BUSINESS DECISION MAKING

Business Decision Making

Table of Contents

Business Decision Making2

Problems Encountered At Fab Sweets Limited3

Decision Making6

Characteristics Of An Decision Making Organization8

Shared vision and values9

Customer focused strategy9

Leadership9

Structure9

Teamwork10

Learning10

Is Decision Making A Good Thing?10

Goal Of Decision Making At Fab Sweet12

Decision Making Implementation At Fab Sweets Ltd14

Five Stages Of Decision Making15

Ways To Empower Employees At Fab Sweets18

Limitations In Applying Decision Making At Fab Sweets20

Conclusion21

References24

Business Decision Making

FSL is a manufacturer of high quality sweets. The company is a medium-sized, family owned, partially unionized and highly successful confectionary producer in the north of England. However, it seems that FSL is experiencing acute problems and there was no coherent view of the causes and what should be done to make improvements. We will start by listing some of the major problems that FSL is facing and try to come up with the appropriate recommendations to make the situation better.

Problems Encountered At Fab Sweets Limited

High labour turnover that resulted in six new managers in eight years.

Based on work-study, production consistently fell below targets

Managers judged by heir level of production, consequently pushing the level of jobs too high for the workers, which in turn leads to high level of scrap

Employees have few decision-making responsibilities.

Lack of communication between all levels, which additionally lead to departmental conflicts

Low motivation, Job satisfaction, few decision-making responsibilities.

Problems due to seasonal demands, that is staff being moved from one department to another.

Interdependence of responsibilities leads to communication gaps between departments; they are restricted to the same area.

Recurring jobs.

Interpersonal problems between employees in the production and packing rooms, between the supervisors and also operators.

Lack of managerial skills and control

Discontent relating to grading and payment.

Employees these days would like to do their work without excessive rules, policies or formal processes. There's an increasing preference for a work place that is friendly and fun. Employees are willing to sacrifice the traditional incentives of pay and job stabilizing for the ability to express themselves through their work (Aitken Brown & Walter 2004 63-97). This development requires understanding and respecting different values and motivation of the work place. The core assets of the modern business enterprise lie not in building and machinery, but in the intelligence, understanding, skills and experience of employees. Leading under decision making environment is about embracing the humanness of your employees. It is about turning away from the old narrow way of operating to a revolutionary new way. It is also about turning away from 'Hard' view of people responding like machines (SYSTEMATIC SOLDIERING) to the 'Soft' side of human nature.

There should be a willingness to train and to set reasonable and clear expectations for employees and to also grant them the autonomy to step out and contribute directly to their job (Ijiri 2000 54-60). At Fab sweets, it is unmistakable there is no respect for the workers, they are not contributing or participating in the manufacturing practice of the company, the managers push the level of jobs too high for them because they are judged by their production level and ignores their ...