Quality Group and Individual Decisions - Cedar Tech - Essay Example

Q 7 Quality Group and Individual Decisions Current Conditions: At Cedar Tech, currently, strategic decision making is concentrated at the top and John, Frank, Bob and Sam set the objectives for the rest of the organization to achieve. John focused on overall leadership, Bob on financial & human resource management, Frank on sales& customers and Sam on Operations. It was decided that they would coordinate work on daily basis and meet on weekly basis if nothing urgent was coming up. However, it seems that in view of the growth experienced by Cedar Tech in the past few years, this decision making structure is not very successful. At present, it can be said that they are following an autocratic style of working at Cedar Tech. Goal(s): The management goals are to : 1. double the sales 2. attract and hire the best professionals Research & Understanding of Group Decision Making: Group decision making is thought to be better than individual decision making in the sense that it is generally thought that two heads are better than one. Group decisions are more comprehensive, there is more input involved in the decision making process and heterogeneity and diversity in the decision can be expected. According to Stephen P. Robbins, four group decision making techniques can be employed. The four techniques are: Interacting groups: typical groups, where members interact with each other face to face. Brainstorming: An idea generation process that specifically encourages any and all alternatives, while withholding any criticism of those alternatives Nominal group technique: A group decision making method in which the individual members meet face to face to pool their judgments in a systematic but independent fashion. Electronic meetings: A meeting where members interact on computers, allowing for anonymity of comments and aggregating of votes. Strategic Plan: The above approaches can be used to ensure that the groups perform effectively. The work groups can be made by employing various techniques. For example groups of 2-4 can be made within a department and collective target should be assigned to that group. The individual roles & responsibilities of the group members should be assigned according to the individual strengths and capabilities of the individuals. This would also match the current culture of Ceder Tech which is already defined to be task oriented. The proposed departmental structure for the sales department would be as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 The group discussions are criticized as a decision making means because of their inefficiency. However, if the following twelve steps to make group meetings effective are followed, groups can be highly productive: 1. Preparing a meeting agenda 2. Distributing the meeting agenda in advance 3. Consultation with the participants before the meeting 4. Get the participants to go over the agenda 5. Establish specific time parameters 6. Maintain focused discussion 7. Encourage and support participation of al members 8. Maintain a balanced style 9. Encourage the clash of ideas 10. Discourage the clash o personalities 11. Be an effective listener 12. Bring proper closure (Collins, Stephen P) Quality Individual Decisions Current Conditions: At present decision making seems to be on a day to day, ad hoc basis and there is no as such strategic planning process involved. The President & CEO is expediting an extremer level of control, even in daily, operational decision making. There is no delegation. The managers need to be given authority to make decisions. Goal(s) The management goals are to motivate their employees including the mangers to support them in future. Without empowerment, the management is not satisfied. In order words to achieve this goal, the managers need to be given authority. It is proposed that only in circumstances where decisions are of a confidential and strategic nature, decision making has to be taken at the top level Vice Presidents, CEO and Directors will make the decision. In cases where a single individual (at a higher level) has to make a decision for that will affect the complete organization, the rational decision making model should be followed. The rational decision making model is described as a model that describes how individuals should behave in order to maximize some outcome. Steps in the rational decision making process is: 1. define the problem 2. Identify the decision criteria 3. allocate weights to the criteria 4. develop the alternatives 5. evaluate the alternatives 6. select the best alternative (Collins, Stephen P.) According to one of the business decision making theories, utilitarianism dominates the decision making process. According to the utilitarianism concept, decisions are made so as to provide the greatest good for the greatest number. These days, it has been observed that there is a greater importance attached to ethical decision making. There are three factors that affect the ethical decision making process. The factos that affect ethical decision making are: 1. Stage of moral development 2. Organizational environment 3. Locus of control. Q 10 Identify the different types of groups and teams that are needed at Cedar Tech's to ensure its effectiveness, and propose the necessary steps to build effective teams. Current Conditions: At present, the work environment is not very friendly and people are not split into teams. Due to this many new recruits opt to run out since they are left on their own to learn through trial and error. No one is helpful or provides guidance. Goals: The management has a goal of high productivity and efficiency which can only be achieved through better employee management and retention. In high employee turnover rates, the organization will suffer. Research: The work teams are important because they lead to collective performance towards achievement of goals, positive synergy, individual & mutual accountability and complimentary skill utilization. Strategic Plan: Cedar Tech, in the given situation, should have work teams.Cedar Tech can opt for problem solving teams at the departmental level. Problem solving teams, as described by Stephen P, Robbins, are groups of 5-12 employees from the same department who meet for a few hours each week to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency and the work environment. The problem solving team members share idea or suggest ways in which to make work processes and methods better. However, these teams usually do not have the authority to implement any of their unanimous decisions. This will also be appropriate in Cedar Techs present organizational culture which is more inclined towards higher autocratic control of the upper management n the organization. Self managed work teams can also be employed at certain levels. Self managed work teams are groups of 10 -15 people who take on the responsibilities of their former supervisors. In this particular case authority is divided amongst group members and these types of teams reduce the importance of supervisory positions. However, in case of Ceder Tech, they will not be very suitable since the current organizational culture is not such that it is ready for such self managed work teams. Cedar Tech can form cross functional teams. In Cross functional teams, employees from about the same hierarchical level, but from dferent work areas , cme together to accomplish a task. Currently informal cross functional teams are functioning at Cedar Tech and the higher management comprising the CEO, the VP sales, VP finance & administration & VP operations agree on the same point that the morale and motivation levels of the workforce should be raised and high performing individuals are to be retained in future. Effective teams can be made by selection, training & rewards. The first step is to hire team members who are team layers ad believe in collective performance. In most cases, individuals require training become good team players. The employees need to be provided incentive in form of rewards to encourage them in being a part of teamwork. Stephen P. Robbins identifies that high performance teams can be formed based on group concepts. Size of Work Teams: It has been observed that the best work teams tend to be small of around 4-5 members. Any team size exceeding this makes it difficult to develop cohesiveness, communication & accountability. Abilities of members: An effective team requires the presence of three skills. The Three skills are: Technical Expertise Problem solving and decision making skills Interpersonal skills At Cedar Tech work teams comprising of four people having the three vital skills i.e. technical expertise, problem solving and interpersonal skills would be greatly beneficial. Allocating Roles and promoting Diversity: the best team recipe is achieved when the right people are chosen to perform the right roles in their teams. The roles for team members should be chosen after taking into account their individual strengths and weaknesses and the selection should be such that their individual contributions can be maximized. Diversity in work teams: The diversity in the culture of the organization should also be reflected in the work teams. People from different backgrounds bring a fresh perspective to the problems. However, it is difficult to unify on a single decision in heterogeneous work teams. Read More