing theme 3 and recruitment particularly into reality is discussed as below: Staffing The concept of staffing employed at London Olympics is strictly structured with defined timelines for deliverables and proper forecasting of needs. In this regard, several Management Committees have been formed to coordinate with different departments to provide the actual number of volunteers, secondees, officials and employees needed. Recruitment for London Olympics will not be demographics or population based, rather talent and skills development driven (London2012 2008). It corresponds to the problem diagnosis stage of decision making process because it tends to answer the ‘how’, ‘when’ and ‘why’ of the entire theme and recruitment function. Recruiting The outputs of the staffing stage received in terms of talent needed quantitatively, employment opportunities, skills and qualifications, diversity mix and others leads to focused action for proactive recruitment. It comprises communicating the employment needs to people concerned, identifying recruitment channels, campaigning and advertising and providing vocational training support for candidates to better their skill set. Training Recruitment just brings in the requisite talent and workforce which are competent to help ODA achieve its goals. To align their thinking and make them work on similar lines and standards, training is an essential component of this theme and function as a whole. Because of activities and departmental needs, training needs of individuals and workforce will also be different, for example, training security personnel will be altogether different from that of a line manager. As such, training components will be tailor made to suit specific needs and aspirations. Development planning To transcend from current theme to the creation of legacy, ODA aspires to create opportunities of outplacement support for the workforce who will learn new abilities, skills, qualities, competencies and development at London Olympics. To ensure their future growth and brighter prospects, ODA will provide for inclusion of London Olympics delivery as a means of performance appraisal and evaluation technique for aspiring managers and staff. Thus, recruitment in the context of London Olympics is a strategic decision marked by timely deliverables, programmed decisions, certainty of factors and an organizational decision involving opinions and views of all involved within the organization. This structured approach will allow timely completion of key deliverables in terms of forecasting, identifying gaps, training the selected workforce and aligning their cultural perspectives, backgrounds and inherent beliefs. Uncertainties are unpredictable. Likewise, personal gains or commitments of selected workforce can be a possible hindrance in the implementation of chalked out strategy for ‘diversion and inclusion’. Further, favouritism exercised by Committee members, employment agencies and other sources might result in the recruitment of incompetent and non-desirable talent. Such asymmetries have to be done away with by means of proper check and monitoring systems and also implementing regular controls on each and every process delivery. Theme 4: Sustainability Any business or business related proposition thrives on how well it involves and engages the entities and stakeholders to sustain its functioning. The legacy philosophy of London Olympics is actually an extension of sustenance feature whereby it tends to nurture and keep going the development and milestones achieved during and after the delivery of the event. Though after events, sportsmen, volunteers and crowd will be gone but what will remain are the venues constructed, talent developed, business connections made and experience delivered. In this regard, business decision making surpasses the defined levels in this category of action. Sustainability in London Olympics rests on two pillars, information exchange and creation of a lean, mean and green environment for the delivery of games. In the context of information exchange, it is both a tool as well as activity for the delivery of London Olympics. While exchanging information, decisions have to be taken as to what information should be provided to whom, to what levels, at what time and other features of confidentiality, authenticity and validity. For example, during procurement processes and online contracting, information systems gain immense importance as the success of contracts and timely delivery depends on how well details have been disseminated and moved to and fro the related entities. From sustainable development point of view also, the stakeholders are the influential stakeholders who can promote positive or negative word of mouth about the planning and delivery of the event. For instance, had the event not focussed on sustainable development and excluded climate change, waste recycling and other elements (London2012 n.d), environmentalists and other sectional groups would have criticized the events as one being derogatory and damaging to the environment and ecological system. Here again, information system plays the role of a communicator as it seeks to educate the stakeholder groups about what are the underlying principles in London Olympics delivery, how they are planned to be achieved and what activities constitute the implementation plan of its sustainable development criteria. It also involves a touch of ethics and adherence to the social, human and other rights as business decision making extends a bit more to its corporate responsibility and ethical work practices. Information systems are actually the backbone for business decision making as they tend to draw valuable, meaningful and reliable inferences from the mammoth amount of data received from different sources. In the context of London Olympics, sourcing, contracting, procedural activities, recruitment, training, safety, construction and all such tasks are dependent upon how the authority makes use of its information systems and applies it as a decision support system (Prajapati & Dhodiya 2010). Even the sustainability factors relies heavily on information system as it serves as the medium to spread awareness of the intentions of ODA in delivering the events and making them favourable for both the business and the community. Theme 5: Procurement Procurement in simple terms means acquiring or obtaining something by effort or care. It carries a very special meaning in the context of business practices and operations because any business tends to transform inputs into outputs and these inputs constitute the studies of procurement. With respect to London Olympics, procurement comprises a strategic decision as the entire delivery of games, venues, infrastructure and others depend upon the procurement policy devised and implemented. Procurement policy of ODA is a mix of a framework describing the legislations, objectives, alternatives, sources to obtain goods and services, value system, health and safety and other guidelines to ensure quality and legacy proposition of the event. The procurement activity for London Olympics is actually the master activity as it combines the tasks of goods, services, governance, risk management, construction works and the entire delivery plan including communication channels and partnering with stakeholders and suppliers. The first and the foremost essentiality of a business decision is its timeline and delivery period specification. As already mentioned, a decision is taken to achieve some specific objective or goal. For procurement policy, the prime objective is to get ready with the construction, venues, volunteers, designing and other aspects of the delivery system. It involves a judiciously planned approach starting from a very early period so that expectations and concerns of all entities involved can be addressed. To counteract the risk proportions of procurement activities, ODA has developed clearly defined legal framework and agreements so that no repercussions arise on later stages. While chalking out the legal specifications, various alternatives regarding timescales, best suitable procurement procedure, parameters, delivery modes, milestones, targets and other intricacies have also been incorporated. This highlights how planning and organising eliminates the chances of any ambiguities in the pre-planned achievement of activities. Giving due attention to such minute details makes the selected decision more favourable against other alternatives which are done away with. As a part of decision making, ODA made the contracting process online also and dispute resolution was made an integral component whereby delivery obligations are put on suppliers and contractors to match up with the expectations of cost and time constraints (London2012 2007). Figure above suggests the factors kept in mind while devising the procurement policy of London Olympics. From cost and time to safety and environment and quality and equality, proper measures for handling and factors which serve as benchmarks to judge the success of the delivery on each of these parameters make it as one those strategic decisions in London Olympics which are non-programmed. Because these are non-repetitive, extraordinary policy decisions, they involve good efforts from the top level management and authority and thus call for in-depth analysis and study of the problem and underlying features. This is why the entire procurement policy is divided into several standards so that preparedness is established for any unexpected event or risk which can have a bearing on the overall performance of London Olympics. Also because every decision in procurement is quantifiable in terms of cost, money and value, it seeks more of standard setting, measured approach and monitoring capabilities. Conclusion So far, we have seen how business decision making applies to London Olympics preparation, planning, implementation and control. Business decisions are taken under an environment of complexity, uncertainty, risks and competition. However, ODA has taken care of all such factors while deploying its delivery plan. The elements of complexity, risk and uncertainty have been tried to be done away with the use of properly planned and documented activities with agreements, control mechanisms and cost and time fulfilment obligations on each of the partners, suppliers, contractors and other service providers. The element of competition has been minimized by effective use of information system for exchange to avoid conflicts between parties and enhancing the overall delivery scenario for the events by making use of competent and diverse workforce to cater to individual needs. Thus, London Olympics exhibits a very good case of business decision making where nature, processes and techniques of this theoretical planning component can be studied, applied, analyzed and commented upon. References Jain, J.K. (2004). Principles and functions of management. Allahabad: Prateek Prakashan. London2012. (n.d). Sustainability [online] available from [accessed 3 March 2011] London2012. (2007). Procurement Policy [online] available from [accessed 3 March 2011] London2012. (2008). Open diversity and inclusion strategy [online] available from [accessed 3 March 2011] Prajapati, P & Dhodiya, J.M. (2010). Effective business management using information management and decision making system. Global Journal of Finance and Management, 2 (2), 361-366. Read More