Fluent Essays

Continuing on the theme from CLA1, some time has passed and you were successful in your position as a senior manager. After deliberation by the board, you have been elected and appointed to the position of CEO. This means that you are now responsible for the organization more from a department-level, rather than a personal-level.  However, you understand that you must improve the efficiency of decision-making at all levels of the organization in order to be more effective as a whole. You decide to conduct a series of seminars and workshops within the organization in order to meet this challenge. Provide a detailed report that you will present to the board that outlines your strategy to improve decision-making at all levels in the organization. Your report should include the following: ● A summary of the decision-making concepts presented in CLA1 ● A plan defining, and detailing the psychology of poor financial and investment decisions and how this information can be used to aid the finance department ● A process for making rational decisions and avoiding cognitive mistakes during negotiations  ● Detailed strategies that you would incorporate to improve the overall decision-making process throughout the organization  ● A system that ensures ethical approach to decision-making  You must reference: any articles uploaded, your textbook, and at least 4 additional sources. Document your citations throughout the text of your report; a 3 to 5-page, APA-formatted  is the accepted format for all Westcliff University Professional Assignments.  I have attached my CLA 1 so that you can get a better ideas on the concepts mentioned there since it is required for this assignment. 1 7 DECISION MAKING Concept of Strategic Decision Making Decision Making Decision making is the cornerstone to the success of every company in today’s world full of competition in business. There are frequently numerous options or possible alternatives to all of us, causing decision making more complicated. Making a decision, whether in ones personal or professional life, is critical. According to Harold Koontzs description, decision making is a process of choosing one of several options (Koontz, n.d.). When deciding, three questions have always been brought up: what, how, and also who. If a company makes a poor decision, it can easily be sidetracked by another company. The company may lose its market share to the thriving companies in the region and results to loses. The loss may lead to the closure of the company and thus loss of jobs of various employees who were working in the company. All that may happen due to poor decision making by a single person or a group of decision makers in the company. The managers decisions determine whether an organization grows, succeeds, or fails. Efficient and productive management is defined as one that contributes to the achievement of organizational goals while also assisting in the development of successful managers (Mirahmadi, Rashidi, Kianian, & PoorAlian, 2014). It consists of eight distinct steps but since decision - making process is at the root of administration. The very first stage is to assess and consider the problem, after which the biggest concern must be recognized. Then well think about prospective solutions to these problems and put them to the assessment. Upon analyzing the alternatives, we could very well choose one of them to enforce and, eventually, properly assess the decision that was made. In the company where I have just been promoted to a new senior management position happens to be a ecommerce platform and by the time I joined a lot has happened to the company and its future. The discussion about change of strategic decisions have been there for a while. The executive team is in trouble by the current situation of the company. The company has been gradually losing its market share in the region and thus the need for immediate change of direction by the company. Lose of the market share have greatly impacted our company in that there is low growth in the industry. the company has started to lose customer trust and thus more loses incurred by the company. The company need immediate turn in direction to avoid any further loses that may be incurred in the future. The company is yet to make various decisions in different areas of the company such as product development, manufacturing processes, training, and marketing. The company will first identify the decision to be made in each area of the company. The executive team will be keener not to make any hasty decisions which may impact the company negatively. The decisions made will be based on a step-by-step process of decision making. Since the company has already researched a problem, their next step could be. System Thinking and Common Biases System thinking can be explicitly labeled as visualizing mechanisms from the wider point of view that involves the systems frameworks, trends, and phases, instead of only focusing on key events (Huotarinen, 2018). The primary goal of system thinking inside a company is to integrate themself into the larger system. When it comes to system thinking in case of an organization, it is an efficient method to communicate with and become engaged in the organisations structure. It  is more of an attitude than just a technique; for example, an employee might not become a system thinker until they take the standpoint of the organization ’s structure and understands the objectives (Warren, 2011). In case of the company that I am working for, the company has gathered all the relevant information about the decisions to be made. They have done this through gathering information both from within and outside the company. Gathering relevant information was the important system in decision making process of the company since it brought more insight to the company on how to solve the company’s current problems. For example, one of the major reasons for our failure was not that we were offering assistance from different suppliers, but rather that we had a general trend of charging extortionate delivery costs. The evidence was weighed, and all the decisions reviewed. Ultimately our company came up with strategies that they will employ to make the current situation better and increase its sales soon. The management team came up with appropriate decisions i.e the customer would pay one collective delivery charge even though they buy products from different vendor, which ultimately would be used to improve the company’s situation. Another executive team member proposed that innovation was one method that the company may use to increase its market share. Truly, innovation is a great way to increase the company’s market share especially when the company decides to bring new technology at the marketplace. The competitors will lose their customers to the company since many consumers prefer latest technology which aids them in various ways such as product improvements and better services. The decision may be of various benefits to the company since it may in turn improve the company sales and thus more profits for the company. The decision however faced some biases which were obstacle to the decision. Anchoring was the first bias experienced by the decision. The members of the executive team over relied on the information from the team member who proposed the decision. The company executives limited their judgments to that single source of information which hindered other relevant information from coming. However, the executive team overcome the bias my outsourcing other relevant information other than just relying on a single piece of information. The company found that it was the best decision to be made at each part of the company for the company to increase its sales. Bounded Rationality and Framing According to Herbert A. Simons theory of bounded rationality, bounded rationality is a principle which questions the idea of human rational thinking as insinuated by the idea of homo economics. Bounded rationality refers to the methodology of making a decision based on the limited information available. Making a reasonable decision every time is impossible for a decision maker due to limitations in reasoning ability, information provided, and time.   The main reason for the occurrences of bounded rationality is when the companys knowledge is insufficient. During the decision-making process the member’s rationality was limited. The level of reference limited the decision of the executive members but after deep investigation the members agreed on the decision. Innovation which was seen as the important move for the company, which would even enable company to defeat its current competitors, was the solution that satisfied the members in the end. The Chief Executive Officer of the company allowed each member of the executive team to explain his or her own point of view about the decision at hand. Because the framing effect is a kind of prejudices that happens when a judgment is influenced by the material available, the bounded rationality has been eventually framed to accommodate the organizations decision. Motivation, Emotion and Ethics Emotions in a company obstruct rationality. The state of becoming emotional may change in an instant and in any point of ime, leading to changes in attitude. As the organizations senior manager, its indeed my job to address how these patterns affect the organization. The decision was also flooded by emotions and motivation from the members of the executive team. Some members were so motivated by the decision and all it has to offer to the company. Those members were so obsessed in the motivation up to a point of making the decision hasty. Other members were some emotional to the decision and they influence the decision arguing that the decision was not safe since it will require more costs and the fact that other companies have not empress the idea. However, I mitigated the effects of motivational and emotional influences by taking the other members through the decision and its return to the company. In case of all the decisions that were made ethics and fairness were addressed in various ways. The decisions were made based on moral rights, cost-benefit and principles of the company and its workers. Words and actions of the decision makers were fair and accepted by the entire company. The decision of innovation in the various sectors of the company was set to start soon. The company is eager to see the fruits of its decisions. Conclusion Decision - making process is never a convenient part of everyday life, be it in a work or individual peoples lives, since there are always options amongst us, making decision making challenging with the options. As a result, this paper recognizes multiple activities that must be centered on the advancement of the organization where Ive been starting to work. To be likely to succeed, any company must have appropriate market research, productive workforce, high-quality service and support, and well-trained employees. As a senior manager, I am absolutely accountable for supplying solutions and implementing those alternatives in order to increase the sales of the company. References Huotarinen, J. (2018, May 20). Systems thinking - a new approach for decision making. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/JuhanaHuotarinen/systems-thinking-a-new-approach-for-decision-making Elbanna, S. (2006). Strategic decision‐making: Process perspectives. International Journal of Management Reviews, 8(1), 1-20. Koontz, H. (n.d.). Meaning of Decision Making. Retrieved March 21, 2021, from Exonomics Discussion: https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/decision-making/decision-making-meaning/31962 Lunenburg, F. C. (2010, September). THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS. In National Forum of Educational Administration & Supervision Journal (Vol. 27, No. 4). Mirahmadi, S. M., Rashidi, H., Kianian, N., & PoorAlian, R. (2014). Study the role of managers decision-making in improving the performance of human source. Kuwait Chapter of the Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 3(10), 19-27. doi: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1545528224?accountid=158986