Decision making processes and problem identification in organizational teams

Insurance Summary

As insurance companies go, the particular organization that was the subject of this study -- i.e. The place of employment for the team members involved in the research and analysis -- was fairly standard. Several different departments existed in one large room of cubicles in a building owned and wholly occupied by the company, several other departments existed in separate rooms and executives offices were on the top of the third floor building. This physical structure of the organization largely reflected the organizational structure of authority and decision making power, with this power very much concentrated at the top and command highly centralized. Though this is not generally the recommended structure for organizations involved in many industries, and particularly for manufacturing concerns that deliver more tangible products to consumers, this top-down organization and high degree of rigid hierarchy actually seems to serve the organization fairly well in many regard, enabling the type of oversight and control necessary to operate on the tight margins that the organization often faces (Kotelnikov 2011).

At the same time, it should be noted that this particular building was simply one regional branch of a national insurance company, and there actually appeared to be a fair degree of latitude given to the regional office from the corporate headquarters. This reflects a greater degree of decentralization, which enables more responsive, effective, and specific decision making (Kotelnikov 2011). Though a mundane office hierarchy on initial appearance, this company's communication and decision-making structures were actually somewhat complex.

The approach used by the company to identify, assess, and address problems was an activity-interaction analysis framework that was clearly defined and explicitly instructed to employees by management, and presumably handed down directly from regional if not corporate executives. This type of analysis is specifically focused on analyzing actions and activities to determine their adequacy in producing the expected and normative results, and eliminating any unwanted deviations that are discovered through this analysis (Advameg 2011). In the given insurance organization, this framework was used in day-to-day decision making by employees at all levels of the firm, and was also used as a method of guidance in the development of more long-term operational strategies and activities. Deviation was considered an unknown, and therefore a risk-0and one that was difficult to measure, at that -- and the mitigation and control of risk was a central concern for the company both simply as a business firm and as an insurance provider specifically.