Stages of Decision-Making - Case Study Example

Personal case study reflection Name Institution Introduction This report reflects on decisions made at my workplace. Several things can take place in a company that may require crucial decisions to be made. These decisions usually have different effects on different people within the office setting. it will discuss the circumstances that led to the decisions that were made and why these decisions were important. It will also outline the channels and models of decision making in a typical office such as mine. Harrison (1994) defines decision making as the study of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values and preferences of the decision maker. He further explains that, for there to be need for decision making, there have to be alternative choices to be considered, and in such a s case, it is important to choose an alternative that best fits the desires and values of the decision maker. According to Drago (1997), there are five major steps involved in a decision making process. The first is gathering of information. This is a crucial step since it is after one gathers enough needed information that they are able to completely comprehend the situation they are in and also know what options are available to them. The analysis of the situation is part of the second step. The next step involves qualifying interpretation and insight. Arriving at a decision or selecting a suitable choice from the available alternatives, is followed by the final step which is the implementation. At my company, the project manager had to travel to Dublin for a conference and found it necessary to appoint a stand in for the period that she would be away. After considering several factors, she selected me as the stand in, despite my being relatively new to the company. The following is an analysis of this and other decisions that had to be made in the subsequent days. Decision One The first decision was made by the project manager, Avril, who had to appoint a stand in while she traveled to Dublin for a conference. After careful consideration, she selected me as the better option, the other being Romeo. She said it had been necessary for her to put someone in charge while she was away because there was to be a contact presentation by both our company and another rival company that was to take place the week that she would be away and needed a responsible and hardworking person to take over. These qualities she found in me, despite the fact that I had joined the company not so long ago. She decided against appointing Romeo, who had worked in the company longer and had more experience, because he was slacking in his duties, showing up late to work and took longer breaks than he should (Baron, 2000). To come up with the solution that she did, Avril followed certain vital steps that are essential in decision making to ensure that the best one is selected. These steps are similar to the ones outlined by birminghamcityuni (2009). She first had to identify the problem. In this scenario, the problem was that the company would lack a source of guidance because she had to be away. There was also a presentation that involved a lot of money that would be very beneficial to the company, and it needed the best leadership possible to see it through. The next step she followed was to generate alternative solutions. This she did by analyzing the employees in the company. It is while doing this that she discovered characteristics of certain people in the office. She considered factors such as output of the employees, their experience in the company and their discipline and dedication to their jobs. This helped her to come up with two best people to take over from her; Romeo and me. She then analyzed us further and discovered that although Romeo had more experience than me, having worked for the company longer, his lack of interest in his job which was displayed by his lateness and taking longer breaks at the office, would not make him a suitable project manager as he could risk the company’s chances of triumph over the rival company while presenting the contract. She was therefore left with one choice. She told me I was her best choice because of my hard work and dedication to the job. This is the third step; selecting a solution. She finally called me to her office to inform me of her decision to appoint me as the stand in project manager. This is the implementation stage which is the final step. She also gave me a list of duties to be fulfilled, among them the overseeing of the contract presentation which she was assured would be a success under my supervision. She also asked me to talk to Romeo about his misdemeanor at the office. This four step theory of decision making is also known as the rational model (Cengage., 2013). The second decision Avril suggested that I conduct a tem building exercise for the members of staff. She had noticed that most of them were not as enthusiastic with their work as before and it was necessary that we find a way of boosting their morale. She was also keen to specify the importance of finding a morale booting exercise that would be most effective for the employees and also be friendly in terms of cost. Cost-benefit analysis is a key technique that is used worldwide in decision making. According to Fülöp, the cost-benefit analysis (CBA), considers gains and losses that your decision will have on the society as a whole. In this case, the society as a whole refers to both the company, and the employees. I had to put into consideration the need of the company to use as less resources as possible and still get the best outcome. The employees were also a major factor in this decision as I was to also ensure that the final selection of an activity to boost their morale would be favorable to all of them for it to bring the effect that we wanted it to have on them (birminghamcityuni, 2009). Fülöp also points out that the CBA involves valuation of the impacts of your decision in terms of a single, familiar measurement scale; money. It is necessary for the decision maker to be able to prove that his decision to partake in a certain activity is more beneficial to all parties involved, and that doing nothing would be of less advantage. In order to come up with the best activity for the employees, a lot of factors had to be put into consideration. First of all, it was necessary that I find out what exactly was causing the slack in performance by the employees. Analyze their needs and feelings. This would be best accomplished by talking to the employees in an environment that would make them comfortable enough to speak out their true feelings. It was also extremely necessary to find out about their various interests. This would assist in finding that middle ground that they would all find favorable in order for them to go through a team building exercise successfully. Team building is supposed to assist the employees to be more productive in the office. It involves activities that make them relax and release tension that may have accumulated as a result of too much work. Another role of team building is for the employees to get to know one another better and be able to learn their different characters, value and preferences. Having employees who relate well is essential for a company because that way they will be more comfortable working with each other which in the end improves their overall output (Lindebaum & Cartwright, 2010). The third decision The third decision was one I had to make after Avril had left for Dublin and it involved Romeo. Romeo, after discovering that Avril had selected me to take her place as a project manager, overlooking him who had more experience in the company, decided to sell the company secrets to the rival company with who we were competing over the contract. According to Barret, there are six different modes of decision making. Among these, the value based decision making is the most appropriate for the scenario that I had to face in regards to Romeo (Clegg, 1990). Careful analysis had to be made about whether keeping Romeo around was of benefit to the company as compared to letting him go. Here was an employee who felt superior to the others because of the long time he had spent in the company. He felt that despite his non performance, he was still better than the rest of us who had taken a shorter time in the company, not considering the fact that we actually work hard. Berret explains that, we need a self- authoring mind before we take to the decision. He further explains the need for us to have a viable and independent framework of existence for value based decision making to be fully and naturally available to us. He further states that value based decision making creates the conditions that allow authenticity and integrity to flourish. In this case, it was vital that the decision I came up with would assist in protecting the company form Romeo’s destruction. Avril had left me in charge of the contract presentation and already there was a setback from Romeo having released our secrets to the enemy. The best decision in this case had to be to put him away from the company for the period that the real boss would be away so that when she returned she would make the final decision about his position in the company. There were many factors that I put into consideration that led me to believe that the company would be better off without Romeo. He was already a non performer to begin with and this was easy to back up as the boss herself had informed me of his character. Therefore, there would be very little that would be lost as a result of his absence from the company. And it would also give us ample time and space to come up with new strategies to counter the rival company in the contract presentation and still have chances of winning against them. As Berret also puts it, value based decision making involves putting into consideration, not the past, but the future we want to create. In this case, the future of the company was as stake as a result of the sellout by Romeo (Northouse 2006). . Avril had specifically said that the contract was worth a lot of money that the company would benefit from. So it was important that I find a way of salvaging the situation, and the first step according to my reasoning, was to find a way of preventing further destruction (Kinicki, 2008). Conclusion In conclusion, decision making, especially for the office setting, in a sensitive process that requires critical thinking and analysis of the situations involved. The decision maker should never forget to put into consideration all parties involved, because when one vital side is aggrieved, the whole reason for the decision made could come crumbling down. Applying all the important stages is advisable and one should always be able to tell which modes and techniques are best suited for the cases involved to maximize the outcome of the decision (Northouse 2006). Sometimes the decisions involve more than one person, as in the case of the team building exercise. It was necessary that I put into consideration the needs of all the employees while also keeping in mind the needs of the organization that involved maximum output of employees and limiting costs. Other times the decision could involve one individual, although their outcome could affect the larger community, as in the case of Romeo revealing our secrets to the enemy. In this case, it would still have been ethical to disregard the outcome it would have on Romeo since he had been the because of the predicament. The safety and prosperity was fundamental. References Baron. J. (2000). Thinking and deciding. New York. Cambridge University Press birminghamcityuni.(2009). Futureproof : Ethical Dilemmas. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuWxguuFzy4 Drago, W.A. (1997). Organizational Structure and Strategic Planning: An Empirical Examination. Management Research News, 20 (6), 30-42. Cengage. ( 2013). Managerial ethics and corporate social responibilty. Retrieved from http://www.cengage.com/resource_uploads/static_resources/0324405715/8910/0-324-40571-5_04_REV.pdf Harrison, B (1994). Lean and Mean: The Changing Landscape of Corporate Power in the Age of Flexibility. New York: Basic Books. Kinicki. A (2008). Decision making and managing conflict. Retrieved from http://toolkit.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/part/8/42/200 Lindebaum, D., & Cartwright, S. (2010). A critical Examination of the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Transformational Leadership. Journal of Management Studies, 47, 1317-1342. Northouse, P. (2006). Leadership: Theory and Practice. London: Sage Publications. Read More