Decisions in Paradise Part II

¶ … Nik and the following is my problem. I have been assigned to a beautiful island in order to help my team, Alex and Chris, set up their work site. Kava, the island itself, is battered with more challenges that I have ever lived with that include tidal waves/tsunami; typhoons/hurricanes; tornadoes; floods; fires; volcanic eruptions; earthquakes. Add to this mixture HIV / AIDS; petroleum spill; high risk for avian flu; and terrorism and you understand why I am queasy about the chances of success and, more so, perplexed about where to start. Aside from the above external problems that impact the project, internal challenges include disorganization of the work location and site; shoddy HR procedures, chaotic organizational structure; and non-harmonious workforce that has been reflected in the organization's history of high turnover.

My task, according to Alex and Chris, consists in helping them establish a greater presence in Kava. Ways of establishing that presence would be up to my volition and may take various forms, based on "what's good for the company and what's good for the people of Kava." I am expected to work together with the two people and to "analyze, synthesize, and prescribe regarding that decision." In short, my tasks consist of stabilizing the situation, correcting past damage, and structuring the planning, managerial, leadership, and controlling aspects of the business, so that the organization gets off to a promising start.

The outcome, according to Alex, would be "to develop and manage a very effective, as well as highly efficient, organizational structure and processes. That includes all aspects of the company; marketing, finance, purchasing, technology, human resources, physical resource, transportation, strategic planning, leadership, etc."

That is one tall order for one short guy

Decision: Decision-making - Paired Comparison Analysis

I will use the Paired Comparison Analysis to help me with this situation. The Paired Comparison Analysis is ideal for this situation since it helps me see the organizational and environmental obstacles and prioritize them in a way that takes all into consideration. Other stakeholders, aside from Alex and Chris, who will be involved in helping me and will therefore be represented on my board, will all be individuals involved with the organization. These will include the company's investors, prospective consumers, employees, salespeople, and so forth

The method:

1. We will list the various projects that require our attention, assigning a letter to each task.

2. We will mark our options as row and column headings on a worksheet or Excel sheet

3. We will compare the project in the row with the one in the column, and for each cell decide which is the more important. We will then inscribe the letter of the more important project (that is more pressing or more crucial to development of the organization) on the cell, and rate the difference in importance from 0 (no difference) to 3 (great difference).

4. Finally, we will work out the results by summing the total of all the values for each of the options. We may want to convert the final value into a percentage score.

As illustration, it will be like this:

Paired Comparison Analysis: Nik's Situation

Marketing

Human resource

Finance

Purchasing

Employment

HR

A,2

C,1

A,1

Finance

C,1

B.1

Purchasing

C2

Employment

As illustrated by the Table, I write down the letter of the most important option, and, after allocating each a letter, score their differences in importance. Finally, I and team add up the A, B, C values, and, if we wish to, convert each into a percentage.