Decision-Making in a Role of a Manager Paper Example

How do you use the decision-making in your role as a manager?

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As a manager, I encourage sharing of information among the marketing staff. I ensure this by fostering an atmosphere and environment where the staff can express their views and opinions openly. In case I want to consult other people about a particular problem that would affect the marketing operations adversely, I always consider different angles before informing them about the issue. In this way, I do not become limited by particular interpretations or ideas. Before making any decision in my management role, I first frame the issue of concern in various ways and then seek advice from other members of staff. Additionally, I use decision-making to identify the skilled and qualified marketing staff that will enable the company to deliver its best, as well as improve productivity. I prioritize on team projects to help in the identification of appropriate markets for the products provided by the company.

What role does contingency planning play in your role as a manager? How do you apply critical thinking to contingency planning?

Ideally, contingency planning is of great vitality to my management role. Usually, I think about how the decisions I make in the company will affect the members of my staff and the customers who purchase the company products. Contingency planning enables me to identify the mobility of marketing strategies. As the focus of the business and market needs may shift to a different aspect, our company changes its operating and marketing strategies. Through this, I understand the new techniques that the organization incorporates to boost its profitability. Contingency planning also enables me to increase promotional campaigns, which will help in securing new customers. The process makes me anticipate risks that the company would incur when new competitor products enter the market. I apply critical thinking to contingency planning by ensuring that I am aware of any problems that may affect our organization. Through critical thinking, I can easily identify the marketing campaigns applied by the competitors hence determining if such campaigns would be crucial for our contingency plan.

What roadblocks do you encounter when trying to apply creativity to your decision-making process?

One of the roadblocks I encounter when trying to apply creativity to my decision-making process is the fear of criticism. Some members of staff are always quick to criticize my decisions and talk negatively about them even when such decisions are aimed at benefitting the company. Therefore, in most cases, I fear expressing my ideas for the business success. I also fear making mistakes based on the decisions that I might recommend for the company. The aspect of the possibility of failure would make it difficult to solve the organizational problems amicably. Another roadblock that I encounter is when I am making a decision that people do not know about since such a decision has never been made before. In this case, the decision does not have any possible outcomes thereby making it difficult to know if whatever I am doing will bring forth some problems. I find it a challenging tasks to deal with my unknown territory.

Are any business settings more in need of contingency planning than others? If so, why might they require contingency planning?

Contingency planning enables a manager to prepare and put in place appropriate steps that will help in the event of some risks or an emergency. I feel as though all the business settings are equally in need of contingency planning. In essence, this is so, since some situations may be challenging to handle if the most relevant course of action is not in place. I feel that it would require critical and creative thinking to resolve the problems, which if not dealt with promptly, would bring about adverse outcomes to the business processes. As a manager, I consider contingency planning as a crucial aspect that all business settings need to incorporate to enable them to change, restructure things, as well as deal with any problems that might interfere with the operations of their organizations. Since things always come up within the organizational platforms unexpectedly, I see contingency planning as an efficient strategy to help minimize the costs, which would be incurred when trying to solve problems in their advanced stages. Contingency planning will enable businesses to reduce issues of fallout with their employees as the personnel will work hand-in-hand with the management team to help identify the strategies for improving productivity and profitability.

What parts of planning are most likely to require a back-up play? Why?

Organizations use back-up plans when they realize that they used the wrong plan in the first place. Since risk management is vital for any planning in different business enterprises, I would say that all parts of planning require a back-up play. With the back-ups, organizations identify the need to adjust their products, incorporate new pricing strategies, as well as hire new personnel. From my perspective, the back-up plans will facilitate constant monitoring of both the internal and external environments, and enable the managers to come up with fast responses. At circumstances, a contingency plan may be insufficient to deal with financial or market shocks arising from the operational techniques of the competitors. In this case, other back-up plans will play an essential role by providing amicable solutions to the problems (Cohen & Olsen, 2015). The plans should include particular events and crises that might disrupt the operations of an organization. These may comprise of accidents in the workplace, and threatening employees and customers. The management may then work tirelessly to prevent or minimize the avoidable crises to help boost productivity. The primary goal we have as managers is to maintain the continuity of the business and promote day-to-day operations. Therefore, by keeping an eye on the daily operations, we will recover quickly from a bad scenario and get back on the right track.

What additional information do you think a future manager should know about decision-making, contingency planning, and critical thinking?

Even though education is an important aspect for managers, they should consider the fact that real-life situations are vital too as they prepare them for similar occurrences in the future. I think the managers should always listen to the opinions of other people before coming up with the final decisions regarding particular organization-based issues. They need to think about the decisions and their potential outcomes. Emotions should not drive managers to make decisions as these would be of more harm than good to their organizations. In case something is not clear to a manager, there is the need to seek for help rather than acting and causing more problems in the end (Otley, 2016). Furthermore, by observing and noting the opinions and decisions, which others make, a manager will be able to think critically. The aspect of critical thinking comes about as a manager compares their decisions with those of other people hence promoting efficient business outcomes. As organizations operate, managers should always anticipate risks or unexpected occurrences. Therefore, they need to come up with appropriate contingency plans to help handle the problems as they arise (Sahebjamnia, Torabi & Mansouri, 2015).

References

Cohen, J. F., & Olsen, K. (2015). Knowledge management capabilities and firm performance: A test of universalistic, contingency and complementarity perspectives. Expert Systems with Applications, 42(3), 1178-1188.

Otley, D. (2016). The contingency theory of management accounting and control: 1980-2014. Management accounting research, 31, 45-62.

Sahebjamnia, N., Torabi, S. A., & Mansouri, S. A. (2015). Integrated business continuity and disaster recovery planning: Towards organizational resilience. European Journal of Operational Research, 242(1), 261-273.