CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In today’s world, organisations are faced with thousands of decisions daily, and how they make these decisions will have a huge impact on their financial status (Forrester, 2003:44). These decisions set the tone for the entire organisation in terms of image, profits and customer service. That is why it is very important that organisations adopt best practices and execute good judgment when it comes to making decisions. Because the right decision at the right time could help organisations achieve great success whereas a wrong decision could end up costing them dearly (Capgemini, 2004:12).

The most important job of any manager is making decisions. It is also the hardest and the most critical. With decisions valued in their millions (Forrester, 2003:97) a bad decision can damage a image of organisation (Hammond et al., 2006:86). Fragmented and inaccurate data causes executives and managers to make delayed and flawed decisions costing millions (Forrester, 2003). Finding the right data at the right time and analysing it fast enough remains a challenge for businesses as poor decisions can be very costly (Teradata, 2004:54).

Managers within organisations are often making bad decisions, solving the wrong problems and ignoring uncertainty (Forrester, 2003:32). According to (Forrester, 2003:65), managers make bad decisions and find it hard to decide because of decision biases, they don’t want to give anything up nor do they want to make mistakes. That is why they procrastinate and only make decisions when events force them to. Managers often solve the wrong problems because they lack a structure for making decisions. As a result, they don’t generate value creating alternatives, they look for quick and partial solutions and they fail to seek out all the necessary data or clarify objectives (Forrester, 2003:12). Managers also tend to ignore uncertainty they focus on a single outcome, such as the most likely case, and take refuge in ambiguity or imprecise language. Managers use the complexity of uncertainty as an excuse for not deciding (Forrester, 2003:75).

Decisions play a vital and crucial role within large organisations, and how they react could very well have a substantial impact on their financial standing. Failure to make the correct decision could lead to huge financial loss, while on the other hand making the right decision could help achieve a financial gain. The importance of the correct decision being made cannot be signified. Therefore, all of the factors affecting decision making need to be considered when deciding on a course of action.

The organizational decision making process involves proper and efficient implementation of strategic plans and methods to achieve desired organisational objective. Let’s examine some key areas that affect the overall process.

Often one difficulty facing an organization is that multiple divisions are involved in the overall decision making process. Making a decision can have different implications for each respective division. Gaining agreement from all stakeholders can be a challenge. When a companies overall strategy depends on the support of all business units, organization wide support is crucial.

Key strategic evaluation and planning is crucial. This planning needs to address the overall strategic goals of the organization but also the end effects that impact workers outside of the decision chain. Organizational dysfunction and worker resistance can result if proper thought and attention is not directed towards front line efforts. Organizational change professional deal specifically with these issues. Unifying the company at all levels is very important. A failure to calculate and anticipate the implications of key decisions can derail a companies goals and objectives.

Organizational change management and planning processes seek to address the implications that a change in one input can have on the corresponding output. The evaluation and process evaluation that comprises part of the change management approach seeks to measure and anticipate the effect strategic decisions will have on company resources and labor. This permits the careful monitoring and benchmarking to adjust process as required to more closely align organizational objectives with desired outcomes.

With the businesses of today facing shortened product lifecycles, organizations are facing intense competitive pressures to build market share to stay ahead of rivals. Process changes, the introduction of new and improved disruptive technologies are forcing companies to adapt new business goals and objectives in shortened timeframes. This places corresponding stresses on all levels of the organization. As business units are forced to respond to top level management goals, flexibility has become a modern day requirement.

Organizational change management is a growing discipline to help managers become better positioned to understand how the decision making process can affect individuals at a cognitive level. Performance improvement is intimately linked to this. As companies transition into the future, change management is expected to become increasingly important.

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