Success and Understanding of Management Dilemma - Assignment Example

Success and Understanding of Management Dilemma Component Description Topic Introduction Organizations constantly make decisions. The decisions they make can be significant or insignificant, depending on the nature and the context in which the decisions are applied. In order to set objective decisions, organizations employ various strategic management tools and statistics to complete their analysis amidst the uncertainties present. More often than not, organizations will eventually face difficult issues regardless if they have the best people or the best management plan. While most of the time organizations can easily resolve such issues, there will be situations where they have to make difficult choices. These choices sometimes weigh the same and there will be no way to tell which decision would yield the best result for the organization until the decision is made. Situations where organizations face difficult choices are called management dilemmas. In situations where organizations could not avoid making difficult decisions, it is very probable that the choices the organization makes do not satisfy various stakeholders. As organizations deal with various stakeholders, both internal and external, they need to choose the decisions that would satisfy the most number of stakeholders, or the most important ones (Kerr, 1975). In real life, management decisions, regardless of the comprehensiveness of the managerial and strategic analysis employed in the analysis, can only do as much. One of the most important stakeholders that are often not perceived as such are the organization’s employees. The behaviours of individuals in the organizational context affect the behaviour of the organization as a whole (Mowday & Sutton, 1997). Individuals who are satisfied with how their organization manage and run the organization are most likely to contribute positively on the goals and objectives of the organization. Dissatisfied workers, on the other hand, will eventually form groups that would either express their satisfaction to the management or they may get back to the management by doing disgruntled jobs or not performing well at all. From the management perspective, not performing well in jobs relegated to employees is a sunk cost and thus needs to be eliminated (Child, 1975). However, doing so might prove to be expensive as well given the strong bargaining power of people in groups. This tells us one thing, difficult decisions made by the management in a management dilemma, particularly those that affects the employees one way or the other, will eventually find its way back to the management. This can be by an honest expression of dissatisfaction or a subtle way of sabotaging workplace efficiency and productivity. Strong negative emotions towards the management and the organization will eventually find its way to organizational behaviour – the collective behaviour of the individuals within the organization (Mowday & Sutton, 1997). Since organizational behaviour contribute to the productivity and efficiency of the organization, understanding how decisions made in a management dilemma affect employees will shed light to failures in organizational behaviour, productivity, and efficiency Problem / Opportunity Statement In this context, it is essential to understand the extent with which the failure to address management dilemma affect the performance of the employees. Consequently, understanding the effects on employees of management decisions that do not give priority to them will lead to understanding the possibility of the employees not performing productively in their work. Another important thing that this problem will explore is the extent of the negative effects the failure of management dilemma has on the organization as a whole. Purpose Statement The main purpose of this understanding is to provide quantitative and qualitative analysis and evaluation on how organizations should deal with management dilemmas. A thorough understanding on the subject will allow organizations to appreciate (and be wary) of the decisions they made involving the general workforce. Management decisions that are made that take into consideration various stakeholders will be rewarded in the long run. This means that when the management choose a decision that gives more credit to one stakeholder over the other, then the management can expect to have long-term issues coming from stakeholders that were not well represented in the decisions made. Conceptual / Theoretical Framework Organizations are made up of individuals that constantly interact with each other. The interactions of these individuals between and among each other affect how organizations operate in various manners (Kerr, 1975). Social interactions and group cohesion within the organization creates groups with greater bargaining power. If these groups decide to perform something, the impact of the decision of the group towards its individual members is tremendous, prompting everyone in the group to align their views, values, and perspectives on the goal of the group. If the group decides to perform in a manner beneficial to the organization, then the organization will benefit much from such decisions. Consequently, if the group decides not to be productive at all, the organization in general will suffer. Technical understanding of management dilemma can only bring organizations to as much success. This is because efficiency does not always correlate with understanding. With the increasing amount of importance of organizational culture in the success of organizations, the need to be able to quantify the extent of the success managing dilemma becomes more apparent. In this regard, this paper aims to evaluate whether efficient management of dilemma in the workplace has a positive impact on the organization. This research will be based primarily on the principles involved in management dilemma and organizational behaviour. It will look on the effects of management dilemmas on organizational behaviours. Management / Research Questions In order to delve into the complexities of the problem, the research needs to answer the following questions: a) Do management dilemmas have significant effects on the culture of the organization? b) How do management dilemmas affect individual performance? c) What are the ways that would make management dilemmas detrimental to the organization? d) Are there ways to offset the negative effects of handling an organization going through major management dilemmas? The research will only focus on the results of these questions that are directly related to organizational culture. Factors that are relevant but are not related to the thrust of the study will be deliberately ignored and left undeveloped to reduce the complexities involved in the analysis. Literature Review / Current Understanding of the Phenomena Managing an organization becomes more complicated when unresolved issues exist. This is because even small issues have the tendency to blow out of proportion if not tended well (Askansy, Wilderom, & Peterson, 2000). This is the very reason why a thorough understanding of the non-statistical and non-quantitative data and information related to managing organizations that are confronting management dilemmas. This paper will evaluate how non-quantitative data and information pertaining to organization performance, productivity, and efficiency are affected by unresolved issues related to management dilemma. Methodological Approach & Research Design This paper will use a combination of evaluation and survey research designs in order to be able to effectively manage, handle, and synthesize the relationships of data and information it wants achieved. Using an evaluation research on the broad literature pertaining to the subject allows the researcher to streamline the various data and information pertaining to the research and select the most appropriate conceptual discussion for the research on organizational culture. Survey research on the other hand allows quantitative discussion on the relevant data and information, giving the research an internal reliability and validity (Marczyk, DeMatteo & Festinger, 2005). Combining these two approaches would increase the internal validity and reliability of the research without compensating the theoretical framework defined for the study. Sources of Information & Measurement Plan In order to provide relevant analysis and evaluation, this paper will employ a cross-sectional research on how organizations handle management dilemma. The researchers will send out structured survey questionnaires using electronic methods and the regular mail method to the human resource departments of local and national business organizations. The survey questionnaires will be composed of more than 10 items but no more than 50 items. The survey questionnaires will be structured in such a manner that it would draw the desired responses which include (a) the organization’s frequency of handling management dilemma, (b) the management strategies used by the management to handle management dilemma, (c) the qualitative and quantitative effects on the workplace of the decisions made, and (d) how the management resolve productivity and efficiency issues pertaining to the decisions made in management dilemma. References Ashkansy, N., Wilderom, C., & Peterson, M. (2000). Handbook of Organizational Climate. SAGE Publications. Child, J. 1975 "Managerial and organizational factors associated with company performance--part II: A contingency analysis." Journal of Management Studies, 12: 12-27. Davis, N. (2003). Organizational Culture and Leadership: Analyzing their Roles in Hypocrisy and Workplace Aggression. Clemont Graduate University. Isaacson, N., Roemheld-Hamn, B., Crosson, J., Dicicco-Bloom, B., & Winston, C. (2009). Organizational Culture Influences Health Care Workers’ Influenza Immunization Behaviour. Family Medicine. 41(3): 202-207 Johns, G. 2006. The essential impact of context on OB. Academy of Management Review, 31, 386-408. Kerr, S. 1975. On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B. Academy of Management Journal, 18, 4, 769-783. Marczyk, G., DeMatteo, D., Festinger, D.(2005). Essentials of Research Design ad Methodology. Wiley. Mowday, R.T., And Sutton, R.I. 1993. Organizational behavior: Linking individuals and groups to organizational contexts. Annual Review of Psychology, 44, 195-229 Read More