Assignment 2: Memo
You have just been promoted from front-line supervisor to be one of the firm’s senior managers. During your business education, you learned that the primary role of a manager is to make good decisions. As a supervisor, you had frequently been making routine decisions, but you realize that decision making for the overall company can and will have far greater impact on the company and its employees.
Your boss, the chief executive officer (CEO), realizes that you do not have much practice in this higher level, decision-making process and has asked you to write a memo describing your understanding of how to make important decisions.
Your memo should address the following questions:
- Describe at least 3 criteria that would determine whether the manager is making good decisions. What should be done to better assure that you are making a good decision?
- In the realm of decision making, what are assumptions? Rather than use a dictionary definition, cite several specific assumptions that would go with any real-life decision you have made or have seen made at a company at which you have worked.
- Given the importance of proper assumptions, your boss asked you to assess the accuracy of certain business assumptions and what could you do to test or confirm the credibility of them. The following were major assumptions for each firm: ?An automobile manufacturer’s assumption that the demand for SUVs would continue because gas prices would continue to rise
?An airline’s assumption that there was a need for an airline that provided no added amenities
Memo
To: The Chief Executive Officer
From: Newly Promoted Senior Manager
Subject: Understanding of How to Make Crucial Decisions
Date: 6/6/2016
Cc: Senior Managers
Summary
Life is full of choices be it personal or organization decisions. In more than one occasions people mistake decision making to be a simple and a single action. However, decision making, especially for important issues facing an organization, should be detailed and well thought. Decision making is a thought process of selecting a logical choice from the available options. One wrong choice can lead to unbearable costs and losses and thus, the decision maker has to be careful with all his or her decisions (Hwang, 2012). A good decision will always try to balance the positive and negative effect of each option. For an organization, all the choices made should be in line with the goals and objectives of that particular organization.
Purpose
The primary purpose of this memo is to describe and elaborate my understanding of how to make important work decisions to the chief executive officer (CEO).
Discussion
Describe at least 3 criteria that would determine whether the manager is making good decisions. What should be done to better assure that you are making a good decision?
Most of the people have the notion that getting good results signifies that an individual made a good decision, but this is not always the case. At some points, one may generate or make a good decision to the wrong problem, and although the results will be positive, they will not be related to the problem. Below are examples of criteria to determine whether a person is making god decisions.
- Getting consistently better results – getting better and good results in not enough to judge whether the decisions made were good. However, a series of consistent better results proves that the decision maker is making the right decisions which in turn produce better and favorable results. Having a series of good results shows it was not a mistake, and the results were out of hard work and good decision-making process. Thus any good manager should not put too much weight on a single decision outcome.
- Following logical and maximization approach – most of the business are there to make a profit and maximize the shareholders wealth while satisfying the needs of their customers. As a result, a decision can be said to be varied and positive if it follows a logical and maximization approach. All decisions should seek to improve efficiency and effectiveness of business as well as maintaining high-quality standards(Zsambok, 2014).
- Getting long- lasting results – some of the decisions made by managers are meant to last for a short while. Thus, an organization may fail to enjoy the fruits of the decision for long. However, if a manager can make a positive long-term decision, then we can say that he has made a favorable decision that will benefit the organization big time.
Part 2
In the realm of decision making, what are assumptions? Rather than use a dictionary definition, cite several specific assumptions that would go with any real-life decision you have made or have seen made at a company at which you have worked.
The real-life decision-making process is a delicate process that should be conducted with the highest level of precision as possible. One wrong move from an individual can lead to whole life regrets to a company or an individual. However, during the process, there are some assumptions that an individual makes that sway his opinion on certain matters. Assumptions in a workplace can be very hazardous and deadly. Below are some of the assumptions that are made in an organization during a decision-making process.
- Assumptions regarding genders – in most occasions and from ancient times, men have been regarded as the stronger sex, and thus, they are given more power and responsibilities to an organization. Despite this notion being on the decrease in the recent times, some organizations still do not believe in women. Women have the same or better abilities than men and thus, they have the right to take up any job if they have the necessary skills(Pettigrew, 2014).
- The assumption regarding age – some of the investors and employers go for experience leaving the younger generation without employment. However, this may prove costly considering that the young generation is quick to learn things especially today’s technology. Thus, despite experience being variable organizations should consider mixing the seniors with juniors.
Part 3
Given the importance of proper assumptions, your boss asked you to assess the accuracy of certain business assumptions and what could you do to test or confirm the credibility of them. The following were major assumptions for each firm: ?An automobile manufacturer’s assumption that the demand for SUVs would continue because gas prices would continue to rise
- An automobile manufacturer’s assumption on the rise of the SUVS demand because of the rise of the gas must be based on the gas consumption of the vehicle. If the vehicle does not consume much gas, the owner will incur less cost despite the prices rising. To test the credibility of this assumption, the manufacturer needs to test the consumption rate of his SUVs.
- On the other hand, the airline assumptions on the added amenities in their airline cannot only be credible if the customers and passengers are fully satisfied with the amenities provided. However, this can be tricky considering that some of the clients might be fully satisfied while others are not. To determine the need for additional amenities, the airline needs to conduct an interview to get the opinions of their customers.
In conclusion, we can say that decision making is not a simple act like most people think considering that there is the need to conduct background information and data about all possible alternatives. Moreover, a company or an individual must test the credibility of his assumptions before incorporating them into his decision-making process.
References
Hwang, C. L. (2012). Multiple attribute decision making: methods and applications a state-of-the-art survey (Vol. 186). Springer Science & Business Media.
Pettigrew, A. M. (2014). he politics of organizational decision-making. . Routledge.
Zsambok, C. E. (2014). Naturalistic decision making. . Psychology Press.
