Decision making skills are the most essential one in carrier success and effective leadership. Well timed and well considered decisions often lead to spectacular and well deserved success. There are many techniques to implement best decisions with the information the information available to us. The depth of decision usually depends upon the knowledge and way we approach in making a decision. The techniques help to identify the consequences and effects of the decision with its importance and individual effects and to take the best way to take an action.
Factors affecting decision making[1]
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Decision making is affected by many factors. This depends upon the complexity of the decision. Some decisions are straight forward and others are very complex. So we need to consider the situation and way to approach to a decision. Some of the factors that affect the decision making are
Uncertainty:- this is when the decision is done under very less certain about the consequences.
Complexity: – the rigidity and the factors affect the decision is very important. There will be a lot of things that have to be considered in taking a decision
High risk impacts:- positive or negative risk upon that decision.
Alternative paths: – taking a group of choices from where we can choose a best one, each has its own set of uncertainties and consequences.
Interpersonal issues: – it is difficult to predict how other people accept the decision.
Considering all the about issues we should do the decision in a very efficient way. A well transparent decision gives high quality and consistent results.
Approach to decision making
If we consider a decision making in a logical and systematic way and is done in a well organized approach, we will be very less proximity to miss any critical factors and by continuous understanding of the factors more clearly we can build the quality of the decision making much better.
There are different steps for making effective decisions
initialize a constructive environment, for decision initiative
For creating a constructive environment we should first understand what all things to do to trigger it. We should take care of the following things in mind while initiating this.
We should define what we want to achieve.
Create an idea how the decision is to be done. It can be a group decision or an individual one.
Right people at the right group give effective decision. So be aware of consulting the stakeholders properly even we are taking an individual decision. This decrease the impact from them. If a group decision is to be made, we should create the group which represents the stakeholders.
We should listen to the opinions through the discussions of the decision
We should be very much sure about the questions we are asking.
Always be creative from the initial stage till the final of the decision making.
Identify good alternatives (creativity):-implementing the decision in a better and different methods
This is one of the most critical step in decision making. The more we go deep into the core of the decision, the more alternative we can raise by viewing the problem in different angles. If there are more alternatives, then we can find more effective decision. Some of the ways of generating alternatives are
Brain storming, for generating ideas in a group
Reverse brain storming, accepting negative way discussion for the decision and do things in the opposite way
Asking every stakeholder ideas.
Gathering information using the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place and Promotion).
If the people involved are too close to the problem and we couldnaˆ™t able to find a better alternative, take a step back to view things in another perspective
Organizing ideas, if we have a number of ideas and margining one or more ideas together.
Learn the alternatives:- we have to study how the alternative affect when implementing the decision
Once we are able to choose some of the possible alternative, we should able to understand the feasibility, risks and implications of each choice. [1]
Feasibility: – this is to check whether the alternative has adequate resources and matches our objective and works long term.
Risk: – there will be always some level of uncertainty in every decision. This is a cause of risk and this should be checked and has to identify if it is manageable or not.
Implication :- here we can find the potential risk on each alternative we adopted
Adopt the best alternative to take the most efficient and effective choice
In this we choose the best of the chosen alternative with all the factors that is compactable for our objective of the decision.
Examine our decision to make sure whether our choice is best to the situation
In this we have to check that our decision is the best choice or not. One of the very common techniques used in decision making is decision tree
e.g.:- Decision tree
Product launch postponed
Do I launch a new product?
Customer demand
Positive feedback
Negative feedback
Production initiated
Communicate about our decision and to take action accordingly in order to drop discussions about the chosen decision and take appropriate initiatives to implement it.
Once the decision is made, we need to talk with the stakeholders who are affected and those who are a part of implementing it. If the decision is transparent and the need for the decision is clear with the benefits and risk on it, people will more easily accept it.
Stress management
Stress can be defined as nonspecific response of a body whether it is caused by or results in a pleasant or unpleasant condition.
Types of stress
There are two variants of stress
Negative stress path:-it is a contributory factor in minor conditions, such as headaches, digestive problems
Positive stress path:- stress can also have a positive effect, spurring motivation and awareness, providing the stimulation to cope with challenging situations.
Reactions of Stress
Tiredness :- can caused by over exertion
Worry :- disturbances regarding something
Frightened:- fear about something
Depressed :- not happy with
Anxious :- regarding some outcome
Angry :- aggressive on some matters
Types of stressors
Stress can be internal or external.
Internal Stress
Life styles :-use of addictives, lack of sleep, excessive schedules
Negative self-assessment::- pessimistic thinking, self-criticism, over analyzing
Mind traps :- having expectations that are not realistic, taking things personally, always thinking, no thoughts, rigidity in thoughts, exaggeration on matters,
Personality traits: – trying to be more perfectionists and workaholic.
External stress
Physical environment: – noise pollution, irritating lightings in workplace, temperature, little space or much more space.
Social interaction:- rudeness in work place or personal life, bossiness of colleagues or juniors, aggressiveness by others, bullying
Organizational:- uncomfortable policies, rules and regulations, approach of deadlines, difficult targets etc
Acute life events:- birth, death, job loss, promotion, change of marital status etc
Daily hassles :- this include misplaced keys, mechanical breakdowns, forgetting identity cards etc
Factors influencing stress
Drive of success:- creates anxiety about the position
Changing work pattern:- change in the work environment
Uncertainty :- can be about job or some promotion
Conflict :- mismatching conduct or disagreement
Responsibility :- taking care of more roles
Working conditions :- current working environment
Over work :- this gives over strain
Under work: – idle state is as stressful as overwork
4.5 Managing stress
Changing the way we think
Changing the way we behave
Changing the way of our lifestyle
Conflict management
Conflict can be defined as the disagreement of the people in a particular matter. This can be beneficial in some context for an organization.
Sources of conflict
Limited resources:- shortage of resources give extra effort for the organization which can lead to a conflict.
Different goals:- if the individuals have different goals in an organization are working together it will lead to conflict
Role ambiguity:- what should be done by whom must be specific to avoid this
Work relationships:- if the relationship with in the organization is not good then
Individual differences
Organizational problems :- problems in organizational function
Communication problems:- communication misconception
Cost of conflict
Derails organizational performance
Destroys team work
Create barriers to professional relationship
Initiates hidden agendas
Stressful work place
Wastage of money, time and resources
Affects competitiveness
Benefits of conflicts
Can increase strength and cohesion
Provide a safety valve function
Clarifies goals and issues
Improve relationship
Can be a major cause of organizational change
Can be creative and competitive
Key to resolution
Be flexible
Donaˆ™t jump into the matter. Observe and react after a thought
Be polite and respect on yourself and others
Focus on solving the problem, not in blaming
Conclusion
Decision making is an inevitable one for everyone. It can be on work or on personal life. Taking a decision gives the result upon the effectiveness of the decision made. So risk and stress will be a part of it according to the complexity of the decision.
Task 2
Introduction
Personal development has a very important role in business organization. The most common technique used to analyse personality is SWAT analysis. In this technique evaluate the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats.
Strength: – this is the positive attribute of a person to contribute himself.
Weakness:- this is the negative attribute of a person that can be harmful
Evaluation of Strength and Weakness
My strength
Good communication skill
First one who ask question whether it is right or wrong
Friendly nature
Good leadership
My weakness
Unorganized :- does not do things in a systematic way
Unpunctual :- not good in maintaining time constraints
Easily lose confidence :-give up very easily
Areas of development
In the above I want to develop myself to increase my efficiency by changing my weakness into strength. This is done with a time target.
Initially I have to first take a control of time constraints and practice to be more time oriented to change my other weaknesses. This can be done by initializing small simple tasks which is not time constraint. But keep it as a time constrained one and to finish it off. So I get used to do things in time.
Secondly when the time is well used to it I can start concentrating to work on more systematic way with in the time constraint. If I start doing a work I will break down it into small parts or modules and set time constraints in order to make it easier and can be surer about the time I get finished. I prefer to do this by setting the target time to an earlier time than the actual deadline. This helps me to get more time to do if there is any time over lap came in between each module. i.e. if one of the part is not get finished with in the targeted time I can shift the whole project to postpone to some other time with in the actual deadline.
A well organized timely work always increases confidence in working with the task. Lose of confidence comes under time constrain and negative self assessments. If I am more prepared in this I can work very efficiently and can do things at its most with high quality of output.
Skills of reflective practice
Reflective practice can be defined as the influence to an individual from his education, circumstances, work environment, personal life etc.
e.g.:- The interest of individual to implement something in their work or some other activities which might be their part in their personal life.
Conclusion
Personal development is an essential thing to do in working with others. The outcomes and attitudes of oneself and people around us change according to our approach to them. So taking care of the weakness of ourselves and others can improve the efficiency on a person.
Task 3
Introduction
Perception and communication are interaction of an individual with their ways of approaches to himself and others around. It is an inevitable factor of life. We always do perception on some way. But the way of perception depends individuals and the factors influencing on them.
Perception
Perception cane be defined as a process of selecting, organizing and interpreting stimuli of an individual into a meaningful one in the real world. These process is done according to a number of factors like filters of perception, elements of perception and the influence of the perception on the individual.
Filters of perception
The information or stimuli we have with our experience and the environment we belong are factors of filtering a perception.
Knowledge:- this is how individuals assess others with the knowledge they have
Assumptions: – individuals always create assumptions with or without any supporting evidence.
Beliefs: – this is concerned about the culture and tradition and other routine factors that influences the individual.
Elements of perception
Sensory receptors:- The human organs that receive sensory inputs like eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin
Absolute threshold:- this is the lowest level at which an individual can sense perception
Differential threshold:- the minimal difference that can be detected between two stimuli which is also known as just noticeable difference.
Subliminal perception:- this is a weak stimuli or a rapid one which is received below the level of conscious awareness.
Influences on perception
There are a lot of factors influences perceptions
Physiological:- difference in the abilities of the senses.
Age :- age changes the attitudes, more experienced on something gives more effective in using the perception in different ways
Culture: – Different beliefs and customs.
Social roles: – our role in the life. Like brother, sister, friends
Cognitive abilities :- this is if an individual thinks multidimensional
Shortcut in judging others(Negative effects)
This is how individuals think about others without proper information
Stereotyping:- tell about others without knowing the actual facts
Projection: – boosting something or someone more than it deserve.
Halo effect: – this is when people keep the individual in its past status even the current status is different.
Applications in organization(positive or negative effect)
Employment interview:- if the interviewer is more interested in a specific area, he can select the candidate according to that interest.
Performance expectation:- this is when an interview is taken according to the performance of a candidate.
Employee effort:- the individual who is observing another oneaˆ™s effort affected by the filters of perceptions
Effective and ineffective situations
An effective situation can be explained as task or role can be done very efficiently to that situation.
An in effective situation is that situation when a task has not done effect on the situation
Interpersonal skills
Interpersonal skills can be defined as the ability of an individual to execute certain effects or results through communication and knowledge. [1]. The interpersonal skills are often used in business in order to assess the ability of a person with in a business. This is mainly concentrating on communication skills, the tone of talk and the way ideas are expressed. There are different types of interpersonal skills
Social skills: – this is about social skills for the individuals to perform the tasks without any social punishments.
e.g.: – social behavior: How social we are.
Soft skills: – this is concerned with emotional intelligence to interact with people.
e.g.:- participating in a team, teaching others etc.
Basic interpersonal communication skills: – these are the personal skills to communicate in a language.
Conclusion
From the above we can understand what all thing we need to take care of while in an organization and how well we can make decisions. How we can do thing right and what all ways we should not think to conclude on something. The importance of interpersonal skills, decision making ,stress management and conflict management. The taste of success comes along with the way we are able to co ordinate all these factors in a stable manner. Any mismanagement of these can lead to failure of business or negative influence to the organization.
