Role of Good Decision-Making - Assignment Example

ASSIGNMENT ANSWER Decision Making Process: A manager’s job is complex and requires excellent decision-making skills to help organization accomplish its goals in an efficient and effective manner. Managers often are referred to as decision-makers. Good decision-making is vital part of good management because decisions determine how an organization solves its problems, assigns tasks and allocates resources to achieve organizational objectives. A manager goes through following steps when making a decision: Defining Problem: The decision-making process commences when a manager identifies the real problem. A manager must determine an organizational problem accurately in order to reach an accurate solution. Failure in identifying a genuine problem might lead to incorrect decision-making which would further aggravate the situation. One way that can help a manager determine the true problem in a situation is by identifying the problem separately from its symptoms. Once the problem is identified, managers may opt to take remedial measures. Diagnoses and Analysis of Causes: The next step is to diagnose and analyze the factors due to which a problem is occurred. For example, a manager must determine that decrease in productivity is because of higher rate of absenteeism and believe of employees that they are not valued. Development of Alternatives: Despite the fact a manager might face time constraints in making decisions; he or she must investigate a problem thoroughly, evaluate its outcomes, diagnose and analyze its causes and develop potential alternatives that could assist in rectification of a problem. A manager can use “Brainstorming” technique where a group works together to generate ideas and alternative solutions of a problem. Selection of Desired Alternative: The next step in decision-making process is to evaluate merits and demerits of all possible solutions and then narrowing down to a solution that is most feasible and effective for an organization. An organization can use every possible solution to solve a particular problem. Implementation of Chosen Alternative: Once a desired alternative is chosen, a manager must implement its decision by assigning the tasks, grouping tasks into departments and allocating resources to accomplish the desired outcomes. To make certain that employees understand their roles, managers must thoughtfully devise programs, procedures, rules, or policies to help aid them in the problem-solving process. Evaluation and feedback: A manager is also responsible for ensuring control over ongoing organizational operations. Managers usually develop an evaluation system, once the decision is implemented, to get feedback from personnel and to make necessary adjustments that could help in bringing fruitful results. Decision-making Process is not same for all decisions: Decision-making process is not similar for all decisions. The above mentioned through process is not used by managers for problems that have occurred repeatedly in past and that require quick decision-making. Managers tend to make “programmed decisions” in response to most recurring organizational problems. Programmed decisions are made in response to a situation that has occurred often enough to enable decision rules to be developed applied in the future. Example: Managers in a manufacturing organization may not apply entire comprehensive decision-making process for selection of freight routes for product deliveries. Managers are inclined to apply the through decision-making process for the problems and situations that are unique, undefined, unexpected, or largely unstructured and that have important consequences for the organization. In the aftermath of this, managers are keen to gather additional information, knowledge and ideas that could enable them to formulate a permanent strategy to cope with the problem. The decisions made by managers in such type of situations are known as “Non-programmed Decisions”. Example: An unexpected launch of a new improved product by a competitor of an organization may force its managers to apply the entire decision-making process so that it could maintain and sustain its market share and avoid losses. ANSWER #2 Sustainable competitive advantage is an extreme form of competitive advantage. Competitive advantage refers to the “edge” that a business organization has over its existing or potential competitors in some aspects. This advantage becomes “sustainable” when an organization’s product or services reached a level at which no one can indulge in their duplicity or imitation. This concept only functions as a theory and is impossible in practice because of frequent entrance of new organizations in business arena. Example: Pepsi and Coca-Cola are two international giants in beverages industry that have almost similar cola products with no real differences. Despite the fact that they are enjoying a huge market share, none of them can claim to have sustainable competitive advantage over another because each company has been offering the products that were imitated by another. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) has largest market share in software industry yet it is unable to have sustainable competitive advantage over its major competitors such as Oracle Corporation (ORCL) and International Business Machine Corporation (IBM). ANSWER #3 People resist change for several reasons such as perceived threat or fear of losing power, prestige, or something that they value. Employees in an organization also resist change because of following reasons. Self-interest: Employees in an organization may resist a proposed change in job design, structure or technology which is against their personal interests and which may lead to a real or genuine loss of power, pay of other fringe benefits by a company. Lack of Understanding and trust; Employees may resist change if they distrust the intentions behind the change because of their limited knowledge, education, training or lack of effective communication with their bosses who initiated the change. Uncertainty: Uncertainty refers to lack of sufficient information about the future events. People that have high uncertainty avoidance tend to resist a change, which means people have low tolerance for novel, unexpected, uncleared and unstructured. Different Assessments and Goals: People also resist change because they have different assessment or evaluation of innovation and novelty compared to that of an idea-champion-a person who initiates change. In addition, personnel in different departments in an organization have different goals. They resist change when they believe that might not be able to accomplish what they desire because of an innovation that serves as an obstacle or impediment in their way. Managers might face problems (when people resist change) such as lower employee morale and confidence in managers who initiate change, conflicts, unnecessary misconceptions among employees, and lower productivity and efficiency because of absenteeism, distrust and discomfort among personnel. Tactics to Reduce Resistance to Change: Resistance to change may be overcome by educating employees about a new idea and providing solid information to groups who can resist change because of their limited knowledge. It is perhaps the best strategy undertaken by managers to reduce resistance among employees. Secondly, managers can also invite potential resisters when designing the change. This would enable them to reduce anxiety and distrust. Although this approach is acceptable but consumes a lot of time that managers in some organizations can’t afford. Managers can also adopt traditional “Negotiation” technique to gain approval and acceptance of resistors. Guidance by “top management” also helps overcome resistance to change. Finally, managers might use their powers to force employees to accept change or lose rewards or even jobs in some cases. Example: When “General Motors” tried to implement a new management appraisal system for supervisors in its Adrian, Michigan, it met with immediate resistance. Rebuffed by the lack of cooperation, top managers proceeded more slowly, involving supervisors in the designs of new system. Through participation in system design, managers understood what the new approach was all about and dropped their resistance to it. (Daft pg 385 6th edition) ANSWER #4 Yes, I have lived in an under-developed third-world country Pakistan for almost a month when I went to conduct some research work “Human Rights Violation in Pakistan”. I stayed in Pakistan’s biggest cosmopolitan city “Karachi” which was a fairly developed territory of almost 17 million people. I saw great differences between host culture and my culture of origin. Pakistanis place great emphasis on “Collectivistic” values compared to Americans who are individualistic. They emphasize on the importance of cooperation, coordination, communication and mutual understanding. People in Pakistan emphasize on the importance of marriage and family. They condemn and are strictly against Pre-marital relations among couples, considered it a taboo and against their Islamic teachings. This is perhaps the main reason of almost negligible divorce rates, gang rapes, prostitution and unlawful children in Pakistan compared to USA which undoubtedly ashamed me when my Pakistani colleagues showed shocking statistics they gathered from some US websites about drastic increase in divorces, physical assault, sexual harassment, unlawful children, rapes etc in USA. On the contrary, I found gender inequality and sexism in Pakistan. It is a male-dominated society where women are suffering with self-created “laws of private property” by male members of their family especially in fairly illiterate and socially deprived areas. Women in Pakistan are only 10% of total labor workforce in Pakistan. I am proud of being a U.S citizen where a woman enjoys equal rights in comparison to a male member. Another thing that I would like to highlight is freedom of expression in USA whereas in Pakistani culture, this doesn’t really exist. ANSWER #5 No, every company may not go global or expand its business operations in overseas markets. A company with limited financial resources, brand image, product and service quality, inefficient personnel for international trade and lack of sufficient information and knowledge about international environment, socio-cultural, legal/political factors, economic and technological changes may face a multitude of complexities if it is aiming to commence its operations in foreign markets. In contrast, a company with expanded financial capacity, specialized management skills, economies of large scale operations, efficient knowledge and record management systems could plan of becoming of becoming global because of their specialization. Usually, large domestic organizations with differentiated products possess these capabilities. Example: Coca-cola and Microsoft that are specialists in their fields have proved that they can duplicate their domestic success abroad. BCS inc. based in Canoga Park, California, recycles scrap from electronics manufacturers. BCS set up a division in Guadalajara, a center of electronics manufacturing. For that facility, the company sells materials to a variety of Asian customers especially in China. BCS has observed a considerable increase in sales after becoming global. (Boone n Kurtz Contemporary Business pg 27 10th edition) REFERENCES Daft, Richard. “Managerial Decision Making”. In Management, 281-287. Daft, Richard. “Change and Development”. In Management, 381-384. Boone, Louis, and David Kurtz. Contemporary Business. Harcourt College Publishers. Cliff Notes. “The Decision-Making Process”. Cliffs Review Topic. Wiley CDA. http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/The-DecisionMaking-Process.topicArticleId-8944,articleId-8863.html A.J. Schuler. “Overcoming Resistance to Change: Top Ten Reasons for Change Resistance”. Schuler solutions. http://www.schulersolutions.com/resistance_to_change.html Read More