Organization decision making processes and frameworks

Organization Decision Making

Within an organization, there have to be many changes taking place at all times, without which the organization may stagnate and start to decline. These changes would have to be organization-wide, rather than small changes like changing the program, adding a new person, and so on. Some examples of organization-wide change are a change in the mission of the company, or a restructuring of operations, or maybe an addition of a new technology, or a merger, etc. In general organizational change is provoked by a need for accomplishing some preconceived goal, or it is caused by some outside force like for example, a need for cutting costs within the organization, or a need to increase declining productivity. Although it is a fact that organization wide change is difficult to accomplish, primarily for the reason that many people are afraid of change of any kind, even though it is obvious that a change is necessary, it dose have to take place if the organization has hopes of remaining viable. (Basic Context of Organizational Change)

Organizational Change:

Successful organizational change can be implemented by the management of the firm, and with the involvement of the executive board members and also of the board, when the entire team puts in their own efforts at bringing in the changes. In addition, these changes would have to be sustained, and this means that the very structure of the organization must be modified and changed, and this would include the various strategic plans and policies and also strategic procedures that are a part of the running of the organization. Typically, organizational change would involve these three steps: un-freezing, change, and then re-freezing, and when the entire team is committed towards bringing in the change, through education and efficient communication, then it can be accomplished well so that the organization would eventually profit from the changes. However, at times, it would be a good idea to use an outside or external consultant to bring in changes into the organization, and this would involve recruiting a consultant who would be an expert in organization wide change. (Basic Context of Organizational Change)

The use of external consultants:

There are in existence today several experts consulting firms who would offer advice on the ways and means of implementing change within an organization, and one example is the firm known as 'Corex Management Consultants', who claim to provide value added service as well as analysis, and support on the various steps that would have to be taken by the management of an organization when in the process of implementing change of any kind. The various types of consultancy that they offer are: organization change, corporate and also strategy planning, and other relevant research that would make bringing in change into the organization easier. (Best Corporate Change Resources)

Decision making process - 2 relevant theories

Within an organization, one of the most important factors is the 'decision making process', wherein all the major decisions regarding the organization, and the ways and means with which to tackle the problems that will inevitably arise in any organization, are dealt with in a satisfactory manner. In fact, it can be said that most of the job that the managers and supervisors of the organization perform are either decision-making or problem solving. More often than not, the manager or the supervisor works under a lot of stress, and when there is stress, there is bound to be a lack of clear thinking. As a consequence, when a new problem arises, and they are short of time, they automatically react with the solution that they had conceived of for some other problem, previous to this particular one, which had seemed to work well for that problem, but, sadly may not work for this one. What happens then is that the manager literally gets stuck in a circle, where the same problem occurs over and over again, and eventually, the problem will not be solved. Therefore, the more organized the approach, the better it would be to making a good and solid decision within the organization. (Basic Guidelines to Problem Solving and Decision Making)

Although it is a fact that it is ethical principles that provide the basic guideline for the behavior within an organization, this in itself is not enough to provide the background for decision making. The two important styles of decision making are that provided by Rest in 1983, which proposed a 'Four Component Model of Moral Behavior', which would in turn be able to encompass the entire moral process. According to this theory, the first component would be to recognize the fact that a moral problem does indeed exist. The second step would be to reason about the problem, and the next would be to choose one particular moral course of action that would be pertinent to the existing moral values. The final component of this theory includes the carrying out of the action plan that has been decided upon. In the year 1990, Woody proposed another Decision Making Model, which consisted of five components for various defensible decisions. (Avoiding Exploitive Dual Relationships: A Decision-Making Model)

The bases for this theory are the following: the various theories of ethics, the basic professional code of ethics, the several different theoretical premises, and also the socio-legal basis, and finally, the personal professional identity of the decision maker within the organization. There are a few other decision making models, which most organizations follow, like for example, the 'Eleven Questions Model' developed by Handelsman in 1991, and the Five Stage Decision Making Model, developed by Haas and Malouf in 1989. However, one of the better and widely acknowledged models is one that has been designed to address the dilemma of the dual relationship, and also to neither specify strict guidelines within which to base the behavior, nor to be so broad that it does not guide the decision maker at all. This model uses three assumptions, all there of which are critical to the ethical decision making process and they are: Power, the Duration of the Relationship, and the Clarity of Termination. (Avoiding Exploitive Dual Relationships: A Decision-Making Model)

The style of decision-making may, however, vary form one individual to another, and since the ultimate aim and objective is to solve the problem satisfactorily so that it does not occur again within the organization, it is important that the manager or supervisor is aware of certain tips. One is that he must not make a decision that was not his to make, in the first place. Secondly, he must remember that he is not making a choice between 'right' or 'wrong' when making a decision; rather he is choosing from a number of alternatives. Also, he must make the time for making the right decision, instead of simply putting it off, and then making his decision at the last minute, which would more often than not be based on a previous decision to a similar problem, but not the very same problem. Therefore, when the time is taken to make the proper and informed decision, then that decision will work better for the organization, and, most importantly, the manager must put all his alternatives and the entire decision making process that he has undertaken on paper, in writing, so that he may have an easy reference to it whenever the need arises, and once the decision has been made, if the manager is able to implement it with commitment, instead of wondering 'what if', then the problem would have been solved satisfactorily. (Decision Making Tips)

Organization theory is quite complicated, and at times, difficult to understand. However, when the various procedures within an organization are put into the form of theories, then it would definitely make sense to the managers and the other personnel of the organization in their day-to-day running of the firm. (Organization Theory) One such is the latest 'Theory of Constraints', also known as the TOC, which deals in effect with the extremely practical aspect of making decisions, and in bringing in organizational decisions in areas where there are several constraints, of one or the other kind, on the decisions making process in itself. Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt, initially described this Theory in the novel written by him, entitled 'The Goal', and since then the TOC and the logic associated with TOC has formed a major part of several organizations, in their quest for implementing changes for the purpose of continuous improvement. (The Theory of Constraints)

The Theory of constraints can be used at three major levels, which are: production management, throughput analysis, and also for attacking the various process problems within the organization. When the TOC is applied to production management, it will be able to solve the manifold problems generally caused by bottlenecks, inventory reduction, and also by scheduling. TOC has also caused a shift in the basic decision making process in an organization, and where it was primarily 'cost based' decision making earlier, today it is mainly based on the improvement of the various processes within the organization, where system throughput, and system constraints, and pre-determined or statistically determined protective capacities at several important points become the key elements of the TOC and its associated decision making processes. TOC Logic, when applied to the many process problems within the organization, is capable of actually identifying the real problems that are in fact restricting or hindering the organization from achieving its various goals, and also from thinking and analyzing the problem, and developing apt solutions to them, in a manner that would befit the organization. The Theory of Constraints can also find out exactly why the numerous individuals who are actively involved in the decision making process of the organization are not actually carrying out and implementing the changes by themselves. (The Theory of Constraints)

However, it must be remembered that there is in fact no one best method in which to run an organization; there can any number of ways, but the management must be able to make a wise and informed decision as to what would work best for this particular organization. Also, the decisions that have been made with regard to the working of the organization must be in keeping with the environment, and also fit in with the various sub-systems involved. Therefore, the needs of the organization would be better met if the management were aware of the fact that the style of management and decision-making is applicable to the entire work group, as well as to the task on hand. Fiedler's Contingency Theory approaches the problem in a unique manner, where the usual behavioral and trait models are ignored in favor of emphasizing that the performance of the group is contingent upon the leader's thinking, and also on the three important contextual variables, which are: group atmosphere, task structure, and the importance of the leader. (Contingency Theory)

Therefore, group performance would be ruled by two important factors, that of the style of leadership, and the favorableness of the exiting situation. Therefore, according to Fiedler's Theory, the very effectiveness of the leader would depend on the result of the interaction and the communication between the style of the leader and the various characteristics of the environment within the organization. (Contingency Theory) In a comparison between Fiedler's Theory and the TOC, what is evident is the fact that while the TOC deals more with the continuous improvement of the organization, Fiedler's Theory deals more with the innate performance of the group of persons concerned with the entire decision making process within the organization.

Power and politics within decision making leading into brief examination of the relations of theory and practice:

In a decision-making process within an organization, a high level of power would most definitely lead to an infinitely better performance, maybe because of the basic fact that in general, a powerful team would be a high performing team as well, and the higher performing a team is, the more positive is the force that they bring in into the decision making and problem solving processes of the organization. A team leader, therefore, has several main duties to perform, and they are that, first and foremost, the leader is completely responsible for the effective functioning of the entire team of people of the organization, and secondly, the leader must know how to manipulate performances in such a way that the other employees and himself work well as a team, rather than as individuals, and all towards a common cause, since it is a proven fact that a team will work better when the responsibility is shared, and also when the leader shares his responsibility among the various other members of the team, and the empowered members are more likely than others to take on responsibility for the success of the team, the leader is also generally responsible for the development of a secure and effective leadership structure, wherein the framework for his leadership duties are very clear. A team that is headed by such a leader, and where it is clear who the leader is will most definitely work better, because of the fact that such a team will work better, and will also have a lot lesser inter-personal problems, and will also be able to produce better outputs than others. (Strategic Leadership and Decision-making)