Problem Solving in Organizations - Assignment Example

Running Head: MANAGEMENT Management Name Institution Management Critical Thinking Question: Do you agree that management is a function that occurs throughout the organisation? If not, why? If so, try to describe how the actual functions of managing might be different, both at different levels and in different areas of the organisation. Management is a function that occurs throughout the organization. Since the structure of the organization is however layered, managers at different levels perform different functions and exercise varying degrees of authority commensurate with their positions. The junior employees for example are managers of different organizational resources such as time, tools and machinery and so on. The line managers are responsible to the middle managers as far as managing the operating employees is concerned. They are responsible for the supervision and coordination of the duties and activities of operating employees. These managers are highly specialized and skilled in various fields. There are managers in charge of human resources, finance, marketing, public relations and so on. Middle level managers are responsible for the implementation of strategies and policies formulated by the top level mangers. This is done by passing them down to the first line mangers, who in turn ensure implementation by the operating employees. Among other things, they monitor and evaluate the success of implementation and report back to the top level managers. The top level managers are at the apex of the management of the organization. They are responsible for the formulation of the organization’s overall goals, strategies and policies. They do not need to be specialists in particular fields for them to manage those areas, because what counts most here is their management acumen and not skills or work-related technical knowledge. The level of specialization invariantly increases as one moves down the management pyramid because those down the pyramid are the ones who do the actual working. Above the top level managers is the Chief Executive Officer whose duty is to oversee the overall functions of the organization. He is answerable to the Board of Management. It can therefore be said that whereas different managers at different levels of the organization exercise some kind of management function, it is only the degree that differs. Question: Has the expectation that managers are computer literate made any difference to the managerial skills described by Katz? How? Katz has identified a number of management skills. These include technical, interpersonal, conceptual and diagnostic skills. There are also communication, decision-making and time management skills. Though each of these skills is relevant in the operations of a manager, the level of relevance differs from one management level to the other. Managers at the hands-on level such as machine operator supervisors need a lot of technical skills compared to senior managers involved in strategic decision making. Such managers need a lot of interpersonal skills as they relate with the organizational environment both internally and externally. However, it is imperative for managers at all levels to have working competence in the use of computers because they need them for various purposes. A manager will need a computer to perform tasks such as word processing, e-mailing, spreadsheets for data processing and so on. Because of the extensive computerization programmes undertaken by most organizations, it is necessary for managers to be computer literate else, they will find themselves wallowing in obsolescence. Task 4 Partnership Organization Introduction A partnership is a business organization that consists of either two or more people. The organization can carry as many people as possible, depending on what they would like to deal with. This organizational relationship carries on trade or business with each person’s contribution. In this organization, every person contributes depending on the organizational agreement. With this organization, people find it easy and durable because, they can always contribute up to their level. Each person can contribute money, property, labor or even skills, all these are allowed. The age of the organization also matters a lot because, the older the partnership organization, the more the knowledge over it and the higher the income or profit made. Partnerships always find different information annually. This makes the members to find more information collectively on return to reports concerning their income and expenditure. From their own organization with hard working, the members get income, gains, losses, promotions and many others. This type of organization is advantageous because, after all, in the organization, each member’s partnerships share is included. Further more, no income tax is paid by the members, while the losses are compensated. In organization, partners are not employees. So, all partners are supposed to work equally. To add on that, the organization works nation wide by distributing services to small and even medium sized businesses. The organization has got a shipping unit, which has helped the member customers save a lot as far as the partnership is concerned. Partnerships help reduce shipping cost, since many organizations fail due to soaring penalty tag. Partnership offers the members attention personally and worldly depending on how much service the customers. External Partnership All partnerships are under environmental conditions. Externally, most of these conditions protract the organization with schemes which in turn helps the members drive improvements on their performances for the whole community. Some of the external partnership factors are; Climatic Leaders On this case, partnership works with some other companies in order to develop wide-ranging climatic changes purposefully. With the help of these climate leaders, the impact to the organization is reduced globally. More so, strategically developments are offered with their help. Climatic Resolutions On such cases, these conditions are helpful to being responsible to environmental steps. To every member in the organization, there must be voluntary actions for their organization as to the partnership when necessary. This further more helps improve the economies intensity. Societal Environmental and Economical This helps to initiate and encourage the member organizations to show and lead as a good example to other organization. It works as an encouraging sector. Through this, the society is further improved strategically, while the measurable projects help improve the society, the environment and the economy as a whole. All this factors are supposed to be adhered to by the organizational managers, making sure that they are followed to in correct way. These factors are the ones that make the partnership organization to prosper. What is Organizational Culture This is an idea brought about in the field or organization with their values. It further more defines ideas, attitude, experience, believes and cultural values. It collects specific values which are shared by the member organizational members. The cultural organization further emphasizes and control the interaction ways within the organization and with its stakeholders outside the organization. The organizational culture leads to its values which develop norms, forming the organization guidelines and expectations. Factors influencing partnership and reasons for its management There are several factors which result from an organizational culture as far as the partnership organization if concerned. For example; Strategic levels Under the strategic levels, there are guiding principles which helps the partnership member know the directions and wiling of the organizational sector. The guidelines further help in building performances, to its orientation. This further helps the organization to achieve goals which a time are seen being extra ordinary in other peoples eyes. Openness This is one of the important things to be done in any given organization. There should be openness between the member organization and the managers. This can further solve simple problems because; there will be free sharing of information and views within the organization. Forming a partnership organization offers advantages which allow the owners to form collaboration. This allows the owners to draw resources and expertise of the co-partner members. It is readily known to many people that, running an individual business is quite cumbersome. While working with partners or with partnership is simpler because it helps in sharing responsibilities and lightening loads of work. The partnership members find more time to sharing information and are inspired in to doing other activities in their lives apart from the one in the organization. The second importance of forming a partnership is that, it is advantageous when it comes to tax. Their profits pass through their owners, where by their shares are reported on their return tax individually. There for, it is clearly known that their profits are only taxed once compared to other organizations which are taxed frequently. Apart from all these, a partnership acts as a simple operating structure. In this case, a partnership as opposed to other organizations is said to be simple because, the way it is run is simpler to establish and run. The only important thing here is to fill and sign the certificate. More so, the bills for filling most certificates and signing them are always high. While for the partnerships, it is simple because, the expenses are always a voided. There is always flexibility in partnerships. This is because, in all partnership originations, the owners are always managers for themselves. The organization is further more fairly and easy to manage. This brings further brings about uniform laws in the organization. The laws governing a certain organization vary depending on the states. When a partnership is uniform, it offers and provides consistence sets of laws for forming and running the partnership. Task 5 LEVEL 1 Questions • The fundamental premise of planning is the establishment of goals. Explain what goals are, how goals are established, and why are they so important? Goals are standards that are defined and outlined as the basis or the objective of any type of activity. These standards need to be met by the people to whom they apply to. Goals are set for the purpose of focusing the group of people governed by them to attaining a certain level of success in what ever they might be doing. With goals at hand, the performance of the people governed by the goals is constantly monitored and at the same time evaluated in an effort to ensure that it is in line with meeting the outlined standards. Level 3 Case Study Star bucks coffee is a renowned coffee shop in the United States of America that is thought to have emerged with nine stores in Seattle in the year 1987. The chairman of this coffee store, Howard Schultz has greatly expanded this company both at home and on the international market. The service provision is exemplary very excellent. This coffee company records millions of customers on daily basis. With the acquisition of the Coffee connection Inc in the year 1994, this company has greatly been transformed. At present this coffee company operates in over a total of four thousand and seven hundred regions from the initial four hundred stores in the US. In order to emerge in to the international market, this company has to merge its operations with other stake holders. As from 1996 up to date, Peter Maslin the then president has evidently been amazed at the trends of the expansion of this coffee shop. As at the onset of 2001, this company had a total of about nine hundred locations of its business operations in regions not within North America. This company fosters customer satisfaction as an ideal tool of marketing and customer retention. To effectively survive in the highly competitive international market, this company utilizes the use of joint ventures, company owned related operations and licensing. The choice of partners to work with is careful assessed. This company uses highly qualified personnel and sophisticated computer technology to uphold its operations. Majority of the managers at this company have previous experience from a number of big companies including Blockbuster and Taco Bell. Within the US, this company has merged with the Pepsi cola company, the Dreyer grand Inc company and is currently supplying a number of airlines with its bounties. This company has also extended its service provision to the fruit and vegetable industry where it is known to be offering groceries through a joint merger with a number of international hotels. The executives at this company have exemplary skills in computer technology that enable them to track the needs and demands of all the potential customers. 3.2.1 Which of the Porter’s five model of competition is being used at Star Bucks? Porter’s five model of competition is a frame work that analyses competition strategies that a business can adopt in order to earn a competitive advantage over its rivals. The food and beverage industry is very competitive Star Bucks enhances its operations through measures that are geared at customer satisfaction and retention. This it does through exemplary service provision and the use of highly qualified personnel. Such personnel are the type that greatly understands the exact needs of the customer and will thus serve them to the best of their ability. This company thus fosters the point of sale marketing strategy. This is a type of marketing strategy is known to foster loyalty of customer and make it relatively hard for them to submit to the power of substitutes. The power of substitutes is such a threat to any company that is involved in a very competitive sector. The star bucks company makes it relatively hard for its potential customers to switch to alternative products by offering the best services as per the needs of the customer (Buttle, 2006). This company has put in place various computer technologies that help in tracking the buying trends of its customers in line with their purchasing powers and demands. It is thus possible for the company to concentrate on the provision of services that are in perfect inclination with the consumer’s demands and needs. This company through its mechanism of tracking the potential market opportunities also manages to uphold yet another aspect of the Porter’s five model of competition: The entry of rivals. Owing to the urgency with which it assesses the available market, this company rapidly emerges and establishes itself in the available ready markets before any other rival companies can attempt the same. For companies that are bound to be a challenge, this coffee company has resolved to the use of joint mergers so that it does not seem to compete against them but rather kill the rivalry by working together against minor competitors. Task 6 Why does the quality of the decisions people make in an organization affect its performance? The decision making process is very vital in determining the performance of any organization. This is more applicable especially in the wake of the current economic crunch. The performance of an organization in such a time depends on how well and fast enough decisions are made alongside their efficiency. The decisions made in an organization are very vital at determining how best an organization can adapt in the wake of an economic crisis. These decisions made in an organization help the managers in pulling their efforts towards the most influential aspects within the organization. Decision making helps to define the role and responsibilities of individuals that can then be used to measure their overall performance. A good illustration of the impact of decision making is the operation of Toyota. This is an organization whose reputation, performance and quality manufacturing practice has been fostered through decision making. The top management ensures that all the workers at various levels are conversant with the execution of quality decisions (Donald, 2002). What are the major differences between the rational and administrative models of decision making? The rational model of decision making is a normative model of decision making that presents a guided outline on how one goes about making decisions. This model is thus based on a very ideal structure of decision making. An administrative decision making model on the other hand is a descriptive model that attempts to purely characterize how an individual can go about with the process of making decisions. This model unlike the former is not based on any ideal structure but offers a representative way of how the decision making process is up held. The rational decision making process depicts the individual decision maker as a very rational being while the second model depicts the individual making the decisions as a person bounded by rationalities. The information with regard to rational decision making exhibits complete processing unlike in administrative decision making where the information is of limited processing. The decision making alternative with regard to the rational model is of an optional choice contrary to the administrative model where it is of a satisfying choice (Donald, 2002). What is the difference between context, a frame, and a shared mental model? A shared mental model is simply a hypothetically constructed structure formulated to help in explaining a number of behaviors that are coordinated among human beings. Such a model depicts on each individual’s global state of the mind. A frame on the other hand refers to the various conceptual structures that depict on the stabilized model of reality. It is purely a cache that depicts on an individual’s perception of the outside world. A context is a mental model that tends to deal with the mental attitudes of an entire team unlike a shared mental model that target an individual (Donald, 2002). Level 2 Question •When might it be better to use group decision-making instead of individual decision-making Decision making is an essential tool of management in an organization. It forms the basis of any implementation process. For decisions made during the need to foster innovation alongside any technical form of change, group decisions are more beneficial than individual decisions. This is because the decision making process in groups can ideally foster both Perceptual and judgmental aspects that greatly affect the process of decision making. Group decision making in this regard offers more room for improving on the individual perceptions unlike in the event where the decisions are made by a single individual. It becomes relatively easy to weigh the impact of various opinions and in the end formulate a more collective and more meaningful impact. The quality of decisions made by a group of individuals is far much higher than that made by an individual. Decisions regarding the adoption of change and innovations are very crucial and need to be critically examined in order to come up with very ideal solutions. This explains the need to stick to group decisions over individual decisions whose errors may not be immediately corrected (Donald, 2002). Prepare a summary of your findings summarizing the most useful and interesting ideas you found that relate to creativity in the problem solving/ decision making process. Creativity is generally defined as the capabability of producing very noble and valuable suggestions. It has been established that the lack of this aspect amounts in to the stagnation of an organization. This is an aspect that is greatly feared for subjecting an organization to the wrath of its arch rivals. All forms of organizations must find innovation very vital. It emerges that only organizations that foster innovations and creativity attain the best profit margins. The Singapore airline and the Toyota motor companies are two good examples of companies that have fostered innovations. Creativity is an aspect that measures how best problems within an organization are solved. Through creativity, problems are first defined, alternatives solutions identified followed by an implementation process of how the problem would be solved. With an implementation plan at hand, there is need to focus on evaluating the effects of the recommended solutions. 1. What examples of decisions which the company has recently had to make can you find? With regard to the Toyota motor company, the top management has had to identify the need to foster the act of proper and quality decision making at every level of its operations. The managers have thus trained all the personnel at various levels to formulate and implement the most ideal forms of decisions. The Singapore airline on the other hand has adopted the use of the most effective carriers in the airline industry. These carriers are such that are made with the highest technology to offer both comfort and quality service to those on board (Ella, 2000). 2. How would classify these decisions in terms of the material that you have covered The decisions that have been made by the top management of the Toyota motor company are very innovative in the sense that they help ensure creativity in the problem solving case. Once every individual within the company is conversant with the ideal tools of problems solving, it becomes relatively easy to formulate and uphold ideal decisions. Both the Singapore airline and the Toyota motor company have remarkably set the pace in the adoption of innovative technology. 1.3. 1.3. Gather information from the media websites [such as www.abc.com.au or www.FT.com which relate to the organizations that you have selected. What stories can you find that indicate something about the decisions the organizations have faced, and what the outcomes have been. With regard to the Singapore airline, the move to foster creativity and innovations in the adoption of technology has translated in to a very ideal competitive advantage over its arch rivals. This is indeed the best airline in the whole of Asia and is thought to be among the top best in the globe. Exemplary decision making and implementation has greatly transformed the overall performance of this airline. For the Toyota motor industry, innovative decision making in the wake of an economic crisis has translated in the design of the most ideal vehicles. These vehicles are not only cost friendly but also very economic in terms of fuel usage ( Ella, 2000). Level 3 Consider how executives can best access current information about what is happening in the world's investment markets. The best way for company executives to gather current forms of information on the global market investment trends is the use of Web enabled sources. The Internet is a very vital source of such information. For executives to keep them selves abreast of the investment trends on the global market there is need to access reliable websites that are known for displaying such details in an exhaustive manner. Various such websites are currently in use and a number of investment organizations are also finding it necessary to publish their market index in an effort to attract more investors. Company executives can study such information and establish ideal decision making strategies. A site like the Bloom bergs offers very vital information regarding the emerging trends in the global market. Such a website if currently accessed by the executives can form a very ideal decision making tool in the investment market. Reuters is yet another important source of information regarding all forms of market investments on the global market. Such a site can be sought by executives for any possible solutions with regard to investments in the global market. All the currently available internet sources provide all the relevant information that one would wish to establish about the emerging global market investment trends. The information offered on these sites is the most recent and specific to a particular aspect of the global market investment. An executive can access all the related aspects while on a single website through navigating with the available icons. The content of information offered is equally very reliable as no such websites can publish wrong information about a particular market for fear of being charged with libel. References Donald. C. (2002). The social psychology of behavior in small groups Psychology focus Routledgefalmer Studies in Distance Education. Washington: Psychology Press. Ella. M.2000. Problem Solving in Organizations. Retrieved on 29th Sept from http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/volunteerism/43287. Read More