Decision-Making - Coursework Example

Decision-Making Introduction Decision making in an organizational setup consists of lot of complex issues. Proper decisions in proper times at proper places are essential for the organizations to sustain their activities effectively. All the organizations irrespective of their nature of business or activities must make decisions on lot of issues and in fact it is the decisions which make an organization success or failure. Each departments need to tale appropriate decisions based on the objectives and principles set by the organization. Individual decision making and group decision making are equally important for the growth of the organization. This paper analyzes the importance of group decision making in customer service organizations. Group decision making “Groups may make decisions through any of the following six methods: lack of response, authority rule, minority rule, majority rule, consensus, or unanimity” (Decision Making in Groups p.183) In a passive group, it is often required to take decisions based on the trial and error method. The group members may not suggest any ideas and hence no active discussion will take place in such groups. The group leader will be forced to test each ideas one after another before taking the proper decision. Even the best ideas sometimes may be forced to leave out because of lack of discussions about it in decision by lack of response approach. Decision by authority on the other hand depends purely on the group leader’s abilities. The group leader may or may not discuss ideas with the group members; in any case the final decision will be taken by the leader. Most of the autocratic leaders may not spend time for discussion with the subordinates. Even without proper information such leader may take decisions. For example, in some organizations, the planning department may ask the production people to stay back for overtime for producing some urgent materials. If the production manager failed to read or follow the instructions from the top, he may sometimes send the production people back using his authority without the knowledge of the planning department which will ultimately result in production loss to the company. Decision by minority rule is a kind of dictatorship. In such approaches, often two or three people dominate the entire activities of the group and they will take decisions as their own and implement it in the group activities without discussion with other group members. These group leaders or dominators often utilize the inefficiencies of other group members in order to execute their mission. They will take minimum efforts and force others to take the increased workload. In other words they will take the lighter portion of the work and compel others to do the difficult portion. Such people often try to get the work done through others and will pretend as if they did the major share of the work in order to take the credit of it. Decision by majority approach is the most democratic approach in taking group decisions. In this approach even voting may take place in order to find out the majorities opinion. All the opinions from the members of the group will be analyzed and the better opinions will be discussed deeply and finally accept only the majority’s will. For example, consider a project which requires some additional work either in the morning or in the evening. Some group members may favor the morning work while others may favor the evening work. In such cases the group leader who adopts decision by majority approach will go for voting in order to take the right decision. In some cases the acceptance of majority’s will may not bring anything good for the organization. In the above example, if the majority of the group members opt for morning work, sometimes people who attend the morning work may waste time for breakfast like things which result in incompletion of the works scheduled. On the other hand sometimes the evening work may yield more productivity. So the majority’s decision may not be always correct as far as the organization is concerned. Moreover, the voting may create a sub group inside the group; losers and the winners which may affect the loser’s interests and productivity. Consensus approach listen the entire member’s opinion and discuss all of it in detail before reaching consensus on taking decision. In this approach there may not be any voting and hence the minorities may not feel much dejection. The minority’s opinion will also be discussed seriously and they will never feel that they were left out even if their opinions have not been accepted. Unanimous decisions are by far the best group decision making approach. Because of the acceptance of the decision by all the members of the group, that decision will not create much trouble and will bring maximum productivity. Successful and unsuccessful group decision making examples Susan Gauff, in her article “Meeting Magic - Tips and Tricks for Successful Group Decision Making”, has explained one of her successful group decision making example. In a meeting, consisting of a group of eight members, which discussed the administrative aspects of a major consolidation among three different companies with three different cultures, she had suggested that each of the eight team members anonymously write their preference for one of the three competing agencies on a sheet of paper before they began discussions. To the utter surprise of everybody, everyone selected the same agency (Gauff) The decision has been done within three minutes and the group was able to focus their attention to the implementation strategies thereafter. Normally, in a group meeting, most of the time will be spent for taking decisions. But in this case because of the innovative idea they were able to take decision quickly. On the other hand some of the group decisions may bring failures because of lack of analysis before taking the decision. For example, Parker Pen Company, before they start international marketing appointed a group of experts in order to study the international marketing strategies. This expert group has advised Parker Pen Company to adopt unique marketing techniques everywhere in the world since they believed that same product needs same marketing strategy everywhere in the world. They failed to recognize the fact that; “product may be the same, but markets are different”. “The idea of selling pens the same way everywhere did not sit well with many parker subsidiaries and distributors. Pens were indeed the same, but markets, were different. France and Italy fancied expensive fountain pen while Scandinavia was a ball point market” (Marketing across cultures, p.195). Ultimately they suffered huge setbacks in their international marketing because of the unsuccessful group decision making. Reasons for a group’s good or bad performances A group’s good or bad performance depends on its members and the leader. The group leader must be capable enough to lead the group in a coherent manner and also he must lead the group from the front whenever a crisis situation occurs. Moreover, group leader must be a person who is able to command respect from all the group members. He should be able to derive maximum productivity out of each group member. Thus the group leader plays an important role in the success and failures of the group. Even a single group member can cause failures to the entire objectives of the group if he underperforms in the group. Each group member has a key role to execute in the group which are interconnected. So the success and failures of the group depends on the member performance also. Another factor which determines the group outcome will be the support it receives from the organization. If the organization responds positively to the group’s activities then the group task will be eased out and the outcome will be positive. If the organization does not extend much support to the group’s activities, then the functioning of the group will be difficult. The social and cultural environment in which the group was operating can also influence the group performances up to certain extent. Different group members have different social and cultural backgrounds and the success of the group activities will depend on how cohesive the group is in its functioning. Conclusions Group activities are a part of modern organizational activities. Each group will have a leader and the decision making of the group will be done through different approaches like; lack of response, authority rule, minority rule, majority rule, consensus, or unanimity etc. Each decision taking methods have its own merits and demerits; but the unanimity approach seems to be the most effective approach as far as group decision making strategies are concerned. Group decisions could be a success and failure depends on the evaluation or discussion, the group members performed before taking the decision. Group leaders, group members, group structure, the organization and the social and cultural environment in which the group operates etc can affect the group performances. Works Cited 1. Gauff, Susan. “Meeting Magic - Tips and Tricks for Successful Group Decision Making”. 31 July 2009. < http://ezinearticles.com/?Meeting-Magic---Tips-and-Tricks-for-Successful-Group-Decision-Making&id=955597> 2. “Marketing Across Cultures”.31 July 2009. 3. “Decision Making in Groups”. Chapter 8 notes. Read More