Essay on Decision Making

Decision making is the practice of coming up with ideas, gathering related information and assessing their viability and choosing the best option out of alternatives. It is often possible to make a decision without even thinking about their outcome. Using a step-by-step decision-making process can help you make more deliberate, thoughtful decisions by organizing relevant information and defining alternatives (Inderscienceonline.com, 2016). For an organization to fathom in its operation there should be a well-defined system of decision-making

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The process of decision making is more of a top management activity. Top managers have the highest powers to make major decisions and the power flows downwards to the middle-level managers and with lower managers having the least powers to decide on lower level matters. The following the range of decisions made in a business:

Strategic decisions these are made by the top managers and have an effect on guiding the direction to which an organization should go.

Tactical decision these are made by the middle-level managers and their main aim is to implement strategic decisions.

Operational decisions these are lower management decisions which are involved in the day to day running of the business and they precisely concerned with the outcome.

Information required ensuring effective decision making

Effective decision-making requires one to be knowledgeable regarding decision-making processes and modules available. So as to ensure suitable performance, decision making should by centralize so as to ensure consistency and avoid confusion in various organizational departments. The senior most managers are supposed to take up major decisions because they are more experienced and mature and it is anticipated that they will make more quality decisions for the benefit of the business. Junior managers should be involved in implementation of the decisions made no decision making to avoid uncooked ideas which may lead to low productivity

However, light decision making actions should be passed down to middle-level management probably to departmental heads. This is to help reduce the top management workload and speed up the decision-making process. The management should also be flexible in decision making and give other stakeholders to participate in the decision-making process either directly or indirectly. This will enable the company to react effectively to market changes quickly and more profitable decisions achieved if all stakeholders are involved

In every organization, Information and knowledge play a very important role (Huber, 2016). The modern organization involve more complex and sophisticated business processes, therefore, the people involved need to develop quality skills and possess better knowledge levels. Changes in the modern market are so rapid and the ability to respond to such changes depends on the quality and level of knowledge and information the enterprise has. All the management levels have a role when it comes to decision making and they cannot take decisions without proper knowledge and adequate information.

It is almost impossible to measure the level of knowledge each individual of an organization has and even to find out the most valuable knowledge level for an organization and this may have an effect on the kind of decisions an organization makes. Therefore, if an organization has to succeed, the management should come up with strategies to device proper techniques in information and knowledge management in order to respond adequately to modern market changes.

Internal and external source of information and understanding

Basically, both internal and external sources of information for an organization are developed from the various stakeholders. Internal information is collected from the inside of the organization. This information may include personal and administrative information, financial information, marketing information and manufacturing information. External information on the other side is obtained from various external sources such as government agencies, external researchers and other private information providers (Help, 2016).

Every organization should establish a proper channel of harvesting information from all these sources. For internal sources, the management should create a good environment for their staff to air their views and give their feedback. They should also train them on the importance of being open and talking their views out. For external information sources, the management should identify the most reliable sources of information and maintain good relations with them.

Recommendations for improvement

Better communication with stakeholders will help reduce conflicts in the organization. The management should show more attention to various stakeholders since their action determines the success or failure of the organization (Foong and Foong, 2016). Therefore, the organization should establish clear lines of Communication with its stakeholders for effective decision making process

In order to measure the effectiveness of the communications, the organization management should receive feedback from the various stakeholders. This is can be done by conducting an assessment research in order to know if they receive messages as desired and if their messages have been acted to effectively. The research can be conducted through telephone calls, oral interviews or by use of questionnaires.

LO2: Be able to create strategies to increase personal networking to widen involvement in decision-making processes

Stakeholders for decision-making process

Stakeholders are the individuals who have an interest in an organization and can influence it directly or indirectly (BusinessDictionary.com, 2016). They can be divided into two:

Internal stakeholders organization staff (employees, managers)

External stakeholders - investors, banks, government, general public, media, clients, suppliers, customers

Identification of stakeholders and developing a business relationship with stakeholders

Organization should form partnerships with its stakeholders who give constructive ideas geared towards the success of the organization. This will help to avoid conflicts and facilitate better decision taking. By selecting the productive stakeholders and involving them in early stages of planning and decision making processes will help reduce failures of goals (Boutelle, 2016). Their participation in decision making will aid in developing creative and productive solutions to tackle issues. Each goal oriented firm has to develop a group of special stakeholders depending on their level of interest and influence to the company.

How to involve stakeholders in decision-making process

It is very important for every organization to set clear and reasonable objectives of the communication before passing the message. The main reason for communication is to give information to stakeholders about various arising issues and proposed actions and to receive feedback on their take regarding the same. For effective communication, these objectives should be considered otherwise the objective of information exchange will be varied.

Different format of communication can be used to pass different messages and also depending on personal encounters (Opentextbc.ca, 2016). For instance; if the message being passed is indented to influence the behavior, two-way communication is recommended. The management should involve the use of one-on-one interviews or use a telephone. However, if the message is to inform then one-way communication format can be used. The management can use television advertisement, newspapers, and magazine.

LO3: Be able to develop communication process

HMRC report

Existing processes of communication within HMRC

Currently, HMRC uses 5 primary channels in the process of communication. The first one is through their official HMRC website which contains loads of information regarding general queries. The website also contains the FAQ section that is quite resourceful to answering the question on the specific topic. Secondly, one can also call HMRC in the case of a personal issue that cannot be addressed by the FAQ section. For individuals that are nervous about calling the department, they also have the option of emailing the department or mailing the query, however, the later takes longer to get a response. Follow-ups are the last channel utilized by the HMRC in the communication process. This enables individuals that havent received a response to their queries to follow up on the issues. A reasonable response time is usually about two weeks, hence in case one waits for more than three weeks without a response, it is essential to make a call or email to follow up on the raised concerns (Grecu, 2015).

Ways to improve appropriateness

Communication process can be improved by choosing the most it appropriate in passing information. The process with the best way of devising message, with multiple Channels and it is fast should be chosen Important Messages repeat-By repeating the important messages for many times can improve communication.

Moreover, considering the HMRC is one of the busiest departments in the UK it is essential to develop appropriate concerns for raising concerns. First of all, the department should make individuals aware of the issues they are dealing with at a certain time. For instance, during the end of January, the department is busy with self-assessment tax returns, hence raising a query that is not related to returns may result to no response. In order to get an appropriate and fast response, it is essential not only to master the seasons but also to consider the time of day. HRMC line is open from 8 am to 8 pm on all weekdays. It is, therefore, advisable to avoid calling when everyone else is calling. Appropriate times would be hours before 9 am and just after lunch so as to get a much quicker response (Johnson, 2009).

Implementation of the improvements

HMRC is communication is faced with several problems. Some of these include lack of a verification system that they have received a letter, lack of utilizing email service and understaffing the contact telephone number. Some of these issues can be addressed directly, for instance, increasing the number of employees responsible for handling inquiries on the contact telephone number. The issue of not reply to emails is pure negligence on the department. It is essential that a culture of feedback be developed as this is key in effective communication. Moreover, addressing the issue through email may reduce the workload on the contact telephone number. HMRC current communication strategy is ineffective due to its dependency on financial institutions to inform their customers of changes. It is, therefore, essential for the department to roll out a public awareness campaign that does not only address the digitally engaged but everyone includes the elderly that are more dependent on savings income then those are still work capable. A comprehensive assessment of the impacts of long-term digital movement on individuals and businesses should be provided. In the implementation process, it is essential to consider individuals that are unfamiliar with or lack access to digital to technologies as it is HMRCs role to support them. Simple assessment has the potential of reducing the load on many low-income taxpayers but it should be well detailed and publicized as part of the implementation process. Finally, it is recommendable that the government interact with business to address their queries regarding the burden imposed on the administration by mandatory digital record keeping

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