Introduction
Leadership and decision making can be sometimes considered as one and the same thing. One cannot separate leadership and decision making. Leaders who make strategic and workable decisions are largely seen as efficient while leaders who make decision that do not turn out well may be regarded as ineffective leaders. The quality of a decision taken at any given time and the outcomes associated with the decision may not be good predictors of effectiveness of a manager.
In the case of SWIM and the challenges that are imminent and there seems to be no way out. From the three points narrowed down, I would recommend that SWIM hold a half-day conference with simultaneous presenters. The motivation behind that decision is that the group has taken an entire year planning for the conference only to cancel it at the last minute. The planners have spent considerable time and resources, including emotional drain to plan for the meeting to just let it slip off their hands. Secondly, the 3rd annual conference has been fully sponsored, and it would not be in good light to cancel the meeting after organizers spent their great deal of time looking for sponsors. Thirdly, guests have already made their commitment to come, with some confirming that they are on transit and are not unfazed by the prevailing weather conditions or possibilities of potential snowstorm. Finally, there is no complete certainty that the snowstorm will occur. As such, there is no need of postponing the meeting because it might not even rain at all.
Issues That Result
By selecting to go ahead with the meeting, there are issues that will result as a result of holding the half-day conference with concurrent speakers. One, holding a half-day meeting means that some guests might not have a chance to speak at all, or they might be forced to adjust their speech and presentations, which is inconveniencing on the part of the guests. Secondly, MIT Sloane will save on operational costs that could not be recovered if the conference was cancelled such as vendors responsible for setting up the venue and the food preparation company that cautioned that it was too late to cancel the perishable food stuffs that had already been prepared for the symposium. Finally, MIT Sloane will be in a position to salvage its bottom-line from the ticket revenue, as well as its reputation from the sponsors, ticket buyers, and other related companies that would be negatively impacted by the cancelation like the catering company.
Suggestions on Ways to Develop Contingency Plans
From the information and the case analysis presented above, one thing comes out that MIT Sloane did not have a contingency plan in place such as how guests will be accommodated in the event of a snowstorm, the possibility of holding the conference in another venue in the event that MIT closes its doors among other things. Having a contingency plan in place would have eased the situation from being complicated by providing directions. The suggestions on techniques to develop contingency plans in the future is for the organization management, team heads, subject experts and outsiders to brainstorm about the key risks whose occurrence could have a negative impact on the businesses (Luthans, 2015). Every business faces risks but the severity of the risk and the impact on resources like employees, machines and IT systems is different (Creately, 2019). Categorizing such information is the first step towards developing a contingency plan. Examples of probable risks are such as time because of schedule overruns or the client changes the deadline or cost risks that could arise from unexpected expenditure. Resource risk is another probable risk that could be caused by running out of resources, losing a key supplier of raw material or best employee quitting suddenly. Other risks are such as environmental risks such as weather delays progress of snowstorms that floods warehouse, or technical risks such as software virus or system crash.
The second step should be risk prioritization based on the impact of the risk on the organization (Creately, 2019). With the help of the team experts, the organization can draw a probability chart to evaluate the risk depending on the impact and probability of their occurrence. The next step should be the creation of contingency plans for each event such as restoring the system and communication to prevent losses. The role of employees and the timelines that highlight when and how things should be done is also created. Finally, the management should share and maintain the plan, and it should be reviewed and updated from time to time.
Why It Is Challenging To Engage In Decision Making
Making decisions in an organization can sometimes be an uphill task, given that individuals are different and they have their ways of approaching a problem. Bounded rationality is one of the reasons why decision making is difficult as managers may be faced with complex issues that they have not faced before. Bounded rationality is the idea that people cannot make rational decisions because they do not have all information and the implications of every alternative. Therefore, incomplete information makes it difficult to make well informed decisions (Hougaard & Carter, 2018). Escalation of commitment is another possible reason why making decision is difficult whereby one decision may be preferred, yet the decision is sub-optimal (BCCampus, nd). For instance, a manager may decide to implement the decision from an expert employee and abandon a suggestion from a lower level employee or an average performer. In the middle of the decision, the manager realizes that the suggestion that he ignored was the better. Getting stuck on whether to invest time and resources to make the sub-optimal decision or whether to abandon it altogether makes decision making difficult.
Time constraint is another factor that makes effective decision making an uphill task. When there is little time to gather and evaluate information, there is a likelihood of making an ineffective decision that is based on heuristics rather than deep processing (BCCampus, nd). Uncertainty also makes it difficult to make a decision since managers do not know the outcome of alternative until they have taken the alternative in reality as evidenced in the case study under discussion. The uncertainty of whether there will be snowstorm makes it difficult for the conference organizers to determine with certainty on whether to go ahead with the conference or not. Conflict avoidance could be another reason why people in organizations make sub-optimal decisions (Luthans, 2015). For instance, a manager who avoids conflict may not punish an employee with unruly behavior such as coming to work late. Finally, personal biases renders people to make limited decisions as people tend to be more comfortable with concepts that are familiar.
Leadership and decision making can be sometimes considered as one and the same thing. One cannot separate leadership and decision making. Leaders who make strategic and workable decisions are largely seen as efficient while leaders who make decision that do not turn out well may be regarded as ineffective leaders. The quality of a decision taken at any given time and the outcomes associated with the decision may not be good predictors of effectiveness of a manager.
In the case of SWIM and the challenges that are imminent and there seems to be no way out. From the three points narrowed down, I would recommend that SWIM hold a half-day conference with simultaneous presenters. The motivation behind that decision is that the group has taken an entire year planning for the conference only to cancel it at the last minute. The planners have spent considerable time and resources, including emotional drain to plan for the meeting to just let it slip off their hands. Secondly, the 3rd annual conference has been fully sponsored, and it would not be in good light to cancel the meeting after organizers spent their great deal of time looking for sponsors. Thirdly, guests have already made their commitment to come, with some confirming that they are on transit and are not unfazed by the prevailing weather conditions or possibilities of potential snowstorm. Finally, there is no complete certainty that the snowstorm will occur. As such, there is no need of postponing the meeting because it might not even rain at all.
Issues That Result
By selecting to go ahead with the meeting, there are issues that will result as a result of holding the half-day conference with concurrent speakers. One, holding a half-day meeting means that some guests might not have a chance to speak at all, or they might be forced to adjust their speech and presentations, which is inconveniencing on the part of the guests. Secondly, MIT Sloane will save on operational costs that could not be recovered if the conference was cancelled such as vendors responsible for setting up the venue and the food preparation company that cautioned that it was too late to cancel the perishable food stuffs that had already been prepared for the symposium. Finally, MIT Sloane will be in a position to salvage its bottom-line from the ticket revenue, as well as its reputation from the sponsors, ticket buyers, and other related companies that would be negatively impacted by the cancelation like the catering company.
Suggestions on Ways to Develop Contingency Plans
From the information and the case analysis presented above, one thing comes out that MIT Sloane did not have a contingency plan in place such as how guests will be accommodated in the event of a snowstorm, the possibility of holding the conference in another venue in the event that MIT closes its doors among other things. Having a contingency plan in place would have eased the situation from being complicated by providing directions. The suggestions on techniques to develop contingency plans in the future is for the organization management, team heads, subject experts and outsiders to brainstorm about the key risks whose occurrence could have a negative impact on the businesses (Luthans, 2015). Every business faces risks but the severity of the risk and the impact on resources like employees, machines and IT systems is different (Creately, 2019). Categorizing such information is the first step towards developing a contingency plan. Examples of probable risks are such as time because of schedule overruns or the client changes the deadline or cost risks that could arise from unexpected expenditure. Resource risk is another probable risk that could be caused by running out of resources, losing a key supplier of raw material or best employee quitting suddenly. Other risks are such as environmental risks such as weather delays progress of snowstorms that floods warehouse, or technical risks such as software virus or system crash.
The second step should be risk prioritization based on the impact of the risk on the organization (Creately, 2019). With the help of the team experts, the organization can draw a probability chart to evaluate the risk depending on the impact and probability of their occurrence. The next step should be the creation of contingency plans for each event such as restoring the system and communication to prevent losses. The role of employees and the timelines that highlight when and how things should be done is also created. Finally, the management should share and maintain the plan, and it should be reviewed and updated from time to time.
Why It Is Challenging To Engage In Decision Making
Making decisions in an organization can sometimes be an uphill task, given that individuals are different and they have their ways of approaching a problem. Bounded rationality is one of the reasons why decision making is difficult as managers may be faced with complex issues that they have not faced before. Bounded rationality is the idea that people cannot make rational decisions because they do not have all information and the implications of every alternative. Therefore, incomplete information makes it difficult to make well informed decisions (Hougaard & Carter, 2018). Escalation of commitment is another possible reason why making decision is difficult whereby one decision may be preferred, yet the decision is sub-optimal (BCCampus, nd). For instance, a manager may decide to implement the decision from an expert employee and abandon a suggestion from a lower level employee or an average performer. In the middle of the decision, the manager realizes that the suggestion that he ignored was the better. Getting stuck on whether to invest time and resources to make the sub-optimal decision or whether to abandon it altogether makes decision making difficult.
Time constraint is another factor that makes effective decision making an uphill task. When there is little time to gather and evaluate information, there is a likelihood of making an ineffective decision that is based on heuristics rather than deep processing (BCCampus, nd). Uncertainty also makes it difficult to make a decision since managers do not know the outcome of alternative until they have taken the alternative in reality as evidenced in the case study under discussion. The uncertainty of whether there will be snowstorm makes it difficult for the conference organizers to determine with certainty on whether to go ahead with the conference or not. Conflict avoidance could be another reason why people in organizations make sub-optimal decisions (Luthans, 2015). For instance, a manager who avoids conflict may not punish an employee with unruly behavior such as coming to work late. Finally, personal biases renders people to make limited decisions as people tend to be more comfortable with concepts that are familiar.
