Decision making
Decision making is one of the most important things managers do.
When should decisions be made?
Good managers do not put decisions off or procrastinate. Equally, they do not make decisions until they have enough information.
How should decisions be made?
Big decisions are the hardest to make. Using a problem-solving model can help managers work through all the issues and consider all the possibilities.
Small or less important decisions can be made more quickly. Managers might need to experiment with small decision making, partly because they need to make many decisions each day, and because time does not let them do much research first. Managers still need to be careful, though, as people and valuable resources are always involved.
Who should make the decisions?
Managers may use groups of staff to help them reach decisions. In some situations they may delegate the decisions to groups.
It is often good to involve staff in decisions that affect them, because then they will feel part of the decision process and so accept the result more easily. Sharing decision making in this way also uses the experience and skills of employees.
Problem solving and finding
What is problem solving and finding?
Problem solving is making a decision when you are faced with a problem. Unfortunately, a lot of decision making only happens for this reason: because there is a problem that needs to be solved immediately. However, if managers are alert for, and search for, problems or likely problems these can often be fixed before they get too big.
Six steps to problem solving
How should you solve problems? There are a number of approaches, but the one suggested here uses six steps.
Six steps to problem solving flowchart - [D] Text equivalent
Are problems always solved like this?
No. There are many variations. Some organisations may use a very different model. Others may use a similar model, but change it slightly. For example: In a democratic workplace the manager might ask staff for input at every stage.
The problem solving could be delegated to others. If the problem is large, the manager might prefer to delegate all of the steps except Step 4, the decision step, when alternatives must be weighed.
Finding the problem: The ‘5 Whys’ method
You can decide what the problem actually is before trying to solve it by using the 5 Whys technique. This technique was popular in Japan when they were leading the world in making high-quality goods. It is very simple. When a problem occurs, you just ask ‘Why?’ five times. It gets to a basic reason by very small steps.
example
Employees at Liam’s retail store are taking too much paid sick leave: much more this year than last year.
Liam uses the 5 Whys.
- Why? Because the employees are sicker than they were in the past.
- Why? Because the employees are more stressed than they were in the past.
- Why? Because new sales targets have made them stressed.
- Why? Because only some of the employees can meet the sales targets every week.
- Why? Because the sales targets aren’t fair.
Result
The business can now start at Step 2 in the 6-step problem-solving process.
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