Making Decisions in an Organization: Four People Offer Their Work Experiences

Eva, Debra, Joe, and Farah work for organizations that make decisions every day, decisions that will hopefully benefit the organization. Each of these individuals have investigated and observed the decision-making processes most prevalent in their organizations. They will compare and contrast their findings in regard to problem identification and formulation styles and discuss strengths and weaknesses found in each style. Each organization has stakeholders who need to be informed about problems which arise. The organizations need to identify and describe problems to stakeholders in a manner that is sensitive to their perspectives.

Eva works for a company that adds third party insurance to those that are on Medicaid. If one has Medicaid and also has private health insurance through an employer or somewhere else, the information is turned in by providers, and the policies are added so that the private health insurance is primary and Medicaid is secondary.

The woman that is in charge of the organization uses the intuitive type of decision making. Since she identifies problems and formulates options by referring to her personal values and ideas rather than rational logic, she often does not take the time to think about the big picture and how her decisions will affect the company in the long run.

For example, in the last two years, the organization has had four lay-offs. During these lay-offs, the woman has gotten rid of the people that she personally does not like. She believes this is good for her, but this is not good for the company. Many people she is getting rid of are employees that understand the job well. Many of the people she has kept on staff are those that do not understand what is necessary to keep the company going, but she personally likes them so they get to stay. As a result, the few policies that have been added are not being recognized.

Debra works at a domestic violence shelter. The most prevalent formulation style in the organization is the intuitive type. The strength found within this type is that people are empathetic to others' needs. Having feeling for victims is a beneficial ability for staff to have. A weakness found within this type is that staff puts too much emphasis on personal values and emotions and therefore, ends up often missing logic and rationale of the situation. When logic is left out of the formulation, the decision can be clouded by emotions and can be wrong for the organization, other residents of the shelter, and the client. For example, if someone is homeless, he or she needs to be referred to a homeless shelter, not offered a three month stay at what is supposed to be a 30-day emergency domestic violence shelter. This is bad for supplies, which are all donated, for energy bills, and for overall morale of staff when the mission is lost.

When staff is intuitive and their gut instinct turns out to be what is best for the client and the organization, the community can feel good about what they are supporting in their volunteer time and donations. They can feel good about why the organization is there and how many victims are served throughout the year. Even though the intuitive style has its downfalls, the sensitivity and empathy emanates from the organization and is an important quality in such a line of work.

Staff puts together word frames when communicating with clients. These word frames are based on staff training, experience, and culture. Word frames enable staff to come to conclusions about what kind of services the organization can support the clients with that will be most helpful. Approaching the community and board of directors in a logical, fact-based way would be the best way to achieve support from these stakeholders.

Joe works for Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill. Toby's is a high volume restaurant, bar, and concert venue that is primarily focused on the country music genre and targets a specific demographic of those folks who perhaps voted for George W. Bush twice. The Toby's in Mesa, Arizona where Joe is employed was the third one. The original Toby's is in Oklahoma, Keith's home state; the second one was built in Las Vegas. The fourth franchise just opened in Auburn Hills, Michigan and will soon be followed by Denver. Fifteen more franchises are planned in the next five years. Needless to say, the need for exceptional management and leadership is going to increase. Hopefully, the product and brand maintain a successful future.

There are currently four "front of the house" managers and two more managers for the busy kitchen. Each manager works about 60 hours per week. Based on Joes's experience working in the industry, the highest turnover in employees happens to be in management. No matter how many hours a week they work, they get paid the same because they are on salary. Joe has observed that management is rarely praised by ownership for all the good things they accomplish and are often reprimanded for things beyond their control.

Currently at the establishment Joe works for, there is not a leader among them. Leading can be difficult when one is merely carrying out orders from ownership and counting the seconds until last call. In Joe's opinion, the true leadership at Toby's can be found behind the bar on a nightly basis. Bartenders are on the frontline of customer service. If they go the extra mile and deliver excellent service, a manager never has to get involved. If anything, leaders have to trust their employees and management can be hands off. They trust that the bar is going to run smoothly, knowing they have great human assets in place to maximize the profit margin on a nightly basis.

For the past 7 years, Farah has been employed as a marketing and sales representative for Tommy Hilfiger (TH). When she took over the position there were several issues surrounding her job duties. Because Tommy Hilfiger is an international company and brand, it can be extremely difficult to keep watch on specifics and to ensure that all work is being completed well and with the best intentions for the company.

Farah's specific job responsibilities include managing all TH locations, including outlet stores and branches at city malls, hubs, and plazas. Her duty is to oversee all production, revenue, budgeting, and loss for branches from California up through Washington. As one could imagine, this requires traveling and multitasking. The biggest issue with traveling is that when one branch is excelling, management wants to highlight these achievements and learn from them. However, Farah's job is to be working on branches that need further help causing, in her opinion, a lack of overall supervision.

Farah would say that the best type of decision making tool for her specific job duties is a mixture of authoritative and participative decision making. As the lead west coast representative, it is important that she is sure of all her decisions. She has to project what the future will be because of her decisions, be ready for criticism when upper management learns of decisions, have detailed explanations for all changes she makes, and be ready to take responsibility for any poor choices that may have occurred.

She also believes that participative decision making helps her job as well. Although Farah is sure some of her superiors would disagree with the protocol, she receives feedback and opinions from her branch employees constantly. They stay current through email, phone, and quarterly meetings to ensure that she knows what is happening. Listening to her employees has helped Farah realize that everyone has something to offer to a company they care about.

Decision-making in these organizations has been made using intuition, as in Evas's and Debra's organizations and an intuitive, somewhat free-style process, as in Joe's organization in which managers hire employees they believe will run the establishment well, leaving employees with little direction from management. Farah's organization consists of authoritative and participative decision making processes which enable structure and the inclusion of employee feedback, components not always found in a more self-centered intuitive style. Farah's organization likely has the better management style of the four organizations. This style creates better structure, clear and concise direction, and better overall management ability.