Essay on Management - Leadership and Decision-Making in Organizations

Introduction

In every organization, there are decisions to be made in respect to the day to day operations of the entity which differs from one organization to another. Decision making is the act of making choices by picking from a variety of options available. For example, (George and Jones, 1999), deciding on the goods to produce, means of transportation or even the quantity to be produced. There are different levels in an organization depending on its size and scale of operations. There is decision-making at every level of the firm starting from the lowest levels of the hierarchy to the top most. (George and Jones, 1999), further, adds that every firm has its distinct design of making decisions on its operations either from top to bottom or from the middle spreading out. This paper will, therefore, summarize an analysis of the major issues and challenges including the best practices of decision making in a firm in the health industry.

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Importance of Problem Identification in Decision Making

Before taking any action towards decision making, the organization first has to identify the exact location of the problem clearly. The health industry is highly sensible as it deals with matters concerning human health. Qudrat-Ullah, Spector, and Davidsen, (2008) identifies that the leaders in such organizations are held responsible for the outcome of any decision. In these organizations, a single decision is the ultimate determinant and may cause death or fatal bodily harm to the patient. Therefore, identifying the problem is of great importance because, without it, an erroneous decision might be made (Qudrat-Ullah, Spector, and Davidsen, 2008).

Qudrat-Ullah, Spector, and Davidsen, (2008) says that the leaders of the health organizations need to evaluate the problem in unison with all the employees (including all the health workers), to get everybody informed about the problem at hand. Out of the combined effort, the organization can then formulate long-term and applicable decisions to solve similar problems in future. The firm can then formulate this type of decision-making process into a computer program with its rules and regulations (Qudrat-Ullah, Spector, and Davidsen, 2008).

In some instances, according to (Qudrat-Ullah, Spector, and Davidsen, 2008) the use of multiple means of solving problems may help by triggering the creativity of the top leader in the organization. The decisions can then be made through the application of different viewpoints of client`s, business partners, professionals or involving another employee from their various ranks (Qudrat-Ullah, Spector, and Davidsen, 2008).

Short-Term Operational Decisions

Most popular among the workers within the institution is the short-term decisions method commonly referred to as the operational decisions. It is a way that solves problems in the short term quickly carried out by the employees. The steps involved in this process are usually aimed at a quicker outcome. For example, the situation may require decisions on a method of delivering commodities to particular clients.

Leadership and Decision Making in the Health Industry

Therefore, in respect to Hess & Bacigalupo (2013), for one to clearly understand the decision making in the organization, the organizational leadership should define the outcome of the future. It should also align it with the vision and inspire the entire team towards the achievement of the vision despite the barriers or challenges involved. Uzonwanne (2014) also adds that leaders should possess the leadership and management quality, otherwise, without maintaining these two values, their organizations risk getting extinct.

Uzonwanne (2014) points out that it is, therefore, important to take note that, the employees and their leaders in an organization should get influenced by the organizational policy and decisions in their united working process aimed at achieving the set goals and strategic objectives. The complexity of the challenging factors has shown the great need for the creation, development and finally the actual implementation of the proper policies by the organizational leaders (Hess & Bacigalupo, 2013).

Moreover, some recent studies like from ("Journal of Organizational Behavior Management Publication Categories," 2014), have confirmed that decision making has a unique role to play in the development and influence of the organizational activities. These activities comprise of a healthy and operating work environment and the creation of trust which helps in establishing effective communication. The eventual openness due communication fosters cordial relationships between superiors and their subordinates; between the registered trade unions and the management; between the employees and the management and finally amongst the workers at the organization ("Journal of Organizational Behavior Management Publication Categories," 2014).

Aldag, (2012) emphasizes that leadership is interlinked to job satisfaction in that a clear leadership should ensure not only proper motivation to its employees through adequate remuneration but also humane working conditions and most importantly, job security. Naturally, (Aldag, 2012) adds that workers feel immensely satisfied whenever their leaders have confidence in them and approve of their performance. For effective leadership, the individual should show the ability to lead the others role models and an actual tendency of serving others before self. An entrepreneurial drive and the initiative also come in handy (Aldag, 2012).

Some researchers like Aldag (2012) in the journal Implications for Leadership and Organizations, closely link leadership to management and the future decision-making practices. They claim that management merely makes up leadership applied in the business environment. They also add that command is shown precisely the moment one tries to influence the behaviors of people either in a group or individually regardless of the motive behind it. According to (Aldag, 2012), management is considered to be that kind of leadership where the achievement of the organizational goals is given the highest priority.

The Role of Decision Making in Organizational Activities

The overall administration applied on an organization and the following decision-making activities all depend on the manner in which it is run and the private behavior within it. The organizational behavior refers to the way in which the individuals or the different groups relate to each other at the workplace. As it would be expected naturally, (Aldag, 2012) adds in that the harmonious coexistence at work gets influenced by various factors including the organizational culture, the personal objectives of the individuals who are in the organization and leadership.

Organizational behavior significantly affects the manner in which leaders address particular issues at work like managing the personnel. Sample challenges that the entire organization and its leaders have to face while on duty include:

Diversity

The workplace is increasingly getting diverse with a continuous mixture of people from different backgrounds, cultures, sexual perceptions and age differences (Lind & van den Bos, 2013). The challenge the manager faces is how to manage this complex diversity in a way that generates a positive impact on the organization. Lind & van den Bos, (2013) explains that they have to maintain a balance between equal treatment to the employees while at the same time valuing the individual contribution towards the development and achievement of the organizational objectives so as to maintain the value of the employees (Lind & van den Bos, 2013).

Ethics

Maintenance of the corporate image is given high priority considering that the flow of information is much quicker in the recent year. Therefore, (Lind & van den Bos, 2013) acknowledges that organizations have put in place policies within the organization that facilitates ethical behaviors. The challenge facing managers in these circumstances is to promote ethical behavior within the organization without compromising nor did letting the employees put their personal interest before the institutions interest (Lind & van den Bos, 2013). Managers deal with the trouble of controlling the individual interest over group interest to preserve ethical values.

Globalization

Initially, (Kayode, 2014) explains that the operational scope of many companies was locally and limited to a small environment, but with the development of technology, these companies have globalized their operations. By so doing, (Kayode, 2014) further adds that the managerial leaders face the challenge of managing the international personnel with their different cultural and ethical backgrounds. On the other hand, the manager needs to not only understand the history of staff in the subsidiary company but also use the information to improve matches the parent organizations culture. By so doing, an eminent opposition is most likely to occur (Kayode, 2014).

Technology

Information technology plays a significant role in the communication at the workplace addition; the same workplace communication influences how the individuals and groups relate and behave in the organization. Contrary to the communicational benefits that the same technology brings to the firm, and according to (Kayode, 2014), it brings challenges to the leaders as it can lead to the alienation of the old employees who are not techno savvy. The major challenge is promoting inclusion of the employees rather than discrimination and isolation (Kayode, 2014).

In addition to leadership, this article continues to explore other factors that influence the decision-making process of the organizational leaders. Studies designed to show the positive outcome of decision-making processes from real leadership applies to any organizations success and goal achievement in the future.

Many studies from different professions indicate that there are various critical factors influencing decision making by leaders in the organizations. Slocum and Hellriegel, (2011) factors include cognitive biases, age and individual perception of relevance, impact of the choices that people make and past experiences.

Slocum and Hellriegel (2011) stresses that people make decisions differently under different circumstances situations. For instance, (Slocum and Hellriegel, 2011) says that decisions to be made concerning a product remain with the production department, the finance docket, the manufacturers and the marketing team. The team may make decisions under the influence of the financial limits, the medical conditions political situation among many others (Slocum and Hellriegel, 2011).

Organizational leaders need to know all the possible outcomes from their decisive actions and also understand the consequences their decisions will have on the shareholders, the other stakeholders of the organization as well as the entire organization (Aldag, 2012). For the ultimate decisions, the leaders need to understand that all the intellectual decision-making activities require adequate and appropriate timing in addition to sound knowledge and sharing of the available information. They need complete knowledge of the types of leadership styles and then apply the most suitable style while making the decisions (Aldag, 2012; Ejimabo 2015).

However, despite how informed and conservative the organizational leaders might be, there still are certain elements and factors that have a significant influence on the whole process of the regulatory decision-making (Ejimabo, 2015). Such factors range from who makes the decisions and applicable style used in making the decision. Every organization has the ability of growing into achieving its goals but only if all the workers observe and work towards achieving the companys set goals and targets (Ejimabo, 2015). Poor decision-making style usually gets associated with chaos, conflicts, opposition from the employees at the organization. Since leadership is always f...