Sunday, August 21, 2016

A635.2.3.RB - How Companies Can Make Better Decisions


            When a company is able to make effective decisions it can affect everyone involved with the company.  Blenko (2010) pointed out that decision effectiveness correlates positively with employee engagement and organizational performance.  Employees feel more secure and supported in a company where decisions are handed appropriately and timely.  When a company struggles with making decisions it can make their employees feel uneasy, and question just how much control the leaders of the company have.  It is also reassuring for an employee to know that if they have a question or problem that it will be dealt with efficiently and effectively.  At a former employer, I had a hard time trusting the leaders within my department, as they were consistently unable to make decisions, which directly impacted my interactions with the guests.     
             Decision-making can be difficult, especially when there is no clear choice in the matter at hand.  Blenko (2010) talked about a few obstacles that can interfere with making decisions, such as complexity and the assignment of decision-making roles.  When it comes to the idea of complexity, it makes sense that the more parts that are involved the more difficult the decision can be.  If a company consists of only one layer and few employees then the outcomes of decisions can be more visible.  On the other hand, when a company is made up of multiple layers, offices, and employees there are more factors involved and often time’s decisions are not as obvious.  This was the case at my former employer when decisions needed to be made resort wide they would often take months and would still not encompass exactly what the president intended.  It can be difficult to make a decision and account for every single department, system, and employee in the company, when this happens the good of the many outweigh the good of the few. 
            Many things go into decision-making, as Blenko (2010) pointed out four major ones are quality, speed, yield, and effort.  While I find all of them to be important that two that stand out to me are quality and speed.  A leader often times needs to react and make a decision within a quick turn around time; all while assuring the decision is a good one.  This can often time be the difference between getting out ahead of the competition and being behind.  
            I have always been good at making fast decisions on my feet in times of chaos, but I need to work on decisions where there is time to contemplate.  I feel I tend to overanalyze situations when I am given too much time, I will often second-guess my decisions and information that I have gathered.  This is an area I am working on currently in my personal/family life as I am not currently employed outside the home.               

Blenko, M. (2010). How Companies Can Make Better Decisions, Faster. Retrieved
August 21, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbxpg6D4Hk8

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