LEADERSHIP STYLES AND INFLUENCE PROCESS

 LEADERSHIP STYLES AND INFLUENCE PROCESS

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this Unit are to:

• introduce you to various leadership styles,

• familiarise you with various theories and styles of leadership, and

• create an awareness that leadership is a process of shared influence on the work group.

15.1 INTRODUCTION

In giving the input on leadership styles and influence process to you, we presume our main aim is to understand and improve your style of functioning as a leader.

To start, with, you must have clear ideas as to what is meant by leadership. Leadership is the activity of influencing people to strive willingly for group objectives. As you can see, this process is a function of the leader, the followers and the situation. In any situation where you are trying to influence the behaviour of another individual or group, leadership is operating. Thus each one of us tries leadership at one time or the other, whether our activities are centred around a business, educational institution, hospital, political organisation, Government organisation or a family. As part of this process, one who attempts to influence the behaviour of others becomes a potential leader and the persons he or she is attempting to influence are the potential followers. This may happen irrespective of the fact that the leader may be their boss or a colleague (associate) or a subordinate or a friend or a relative. In other words through a style of functioning he or she influences attitudes and expectations, which in turn encourage or discourage the follower’s activity or achievement, enhance or diminish the follower’s commitment to the work, etc.

In our day-to-day life, we come across instances of how people are influenced by the activities or words of a person who is trying to lead them. We always make judgements about the leaders in our own office. In our mind, we make a difference between a good leader and a bad one, by judging the style or way of functioning and the influence on others. Hence, in understanding the phenomenon of leadership, we must first understand the various styles of the leaders.

15.2 LEADERSHIP STYLES

The word style is the way in which the leader influences followers. Let us have a look at the various studies that help us to understand the leadership styles.

1) Hawthorne Studies

Mayo and Roethlisberger did a series of studies from 1924 to 1932 in an electricity company, at Illinois, in USA. These studies are known as Hawthorne Studies.

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One phase of these studies aimed at finding out if changes in illumination, rest period and lunch breaks can affect the productivity of the workers. It was found to the surprise of the researchers that less light, shorter and fewer rest periods and shorter lunch breaks resulted in an increase in productivity. And once all these changes were eliminated and the normal working conditions were resumed, it was also seen that the worker’s productivity and the feeling of being together went up. The increase in productivity was attributed to the attitude of workers towards each other and their feeling of togetherness. In addition, attention paid to the workers by the researches made them feel important which resulted in improvement in their work performance. This is known as Hawthorne effect. These findings made Mayo and Roethlisberger conclude that a leader has not only to plan, decide, organise, lead and control but also consider the human element. This includes social needs of being together and being recognised for the work interaction of the group members with each other and their well being. A good leader ought to keep the above aspects in his or her style of working with people and supervising their work.

2) Theory X and Y

McGregor (1960) categorised leadership styles into two broad categories having two different beliefs and assumptions about subordinates. He called these Theory X and Theory Y.

The Theory X style of leaders believe that most people dislike work and will avoid it wherever possible. Such leaders feel they themselves are a small but important group, who want to lead and take responsibility, but a large majority of people want to be directed and avoid responsibility. Therefore, this style of leadership exercises strong controls and direction and wherever necessary punish people if they do not do the work. If people do the work as desired, they may even get monetary or other rewards.

Theory Y leaders assume that people will work hard and assume responsibility if they can satisfy their personal needs and the objectives or goals of their organisation. Such leaders do not sharply distinguish between the leaders and the followers in contrast to Theory X style. They feel that people control themselves within rather than being controlled by others from outside such as a leader or a manager or a supervisor.

An effective leader needs to examine carefully his or her own ideas about the motivation and behaviour of subordinates and others, as well as the situation, before adopting a particular style of leadership.

3) Iowa Leadership Studies

In 1939 Lippitt and White under the direction of Lewin, did a study on three different styles of leadership in the task performance of ten-year old boys in three groups. The authoritarian leader of the group was very directive. He did not allow any participation. He was concerned about the task and told the followers what to do and how to do it. He was friendly while praising the performance of the individual member and was impersonal while criticising the individual member. In the other group, the democratic leader encouraged discussion with the group and allowed participation in making decision. He shared his leadership responsibilities with his followers and involved them in the planning and execution of the tasks. The Laissez-faire leader of the third group gave complete freedom to the group and did not provide any leadership. He did not establish any policies or procedures to do the task. Each member was let alone. No one attempted to influence the other.

The researchers selected boys of the same intelligence level. Each group did the same task of making paper masks or model air – planes or murals or soap cravings. The room used by the three groups remained the same. The three group leaders assumed different styles as they shifted every six weeks from group to group. The researchers under the direction of Lewin, who did several studies on group, were trying to see how different styles of leadership could change the satisfaction, frustration −aggression levels of the individuals. One definite finding was that nineteen out of twenty boys liked the democratic leadership style. That kind of a leader never tried to boss over them, yet they had plenty to do. The only boy who liked authoritarian style kind of leadership happened to be the son of an army officer. It was also observed that seven out of ten boys preferred the laissez- faire leader to the autocratic one as they preferred confusion and disorder to strictness and rigidity present in the autocratic style. Boys under the latter style exhibited more of aggressive, hostile and indifferent

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behaviour as compared to their counterparts under other styles of leadership. They either showed hostility or cracked jokes about hostility towards others. Others belonging to the democratic style of leadership showed less aggressive and more indifferent behaviour when brought under the autocratic style of leader. Even under the laissez-faire style of the leader, boys committed more aggressive acts than the ones under the democratic style.

Of course, a study on ten year old boys in making paper masks or soap carving, etc. cannot be compared to leader behaviour of adults with complex jobs. But like the studies of Mayo and Roethlisberger, the studies by Lewin, Lippitt and White are a pioneering effort in understanding leadership styles from the point of scientific methodology. They also throw light on how different styles of leadership can produce different complex reactions from the same or similar groups.

4) Michigan Studies on Leadership Styles

Likert (1961) at University of Michigan Survey Research Centre identified two major styles of leadership orientations− employee orientation and production orientation. The employee oriented style of the leader emphasises the relationship aspect of the jobs of the individual. Such a leader takes interest in every one and accepts the individuality and personal needs of the individual. He or she has complete confidence and trust in all matters in his or her subordinates. His or her subordinates feel free to discuss things about their jobs with their superior. He or she always asks subordinates for ideas and opinions and always tries to make constructive use of them.

The production oriented style of the leader emphasises production and technical aspects of the job. He or she looks at subordinates or employees as tools to accomplish the goals of the organisation. Work, working condition and work methods are tried to be understood better in this style of the leadership orientation. Likert related these orientations to the performance of the employees. He showed that the employee oriented style brought high-producing performance compared to production-oriented style. Of course, the satisfaction of employees was not directly related to productivity in Likert’s study.

5) Ohio State Studies on Leadership Styles

Stogdill (1957) at the Bureau of Business Research at Ohio State University initiated a series of researches on leadership in 1945. He, along with his colleagues, studied leader behaviour in numerous types of groups and situations by using a Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire (LBDQ). The studies were conducted on Air Force Commanders and members of bomber crews, officers, non-commissioned personnel, civilian administrators in the Navy Department, manufacturing supervisors, executives, teachers, principals and school superintendents and leaders of various civilian groups. They did not have any satisfactory definition of leaderships. They also did not think leadership is synonymous with ‘good’ leadership. The LBDQ was administered in a wide variety of situations and surprisingly two dimensions of leadership continually emerged from the study: one is ‘consideration’ and the other is ‘initiating structure’.

Consideration reflects the extent to which individuals are likely to have job relationship characterised by mutual respect for subordinates, ideas and consideration of subordinates feelings. You may like to describe it as the behaviour of the leader indicating friendship, mutual trust, respect and warmth in the relationship between the leader and his or her group members.

Initiating structure reflects the extent to which individuals are likely to define and structure their roles and those of their subordinates towards goal attainment. In other words, it is the behaviour of the leader which deals with the relationship between himself or herself and the work-group and tries to establish well-defined patterns of organisation, channels of communication and method of procedure.

Examples of observed behaviour of the leader under consideration and initiating structure are as follows:

Consideration Initiating Structure

The leader find time to listen to group The leader assigns group members to

members ( ) particular tasks ( )

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The leader is willing to make change ( ) The leader asks the group members to

follow standards rules and regulations ( )

The leader is friendly and approachable ( ) The leader lets group members know what is

expected of them ( )

One can do this exercise by observing and judging the behaviour of the leader in a work situation.

6) Scientific Manager’s Style

Taylor (1911) emphasised the importance of having management and labour work in harmony to maximise profits. The basis of his scientific management was technological in nature. It was felt that the best way to increase output was to improve the techniques or methods used by workers. Therefore, profit can be maximised by using a systematic and scientifically based approach to the study of jobs. Though, Taylor was not trained as a manager, he relied on scientific study of time and movement spent and used for a job to improve the performance of the worker. According to the scientific managerial style, management of a work organisation must be divorced from human affairs and emotions and people have to adjust to the management and not management to the people. Once jobs are recognised with efficiency in mind, the economic self-interest of the workers could be satisfied through various incentive work plans such as piece rate system of payment, etc. The leader is assumed to be the most competent individual in planning and organising the work of subordinates according to Taylor’s principle of scientific management.

Various studies reflecting different styles of functioning of a leader have been stated above, which highlight how the leader simultaneously pays attention to the:

a) task to be accomplished by the group, and

b) needs and expectations of the group and its individual members.

Exactly how the leader goes about attending to these two functions is a matter of his or her leadership style. Many theories have been suggested by the researchers regarding which leadership style is most effective. Even the above two functions can have different descriptions for different leaders. But in course of time every leader develops a particular style which reflects his or her own ideas and perspectives on the relative importance of task and people. However, the effectiveness of the leadership style is also dependent on the environment and organisational structure of the organisation.

We should now consider in what ways we can enrich the understanding of various styles of leadership by making ourselves familiar with some important theories of leadership.

CheckYourProgress-1

1) Discuss theory X and Y of leadership.

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2) Why should a tourism professional study leadership styles?

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15.3 LEADERSHIP THEORIES

In this Section we discuss certain theories related to leadership.

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1) Trait Theory

This theory as described by Kelly (1974) attempts to classify what personal characteristics such as physical, personality and mental, are associated with leadership success. Trait theory relies on research that relates various traits to the success of a leader. A lengthy list of traits has been made to describe an effective leader in terms of certain characteristics. A board classification of six categories of traits is given below:

1. Physical characteristics of the leader, such as age, height, weight.

2. Background characteristics i.e. education, social status, mobility and experience.

3. Intelligence i.e. ability, judgement, knowledge.

4. Personality i.e. aggressiveness, alertness, dominance, decisiveness, enthusiasm, extroversion independence, self-confidence, authoritarianism.

5. Task-oriented characteristics i.e. achievement need, responsibility, initiative, persistence.

6. Social characteristics i.e. supervisory ability, cooperativeness, popularity, prestige, tact, diplomacy.

These characteristics according to some people are considered valid indicators of successful leaders, but if you compare leaders by various physical personality and intelligence traits, you may find very little agreement on these. Some findings point out to the fact that leaders are intelligent individuals. But they do not provide any clue as to the whether leaders are brighter than their followers or are as close to them in intelligence. Again, some of the personality traits are overlapping with each other. Therefore, you need to be cautious in stating, personality or any other characteristic as a cause of successful leadership. You must ask the questions: Who is a successful leader? Is he or she far superior physically ? Is he or she far brighter ? Is he or she more mature as a person? Is he or she more motivated to achieve his or her goal? Does he or she have more consideration for his or her followers? etc. Some of the traits may describe a successful leader but predicting successful leaders on the basis of traits alone is not a correct approach. The followers have a significant effect on the job accomplished by the leader. Trait theory completely ignores the followers and the situations that also help a leader to be successful. Secondly, we should also weigh in our own mind, which of the objectives, ‘confident’ or ‘independent’ or ‘intelligent’ is relatively more important in becoming a successful leader. You may observe one or all the above traits as important in a successful leader whereas your friend may feel that an enthusiastic, aggressive and authoritarian person is a good leader. To be more objective, traits of the person as well as demand of the situation together determine the effectiveness of the leader.

2) Group and Exchange Theories of Leadership

These theories as reported by Hollandder and Julian (1969) state that the leader provides more benefits or regards than burden or costs for followers who help him or her achieve the goal of the organisation. There must be a positive exchange between the leader and followers in order for group goals to be accomplished. The leader can give rewards to his or her followers in the form of praise or pay increase or promotion for accomplishment of the group goal or task. This has positive impact on attitudes, satisfaction and performance of the followers. In return, they respect the leader and give due regard for his or her status and esteem and believe in his or her heightened influence. As you are already aware, a leader emphasises initiating structural change when followers do not perform very well. He or she increases his or her emphasis on consideration when the followers do a good job. In return, the perception of his or her followers of his or her being an effective leader increases. Hence the leader and the followers mutually affect each other.

3) Social Learning Theories

This theory by Bandura (1977) states that there is a continuous reciprocal interaction between person, environment and behaviour as shown in Figure I.

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Person

Behaviour

Environment

Figure I : Reciprocal Determinism in Social Learning

Person and environment function in conjunction with the behaviour itself and reciprocally interact to determine behaviour. A person, through his or her actions, produces the environmental conditions that affect his or her behaviour in a reciprocal fashion. The experience generated by behaviour also partly determines what a person becomes and can do. This in turn affects subsequent behaviour. The theory is called social learning theory because, individuals learn in an environment in the process of interacting with each other which is a social process. You will appreciate the application of this theory in understanding the behaviour of a leader and the continuous reciprocal interaction between the person (leader’s cognitions) and environment (including subordinates and their needs, experiences, objectives in the organisation, abilities, skills, energy performance, etc. known as contingencies that regulate their behaviour).Thus a social learning approach to leadership can be shown as in Figure II.

Leader

(includes cognition)

Environment

(includes subordinates and their behavioural

contingencies which regulate their behaviour.)

Leader Behaviour

Figure II : A Social Learning Approach to Leadership

The three aspects of this theory of leadership assume that the leader knows how his or her behaviour is controlled by various needs, situations and experiences that one undergoes. The leader and the subordinates jointly attempt to discover ways in which they can manage their individual behaviour to produce mutually satisfying as well as organisationally productive outcomes. In this approach, the leader and subordinates have a negotiable and interactive relationship. They are continuously aware of how they can modify or influence each other’s behaviour by giving the rewards or holding back the performance respectively.

4) Managerial Grid Theory

Leaders can be oriented towards both tasks and persons. This theory by Blake and Mouton (1978) has a popular application of both task and person orientation. According to this theory leaders are most effective when they achieve a high and balanced concern for people and for tasks. Each leader can be rated somewhere along each of the axes from 1 to 9 depending on his or her orientation as shown in Figure III.

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1,9

9,9

5,5

1,1

9,1

Person Orientation

Task Orientation

Figure III : Interaction between Person and Task Orientations

Although there can be 81 possible combinations you should try to understand the 5 types that are shown in the diagram. These will give you a basic understanding of the theory, on which you can base your other combinations.

1. The (9,1) leader is primarily concerned about the task or production. He or she is concerned with his or her responsibility to see that the work is completed. He/she is called a Task-Management Leader.

2. The (1,9 ) leader is primarily concerned for people and only incidentally concerned with production. The leader’s major responsibility is to establish harmonious relationships among subordinates and to provide a secure and pleasant work atmosphere. He/she is called a as Country Club Management Leader.

3. The (1,1) leader is concerned with neither production nor people. He or she rises to stay out of the way and not become involved in the conflict between the necessity for production and the attainment of good working relationship. He or she is called as Impoverish Managerial Leader.

4. The (5,5) leader reflects a middle ground position and is called as Middle of the Road Management Leader. He or she seeks to compromise between high production and employee satisfaction.

5. The (9,9) leader is extremely concerned about the task and also the people. He or she is concerned to see that the work accomplishment is from committed people; interdependence through a ‘common stake’ in organisation; purpose leads to relationship of trust and respect. He/she is called a Team Management Leader.

5) Contingency Theory of Leadership

Regarding this theory Fiedler (1967) states that a leader may become effective if the situation is favourable in three ways. These are: good leader-member relations showing acceptance of the leader by the group; details of the task spelled out to the leader’s position; and a great deal of authority and power is formally attributed to the leader’s position. With these three favourable situations and his or her style of functioning, a leader will be effective. When the situation is very favourable or very unfavourable to the leader, the task-oriented leader is effective. When the situation is moderately favourable to the leader the person oriented leader is effective.

Example (of moderately A leader with good interpersonal relationships may be favourable situation to developing a new policy that will have great impact on the person-oriented leader) work group. The situation is relatively vague but derately favourable. The Task is not very well defined and the

member relation is good. The leader is likely to be effective

as he would like to consult the members and consider their

thoughts and ideas. When the new policy gets approved, the

situation becomes more favourable to him. 207

6) Path-goal Leadership Theory

Theory by House (1971) states that the leader smooth out the path towards goals and provides rewards for achieving them.

As a leader, you should understand the needs of the people and their desire to work or behave in a way that accomplishes goals that satisfy those needs. This theory is based on a situation of the above kind. If you know the need of the person and his or her desire to work and he or she is able to accomplish the work, you can reward to make him or her feel happy and satisfied. In essence, you are doing three things; One, you are motivating the members of the group by clarifying the path to personal rewards that result from attaining personal goals. You have thus ‘fixed’ him or her on the job and made him or her see that his or her performance can lead to positive or negative rewards. Two, you have already made the path-goal clear to the member and also told him or her about what the job-requires. You need not say too many things about the job to him or her as this may decrease the interest in the work and deter performance. Three, you must offer the reward to the member of the group who actually accomplishes the task. Your rewards may be a praise or increase in the pay or promotion of the member to a higher position. Your judgement about the desirability of the member to a higher position is crucial. Your judgement about the desirability of the member’s effort and the goal helps you to decide whether a reward can be given.

It is very important for the leader to know every member as a person, in order to use a style to get the best out of the member. For example, a task-oriented leader is preferred by a highly achievement-oriented member, whereas a person-oriented leader is preferred by a person who needs a good deal of affiliation with others. Similarly it does good for the leader to know each situation to adjust his or her style of functioning for better results. With a clear task on hand, members feel satisfied if the leader is supporting them. They may not show a lot of output, but they are satisfied. On the other hand with a less clear or more vague task on hand, members show more output, if the leader directs them to work better. The member in this situation may not be very satisfied.

In most of the Indian work settings, it is usually observed that members are quite dependent on the leader or the superior. They also are quite conscious of their status, but have very little commitment to work. Singh (1980) suggests that the leader who is task-oriented and nurtures the dependence of members on him is most effective in dealing with such members. He or she can get the work done in his nurturant task style from the members of group. To a great extent, he knows characteristics of the members’ work group, which he utilises in making the leadership style-oriented, effective and getting the work done.

From the above discussion, it is clear that a leader is a person who has ability to persuade others to get the work done. You must have seen a person having the title of a leader. He or she may by very popular, but may not have the ability of leadership. Many leaders try to become popular by agreeing with everyone, thus avoiding any kind of conflict. Their influence on the subordinate or members of the work group may not be very lasting. There are leaders, who by virtue of their ability to exercise authority and power show better influence on members. It is therefore necessary for you to understand the authority of a leader and his or her sources of power, which help him or her to exercise influence on the subordinates.

15.4 LEADERSHIP AND INFLUENCE PROCESS : TYPES OF POWER

Authority is the right to command and extract obedience from others. It comes from organisation and it allows the leader to use power. Power is the ability to exercise influence or control over others.

In the functioning of a leader the ability to guide the action of others is achieved through his or her authority. Carrying out of these decisions is accomplished because of the power of the leader. You will see the relationship between the authority and power of a leader as we go further to understand various types of power.

1) Legitimate Power: This power comes to the leader when the organisation’s authority is accepted. It comes from the rules of the organisation. For e.g. parents, teachers, managers, police, etc. have legitimate power only when their authority is accepted in the positions they hold.

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2) Expert Power: This is the power of knowledge and skill of special kind that are important in getting the job done. A person’s professional competence or knowledge gives him or her the expert power. The credibility increases and he or she can lead other persons to trust the judgements and decisions taken by the leader. A leader may not be an expert in all fields, but one can certainly take the help of experts in particular fields as and when required.

3) Charismatic Power: This is the power of attraction or devotion, the desire of one person to admire another. A subordinate feels a positive attraction towards a leader by identifying oneself, with the leader, or gets influenced by the leader’s attractive power. This power helps the subordinate to understand and value the leader so much that one understands and acts according to the expectations of the boss or the leader. It helps one to act as one’s own boss, and behave in ways one thinks the boss will want.

4) Reward Power: This power is the present or potential ability to reward for worthy behaviour. The superior or the leader has the power to give tangible rewards such as promotion, office space, time off from work, attractive work assignments and help to the subordinate. Also phychological rewards like praise, appreciation, approval and recognition can be given by the leader or the superior to the subordinate. The subordinate has to believe that the leader has access to higher authorities, therefore, the leader can give rewards. This reward power of the leader can also increase the leader’s charismatic and legitimate power.

5) Coercive Power This is the ability to threaten or punish. The leader can give tangible punishment like dismissal, demotion, low rating, less satisfying work assignments etc. Psychological punishments include criticism, avoidance, disapproval or satirical remarks etc. on the subordinate. The reward power helps to avoid something undesirable. Self-esteem of the subordinate increases because of reward power and decreases because of punishment or coercive power. Even a subordinate may withdraw or break the rules or become hostile. One may not feel attracted towards the charismatic power of the leader and at times may ignore the leaders legitimate power. Having seen the reasons for differences between the authority and power of the leader, you should know the type of leaders as understood on the basis of their authority and power.

Beside the power aspect one should also account for the following:

i) Formal Leader : A formal leader is selected by the organisation. For example, a manager is a formal leader by virtue of the authority coming from the organisation. He or she influences others to help accomplish the goals of the organisation or unit. Such a leadership lasts over a long period of time.

ii) Informal Leader An informal leader is chosen by the group. Thus, all managers are leaders if their authority is accepted, but not all leaders are managers. Informal leadership is leadership without position and may shift from one person to another. It may last for a brief time. Most people are leaders at one time or the other and they can have influence on others as defined by the concept of leadership itself.

The ideal leader is the one who can combine the formal and informal leadership simultaneously within himself or herself.

15.5 SUCCESSFUL VERSUS EFFECTIVE LEADER

As we have seen in the preceding discussion, leadership is the activity of influencing people to strive willingly for group objectives. It is the ability to persuade others to get something done. So the leader attempts to have some effect on the behaviour of another, which we call attempted leadership. The response to this attempt may or may not be successful. A basic responsibility of managers in any work organisation is to get the work done with and through people. The success of managers is measured by the output or productivity of the group they lead. Therefore, we should clearly distinguish between successful versus effective leader.

We should try to understand the difference between success and effectiveness. Success has to do with how the individual or the group behaves. Effectiveness describes the internal state or predisposition of an individual or a group and is thus attitudinal in nature.

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You may have noticed that individuals who are interested in success tend to emphasise their position power. They use close supervision on the work on their associates. If they have to be effective, they have to use their personal power as well as their general supervision.

Examples of successful and effective individuals can be noticed if one understands the underlying acceptance of the superior by the subordinate. In the examination hall, a certain kind of teachers fear that if they leave the hall for a while the student will indulge in copying and exchanging notes. There are yet another kind of teachers who leave the examination hall, but the students never behave differently.

Let us work at family level which is a less formal organisation. Parents can be successful and effective by using their position and personal power. The children easily accept the goals of the family as their own. Parents who use position power and a closer supervision, are likely to face a kind of revolt or disobeying attitude among their children not accepting the goals set by the parents for the family. With the absence of the parents, the whole house becomes topsy-turvy. This can never happen in a family where parents create a good deal of trust between them and the children by exercising their personal power of love and discipline. In such a situation the children in the absence of parents do not behave differently than if their parents were there.

Leaders are successful, but ineffective when they have a short-run influence over the behaviour of others. They must try to be both successful and effective to have long-term influence for leading others towards productivity and developing the organisation as a whole. The most important conclusion from the above discussion is that the managers must understand their own abilities and their impact on others.

Check Your Progress-2

1) What do you understand by Social learning theory?

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2) Define various types of powers.

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3) What would you do to be a successful leader?

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15.6 LET US SUM UP

In this Unit you have been exposed to leadership as a process of influence on others to work willingly for group objectives. You have also come across different leadership styles, such as Human relations style, theory X and Y style. Authoritarian, Democratic and Laissez-faire style, Employee-oriented and Production-orientation styles, Consideration and Initiating Structure styles and Scientific Managerial styles. Styles have been related to various theories of leadership such as Trait theory, Group and Exchange theory, Social Learning theory, Managerial Grid theory, Contingency Theory and Path-goal theory.

In the context of leadership and influence process, a distinction was drawn between authority and power. Five types of power such as legitimate power, reward power, expert power, charismatic power, and 210

coercive power were explained. Based on the types of power, we discussed two types of leaders− formal and informal. We also attempted to distinguish between a successful and an effective leader.

15.7 KEY WORDS

Authoritarian Style : The assumption that the power of leaders derived from the position they occupy and that people are innately lazy and unreliable.

Contingency Theory : A theory that considers an organisation’s objective, environment and leadership skills, as interacting and affecting the effectiveness of a leader.

Group and Exchange : These theories state that the leader provides more benefits and rewards Theories of Leadership burdens or costs for followers who help him achieve the goal of the

organisation.

Hawthorne Effect : When worker’s behaviour changes and productivity increases because the workers become aware of their importance.

Initiating Structure : Reflects the extent to which individuals are likely to define and structure their roles and those of their subordinates towards goal attainment.

Legitimate Power : The power comes when the organisation’s authority is accepted. It is power that stems from implicit or explicit rules.

Situational Management : Skill in changing the style demands of one or more situational elements so that managerial effectiveness increases.

Situational Manipulation : Changing the style demands of one or more situational elements so that personal effectiveness increases.

15.8 CLUES TO ANSWERS

CheckYourProgress-1

1) Read Theory X in Sec. 15.2.

2) What ever be your Managerial level, in tourism services you have to provide leadership. As such you must be aware of various leadership styles so as to use them as per the situational requirement.

Check Your Progress-2

1) Read Sec. 15.3 point 3.

2) Base your answer on the definitions mentioned in Sec. 15.4.

3) Read Sec. 15.5.

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GROUP DYNAMICS

GROUP DYNAMICS

16.1 INTRODUCTION

Your main aim apparently is to understand why do individuals form groups. Let us ask you some questions: How old were you when you first joined a group? How many different groups do you belong to? How would you identify a group leader? Does your behaviour change when you are with different groups? Have you ever led a group? In what sense were you the leader? What were the results?

If on your own you start answering these questions, you will find that understanding group behaviour and the properties of groups are essential to being both a good manager and an effective member of groups. You must have by now become familiar with the manager’s functions related to groups. For example, a manager spends half of his or her time in some formal or informal meetings, where a group of people get together to solve problems or make plans. So the manager acts as a member of a group with other managers or colleagues.

There are also many examples where the manager decides to take a decision on his or her own or to rely on groups by holding meetings or making committees. Interaction with small groups is very important for a manager. Such a group of peers or colleagues, other managers, specialists or others really help the manager to take an effective decision. You might have also come across instances of well knit and cohesive groups, which really make a superior performance under a good leader. For all these purposes you must try to gain an understanding of how to manage a group and how to become a more effective group member. In order to develop the above two objectives, you must always keep in mind that a group is part of a larger organisation with which it interacts. It is in this context that we talk of group dynamics. So we must 212

understand the meaning of Group Dynamics before we talk about the dynamics of group formation and other related issues that have been discussed in this Unit.

16.2 GROUP DYNAMICS

Group Dynamics is concerned with the interactions and the forces operating among group members in any situation. In the 1930s Kurt Lewin had popularised this term. You are already familiar with the three styles of leadership, i.e. Authoritarian, Democratic and Laissez-faire, which Lewin (1939)and his associates had developed by creating three different social situations for the three styles of leadership. In course of time, various meanings were attached to the term ‘group dynamics’ (Kelly 1974). One of the meanings suggests how a group should be organised and conducted. In democratic leadership, member participation and overall cooperation are emphasised. Another meaning of Group Dynamics is that it is a set of techniques which through various group exercises tries to make the leader as well as the member effective. An attempt is made to make the members play their roles in a management situation of group discussions, team building, finding out various solutions to problems by brainstorming and understanding oneself in relation to others while transacting or interacting with others. Such exercises are also provided in situations where only members are present and no leader exists to direct or control the group. All these exercises are techniques to develop both the individual as well as the organisation in which he or she works. The last meaning of the term Group Dynamics is closest to Lewin’s use of the term suggesting internal nature of the groups as to how they are formed, what their structures and processes are, how they function and affect individual members, other groups and the organisation. In this Unit, our main attention will be focused on the third meaning of the term. Hence, the next step is to start with defining a group and then consider the dynamics of group formation.

16.3 WHAT IS A GROUP?

A group is any number of people who:

• have a common purpose or objective,

• interact with each other to accomplish their objectives,

• are aware of one another, and

• perceive themselves to be part of the group.

This is the way Huse and Bowditch (1977) defined a group. You were asked at the beginning as to how many different groups you belong to. You may see, from the above definition that throughout our lives, we belong to many different groups. Families are groups, a cricket team is a group, a club is a group and drama and music organisations are all groups. You can thus apply the concept of group to various examples of politics, consumers, sports, etc. as the case may be. In management, we primarily talk of groups at work. In most organisations, getting the work done requires group efforts. A Manager must know how to manage a group by understanding Group Dynamics.

At this point, the number of people as contained in the definition of the group, should not be taken too literally. At some point, the number of people may become too large to fit the rest of the definition. For example all the people of India cannot interact with each other. Also, each group has a common objectives,

but the members who belong to it may have other personal objectives. For example, a travel agent may like to become a member of a parent-teacher association of school to help promote the development process of its students. But belonging to this association will also help in increasing his or her contacts, to know more people and enlist them as clients of the travel agency.

What is most important in the content of the definition of a group is to be aware of each other in a group. This awareness is seldom there, when we look at an aggregation of people. They are mere collections, different from what we call a group, where members see themselves as belonging to a group in order to interact and achieve the common objectives of the group. Moreover, such kind of interaction may be over a long or a short period of time. In waiting for a bus, passengers make a queue. All of them have a common purpose that is, to enter the bus after buying tickets. We cannot call them a group, although they have a common purpose. Suddenly a person breaks the queue to go ahead. All others get together to prevent that person gate crashing and getting his ticket ahead of those standing in the queue before him. At that moment, a group is formed. Perhaps, after controlling that person from getting a ticket out of turn, the

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others keep continuing to talk to each other but the common purpose of keeping the queue out vanishes. The group disappears and the number of people become an aggregation or a collection.

16.4 THE DYNAMICS OF GROUP FORMATION

It becomes necessary to understand why people do form into groups. Some believe that it is because of propinquity or affiliating with one another that individuals form into groups. In a room people sitting nearer to each other more easily make a group than people sitting at opposite ends of a room. This kind of affiliation of people with each other is due to spatial nearness or geographical nearness. But it does not help us to understand some of the complexities of group formation which are more than mere affiliations due to physical or geographical nearness . Hence, we discuss here some major theories of group formation in brief.

16.4.1 Theories

1) Homans (1950) explained the basis of group formation in terms of activities, interaction and sentiments of people. These three elements are directly related to each other. In the example of controlling a queue breaker in the line, cited earlier, the required activities are the assigned tasks at which people work. All others knew their turn and how to exercise it especially, with a sudden change of situation created by the queue breaker. The required interaction takes place when any one person’s activity follows or is influenced by the activity of another. In this example the person whose turn was dislocated by the queue breaker influences all other’s activities. As soon as he pushes out the person (the queue breaker) or tells him not to do it, all others follow him. Hence required interaction may be verbal (telling him not to break the queue) or non-verbal (pushing him out of the queue). One can see the activities and the interactions. But as sentiments are the feelings or attitudes of a person towards others, his likes or dislikes, approval or disapproval, can only be inferred from the behaviour. After the activity of throwing out the queue breaker changed, the interactions also change. In the above example, people talk to each other in a very informal way after they succeeded in throwing out the queue breaker. These informal interactions, known as emergent interactions, change the activities into informal or emergent activities such as people reorganising their queue and ensuring that no other intruder comes in out of turn. All these activities emerge because of the sentiments or feelings of the people.

You will notice that the more activities the people share, the more numerous will be their interactions and the stronger will be their mutual sentiments. Therefore, in turn, with more interactions among persons, the more will be their shared activities and sentiments. Again in turn the more sentiments the persons have for one another, the more will be their shared activities and interactions. Homan’s theory therefore explains the formation of group on the basis of people’s interaction with each other.

People are not only physically together, but they also solve problems, attain goals, facilitate coordination, reduce tension and achieve a balance. In an organisation the participants interact with each other in this manner and tend to form into powerful groups.

2) Newcomb (1961) came up with the balance theory of group formation which explains group formation on the basis of attraction of persons towards each other as they have similar attitudes towards common objects or goals. For example, person A and B will interact and form a relationship because of their common attitudes towards C. If A and B form a relationship or a group, they will strive to maintain a symmetrical balance between the attraction and the common attitudes and values. Whenever this relationship between A and B becomes unbalanced, both will try to restore the balance. If the balance cannot be restored, then their relationship is dissolved. Both affiliation and interaction play a significant role in balance theory.

3) Thaibaut and Kelly (1959) talk of another theory of group formation, citing the outcome of interaction

as the basis of group formation. The outcome of a relationship should be rewarding in order to have attraction or affiliation among the persons or members of a group. The persons derive personal and social satisfaction from having interactions with each other. If they incur anxiety or frustration or embarrassment or fatigue in such interactions, then that interaction becomes a cost for them rather than a reward. Thaibaut and Kelley’s theory or group formation is known as exchange theory of reward and cost outcomes. Affiliation, interaction and common attitudes – all play their roles in the exchange theory.

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16.4.2 Group Offers

For individuals, there are some very practical reasons to join a group or forming a group. Most of us can satisfy our needs only with or through other people. Let us see some of the needs that the groups help us to satisfy.

i) Safety and security needs

Do you remember, the first question asking you as to how old you were when you first joined a group? The answer is, perhaps you joined in a group in your pre-school years in a nursery class room. You learned to protect yourself by being in a group. In a class, a teacher asks the kids who broke the toy and seldoms gets an answer. All the kids keep quite. Although young, they protect their members by not disclosing anybody’s name or pointing out at any one in a group.

Even in emergency activities of putting off fire, the fire fighters depend on each other for protection. This is a case where individuals doing hazardous jobs derive physiological and psychological support from the groups. They need to be physically together even if they know that this may increase their collective danger. This helps them to be more confident and able to perform well, less fearful and more responsible to carry out their duties. Hence, safety and security are offered by a group.

ii) Relatedness or belongingness needs

You might have noticed many persons in your working life, who are very isolated or who prefer to be absent from wok most of the times or an organisation having high turnover of employees or frequent change of employees. Studies show, such phenomena occur where people are unable to belong to a group. This is because of the fact that all of us are social beings, and belonging to or relating to groups, satisfies a number of social needs. We get emotional support from a group, which is particularly helpful at times of stress. In normal situations, affiliation to a group has a major influence on human behaviour in organisations. When we are isolated from human communication and companionship, we simply lose touch with reality. A group offers a feeling of oneness and belongingness.

iii) Esteem and growth needs

When you do a piece of work, you get a praise from others. This gives a sense of recognition which fulfils you esteem need (being recognised) and also brings a sense of fulfilment of your need for growth towards further achievement of good work and career prospects. A group provides you this opportunity.

16.4.3 Types of Groups

We should now make ourselves familiar with various kinds of groups and the different ways to classify them. Here we concentrate on both formal and informal groups existing in organisations and talk of other groups in brief.

i) Formal Groups

These groups are established by the organisaton to accomplish specific tasks. According to Cartwright and Zander (1947) these include command groups which consist of managers and their direct subordinates; and committees and task forces which are created to carry out specific organisational assignments or activities. Command groups and committees continue to exist whereas task forces are usually established to solve a particular problem. They are disbanded after the work is done.

ii) Informal Groups

These groups are formed within the structure of the organisation but by the members themselves rather than by the organisation. Sometimes they do not have the approval of the management. Basically, informal groups are formed to satisfy social needs on the job. Sometimes they are formed to perform a task better, sometimes they are formed for information seeking. In a rigid system of organisation, these informal groups meet fairly regularly to cut short the rigid bureaucratic practices of the management.

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iii) Primary Groups

Cooley (1911) defined and analysed primary groups as those characterised by intimate, face-to-face association and cooperation. They are primary in several senses, but chiefly in that they are fundamental in forming the social nature and ideals of the individuals. Many people use the term small group interchangeably with primary group. But the small group only meets the criterion of small size for face-to-face interaction and communication to occur. In addition to being small a primary group must have a feeling of comradeship, loyalty and a common sense of values among all its members. Thus, all primary groups are small groups but not all small groups are primary.

iv) Membership Groups

These are the ones to which the individual actually belongs. Example are clubs, cooperative societies, workers union, etc.

v) Reference Groups

These are the ones with which an individual identifies or to which he or she would like to belong. Examples are socially or professionally prestigious groups with which the individual would like to belong like adventure tour operators forming a group or tourist guides forming a group.

Check Your Progress-1

1) Define a group.

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2) What do groups offer to people ?.

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3) Discuss the types of groups.

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16.5 GROUP ROLES

Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Using the same

metaphor, all group members are actors, each playing a role. By this term, we mean a set of expected behaviour patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit. The understanding of role behaviour would be dramatically simplified if each of us chose one role and “played it out” regularly and consistently. We are required to play a number of diverse roles, both on and off our jobs. As we shall see, one of the tasks in understanding behaviour is grasping the role that a person is currently playing.

For example, on her job, Ms. ‘X’ is a Regional manager with the tourism department. She has a number of roles to fulfil on that job, for instance as a member of middle management representing her department in that region, a spokesperson for the department etc. Off the job she finds herself playing still more roles: wife, mother etc. Thus, we are all required to play a number of roles and our behaviour varies with the role we are playing though many of these roles are compatible while other are conflicting.

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Role Identity and Perception

There are certain attitudes and actual behaviours consistent with a role and they create the role identity. People have the ability to shift roles rapidly when they recognise that the situation and its demands clearly require major changes. For example, when workers were promoted to foremen positions, it was found that their attitudes changed from pro-union to pro-management within a few months of their promotion. When promotions had to be later rescinded because of economic difficulties in the firm, it was found that the demoted workers again adopted their pro-union attitudes. At the same time, when the situation is more vague and the role one has to play is less clear, people often revert to old identities. Where the role requirements are ill-defined , there also individuals revert back to old patterns of behaviour. One’s own view of how one is supposed to act in a given situation is a role perception. Based on an interpretation of how we believe we are supposed to behave, we engage in certain types of behaviour.

Role Expectations and Conflict

Role expectations are defined as how others believe you should act in a given situation. How you behave is determined, to a large part, by the role defined in the context in which you are acting. The role of a monument guide is viewed as having knowledge, communication skills and one satisfactying the curiosity of the tourists, where as a mountain guide is seen as strong, adventurous and inspiring to the tourists. When role expectations are concentrated into generalised categories, we have role stereotypes. During last decades we have seen a major changes in the general population’s role stereotypes of females. In 1950, a woman’s role was to stay home, take care of the house, bring up children, and generally care for her husband. Today, most of us no longer hold this stereotype. Girls work hard to be doctors, lawyers, managers and astronauts as well the more traditional activities of nurse, school teachers, secretary or housewife. In other words, many of us have changed our role expectations of women and, similarly many women carry new role perceptions.

In the work place, it can be helpful to look at the role expectations through the perspective of the psychological contract, an unwritten agreement, existing between employees and the employer. It sets out mutual expectations – what management expects from employees and vice versa. In effect, this contract defines the behavioural expectations that go with every role. Management is expected to treat employees justly, provide acceptable working conditions, clearly communicate what is a fair day’s work and give feedback on how well the employee is doing. In turn employees are expected to respond by demonstrating a good attitude, following directions, and showing loyalty to the organisation.

When an individual is confronted by divergent role expectations, the result is role conflict. It exists when an individual finds that compliance with one role requirement may make more difficult the compliance with another. At the extreme it would include situations where two or more role expectations are mutually contradictory. To choose between profitability and business ethics is an area of role conflict among managers.

16.6 IMPLICATIONS OF FORMAL AND INFORMAL GROUPS FOR MANAGEMENT

In this Section we discuss the implications of formal and informal groups for management and certain other issues related to it.

i) Formal Groups: Committees

As defined earlier formal groups are established by the organisation to accomplish specific tasks. These groups include command groups, committees and task forces. Here, we further clarify committee organisation as an important type of formally designated group and its implication for management.

Committees are special kinds of groups which serve the following purposes in an organisation:

• Exchanging views and information,

• Recommending action,

• Generating ideas, and

• Making decisions.

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The size of the committee is usually kept small to encourage good quality of decisions. Communication among members is thus limited to few. With increase in the size of committee, many members feel less willing or threatened to participate actively.

The chairperson of the committee provides directions to the committee to fulfil the objectives of the committee. He or she should :

• be a person of open mind and a careful listener,

• allow members to voice their opinions,

• not place his or her opinion above those of others,

• involve everyone in the activities of the committee,

• have active interest in the purpose of the committee and in the ideas of the members, and

• help the committee focus on the task at hand and on the progress made.

The members of the committee should:

• cooperate with each other to achieve the purpose of the committee,

• have stronger motivation to accomplish the task,

• have effective communication with each other, and

• generate more ideas in the group.

With today’s organisations becoming increasingly large and complex, the committee form of organisation will, undoubtedly become more important and more widely used in future. The modern manager must learn how committees, teams, commissions, boards, groups or task forces should be effectively formed and made functional. This kind of group management will become more popular as well as important in times to come. But this is not to say that there would not be any short comings:

• Meeting of members in a committee may be time consuming and costly insofar as individual’s time is concerned.

• Committees are also criticised for not making the members responsible for bad decisions or mistakes.

• Many individuals use the committee as a shield to avoid personal responsibility for bad decisions or mistakes.

• Many decisions taken by a committee may or may not be liked by members of the organisation who are likely to be affected by it.

• Committees may be formed intentionally to delay decision making or for avoiding issues.

In spite of all the above shortcomings that are likely to be there, the future manager must learn to arrive at an improved decision through the combined and integrated judgement of the committee members. He or she can reduce conflict in the group, facilitate coordination of various groups in the organisation and increase commitment and motivation of members of the organisation through participation. Committees, which are thus the formally designated groups of the organisation, are assuming more importance in the day-to-day functioning at any organisational level. Today they are acknowledged as significant features of group dynamics in organisational behaviour.

ii) Informal Groups: Work Groups

Informal groups play a significant role in the dynamics of organisational behaviour. A formal group has officially prescribed goals and relationships which an informal group does not have. But we cannot think of these two groups as separate entities, as they coexist and they are inseparable. Every formal organisation has informal groups and every informal organisation eventually evolves some semblance of formal groups. An illustration will make it clear. When an engineer designs the plans and technology for a new organisation and when an architect designs the office layout, they are also designing the social relations that will prevail in the organisation. The formal organisation of the management determines where employees will work and what opportunities they will have to contact each other during the day. Also the rates of pay, work condition and other aspects of the job as decided by the management are important too. Given these basic elements one can predict the social relations that exist within the organisation long before the first person is employed and enters the organisation. This is because of the fact that every person is told 218

formally where and how he or she is to work and with whom to come in contact. Obviously, one develops friendship with the people one most often comes across. In fact, those employees who have the greatest opportunities to make contacts on the job make the largest number of friends. In course of time, they may be in the best position to become leaders of the group.

Based on contacts and common interests such friendship groups made by employees arise out of the life in the organisation. Once these groups have been established they develop a life of their own, which is almost completely separate from the work process from which they started. The process is dynamic and self-generating and makes the work group an organisational in itself.

16.6.1 Characteristics of Effective Work Groups

In managing the organisation, you have to understand how groups can be made into effective work groups. The factors that influence the work group effectiveness are norms, cohesion and leadership. Let us see how each one of them contributes in making the group effective to achieve the objectives of the organisation.

i) Group norms

When the group functions for a period of time, to attain certain objectives, it develops norms or standards of behaviour. A norm as a rule tells the individual how to behave in a particular group. An individual may be a member of a welfare group, a chess club, family and work group. You may like to watch his or her behaviour in various groups. You will see the different kinds of behaviour of the same individual in different groups.

You may also notice that sometimes the norm is formal and is accepted by the group that way. For example all members of a particular work group wear safety glasses while operating on a particular machine. All of them would do so by accepting this norm. On the other hand, a norm can be informal arising out of the interactions and feelings of the people. For example, all the members of a task group decide to keep their output high by regulating their pace of work or a number of typists decide to attain a target of fifty pages of neat typing everyday. So they do it.

It is also possible that another groups may like to keep the output low again because of some emergent activities, interactions and feelings of the group. So it is important to know what behaviour is significant for the group which helps to develop a norm. In other words, having high or low output is equally influenced by what the group prescribes for its members as well as what other activities, interactions and feelings develop among the members in course of doing a work. So we can say that one of the characteristics of norms is that they develop behaviour that is significant for the group.

We also find another characteristics of norms i.e. some norms are applicable to some people only and not to all. For example, a manager of a group behaves differently from other members of the group. His or her behaviour is what is expected of him or her in a given position by others. When a new member joins the group, he or she is expected to follow the norms more closely than the senior members.

Some norms have central importance and are accepted by everyone of the group while others have less importance. Schein (1974) talks of pivotal and relevant group norms. A pivotal group norm is a norm to which every member must conform. A worker who remains absent or does not do any work will not last long in an organisation. A relevant group norm is one which is neither central nor absolutely essential to follow but is worthwhile and desirable. So any norm may be pivotal in one group, but may be irrelevant to another.

Some of us conform to all the norms of the group, some of us select only pivotal norms for acceptance, still others reject all values and norms of the group. It is usually seen that complete conformity to norms, as in the first case and complete rejection of the norms, as in the last one, have undesirable consequences. A complete conforming individual loses his or her ability to influence the group. An individual who rejects all group norms is likely to be expelled from the group. It is therefore advisable that the individual exercises his or her choice of acceptance of the norm quite discreetly.

It is equally important to understand that with increase in size of the group, norms are less likely to be accepted. It is also true that more intelligent persons are less likely to conform to norms. You may notice that, as the group increases in size, there are chances of subgroups being formed. Hence a general norm of 219

the total group is difficult to maintain with uniform conformity all the time. The last characteristics of norms is that they allow only possible deviations. An individual who deviates too far gets punished.

Ask yourself the following questions in the position of a manager.

• What have you understood about norms when you are a formal leader of a group and when you are a member of other group ?

• Have you understood what the norms of various groups are ?

• Do you know which are the central norms?

• Do people conform to norms completely?

• Do people wait for their leader to speak first in a meeting?

• Do people come in time for meetings?

• Is disagreement allowed? and

• Do people have a common style of clothing? etc.

As a manager, you must also try to understand why people opt to lower their output and if need be, you should change the situation in order to change the norm of low output. You should try to develop trust among your members in order to be able to influence and change or modify the norms of your group. Your effectiveness as a manager will increase with a high level of trust between you and your group members.

ii) Group cohesiveness

This means the degree to which group members are motivated to remain within the group and consequently behave in similar ways. A cohesive group also helps the members in their satisfaction of needs and attainment of goals. Cohesiveness develops out of the activities, interactions and sentiments of the people. The cohesive group acts as one person to attain its goal.

The factors which influence the cohesiveness of a group are listed below:

a) Size of the group: With very few people in a group, you may fall short of skilled hands to do a good job. With a large number of people you may find it difficult to communicate and identify the best talent. At the same time an individual member may not be happy with his or her interaction with the group. In the first case, there is a breakdown of the task and in the second case reaching out to people is difficult. Quite unintentionally you may even encourage formation of many sub-groups in a large group. Hence group cohesiveness will suffer.

b) Proximity or geography of the group: Nearness or working closely together helps in group cohesiveness. It helps face to face contact. A small isolated work group is cohesive and will work better to attain its goals.

c) Outside pressure: This binds together all the members against a common enemy and thus makes its members forget their differences. You might have observed how groups become cohesive under outside pressure when there is (i) competition with other groups or (ii) union management conflict or (iii) reaction against the supervisor who closely supervises the work or (iv) lack of trust between the manager and his group or (v) even mistrust between two groups.

d) Accomplishing group goals: As the group becomes more cohesive the members become more motivated to accomplish its goals and behave in similar ways. Accomplishing group goals increases the cohesion of the group. Failing to accomplish the group goals reduces group cohesiveness.

It is necessary to remember that it is not always desirable to have group cohesiveness, which may result in going against the objectives of the work group. So you must find out what the harmful effects are likely to be of a cohesive group. Examples of rejection of new ideas by cohesive group members are not uncommon. At times these members feel that they know the best. This kind of feeling is known as ‘group think’ where members show tremendous desire for unanimity. A great deal of solidarity and loyalty to the group overrides the motivation of the members to consider different courses of action logically and in a realistic manner. At times, many significant decisions are made on the basis of group think principles which have been quite unfortunate for a large number of people.

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As a manager, you must make a cohesive group to accomplish organisational goals. You have to give information, get the resources for your members to accomplish the task and hold frequent open meetings. O’Donnell (1961) and Filey (1970) suggest that one should try to avoid group think by having open discussion and allowing conflicting points of view to emerge.

iii) Group leadership

Leadership is the ability to influence the behaviour of others. Any effective work group wanting to accomplish its task gaining some sort of social satisfaction and having some sense of contribution and growth should like to look up to a leader to help reach these goals.

Informal leaders often emerge from the activities, interaction and sentiments of the ongoing group. They may help the group to accomplish its task or fulfil its social goals. You will always notice that formal task instruction comes from the supervisor, but informal help comes from the informal leader.

Informal leader may be lower in official status than the formal leader. But he or she helps the group satisfy both personal and organisational goals. If this job is done by the formal leader, than there will be no informal leader emerging out of the group. If the informal leader helps in attaining the organisational goals, then he or she becomes task oriented like a formal leader and there may be chances that a social leader will emerge to maintain a balance between organisatinal and personal needs.

In order to be effective as a manager, you must recognise the existence of informal leaders and work with them to develop ground norms of high productivity, build more cohesion and enable the members to have their social needs satisfied.

16.6.2 Managing Group Productivity

In your role as a manager you will do well to remember some useful ways to make your work group effective. As O’Donnel (1969) suggests, you must know the content and the process to manage your group of people towards attaining the goal.

i) Content

While having a meeting with your group members try to understand the subject matter of the task to be performed by the committee. This will help you to see the problem clearly and solve it to,

• Decide about the size of the committee (having about five to fifteen members) and include experts in the committee to solve your problem,

• Distribute the agenda before the meeting is held to all the members,

• Specify the timings of the meeting,

• Encourage persons to present their ideas and do not encourage them to pick up the first feasible solution to a problem. Allow them to think of various alternative solutions, and

• Periodically summarise the discussion and restate the current position of the committees as to whether the committee has to finally decide on a solution or only recommend a solution to a higher authority/advice the higher authority.

ii) Process

This involves how the content is handled or discussed by the members. Benne and Sheats (1948) describe three effective ways to approach the group processes:

• One of the ways the content is handled is by group task activities. You may initiate, orient the group to its goal, coordinate, give and seek information about the problem.

• Another way may be through the group building activities like encouraging members to cooperate with each other. In the work, encourage people to participate, share jokes or humour with them at times and see to it that they enjoy doing the work because of a good group atmosphere. This is the group building activity which helps a manager to establish better group relationship.

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• Still another way the group members satisfy their needs is through self-serving activities. Members satisfy their needs at the cost of others. You might have noticed that many behave in a dominating manner, many try to get attention, many behave aggressively and many withdraw while working in the group. Persons engaged in the above activities are only serving their own purpose or interest rather than helping the group to achieve its goal.

You must try to understand the difference between the content and process to make the group more effective. Too much of task activity and too little of group building activity is not a good way to make an effective work group. Self-serving activities are signs of non-construction of valid personal needs and are disruptive. They reduce the ability of the group to attain its objectives.

Many times we overlook the fact that people can be both emotional and rational in understanding the content and process of work. Emotions are realities that have to be taken care of. A good manager must not neglect the group building activity as it may make group and committee meetings ineffective. He or she should draw on the influence of the informal group by integrating its objectives with those of the formal group as well as try to keep the formal activities from unnecessarily disrupting the informal organisation.

Check Your Progress-2

1) Discuss the role of informal groups in management.

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2) How would you manage group productivity?

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16.7 LET US SUM UP

In this Unit, we discussed how groups represent an important dynamic input into organisational behaviour. Group formation, types and theories have relevance to the study of an organisation. Members in an organisation form into groups for satisfying their security, social and esteem needs. We have also come across the concept of formal and informal groups which are especially important in organisational functioning. We also discussed the role of the individuals in the group, identification, perceptions and various expectations of the group members. Committees not work groups in particular play an important role in modern organisations. Characteristics of effective work groups, such as group norms, group cohesiveness and group leadership were discussed and finally suggestions have been made about how to manage effective groups and committees. Management in the future must be able to understand, and when ever possible, take advantage of group dynamics of formal and informal groups in organisations.

16.8 KEY WORDS

Command Groups : Formal groups that consists of managers and their direct subordinates.

Committee : A formal group that is created out specific organisatioanal assignment or activities.

Content : The subject of the meeting or of the task being performed.

Group Building Activities: Those activities that allow the group to maintain itself by helping to satisfy members’ needs and by encouraging cooperation among members.

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Group Cohesiveness : The extent to which group members are motivated to remain within the group and in consequence to behave in similar ways.

Group Task Activities : Activities performed within the organisational structure by the individuals rather than by management.

Pivotal Norms : Organisational values which are absolutely necessary for any one who wants to stay in the organisation.

Sentiments : The feelings or attitudes a person has about others, such as likes or dislikes and approval or disapproval.

Task Force : A group established to solve a particular problem.

16.9 CLUES TO ANSWERS

Check Your Progress-1

1) Read Sec. 16.3 for your answer.

2) See Sub- sec. 16.4.2.

3) See Sub-sec. 16.4.3.

1) Read Sec. 16.6.

Check Your Progress-2

2) Read Sub-sec. 16.6.2.

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SUGGESTED FURTHER READINGS

Albert, Kenneth J., (ed.), 1984. The Strategic Management Handbook, Mc graw Hill Book Company: New York.

Alderfer, C.P, 1977. Group & Intergroup Relations. In J.R. Hackman J.L.Suttle (Eds.) Improving Life at work. Good year: Santa Monica.

Allen, L.A.1958. Management and Organisation. Mc Graw-Hill: Auckland.

Barnard, C.I. , 1937. The Functions of the Executive. Harward University Press: Cambridge.

Baskin & Arnoff, 1980. Interpersonal Communication In Organisations. Goodyear Publishing: Santa Monica.

Bass, B.M. 1960. Leadership, Psychology and Organisational Behaviour. Harper & Brother: New York.

Bedeian, A.G. 1986. Management. Dryden Press: New York.

Behling, O., and Schriesheinn, C. 1976. Organisational Behaviour Theory, Research & Application. Allyn & Bacon: Boston.

Drucker, Peter F. 1955. Practices of Management. Heinamann.: London.

Drucker, Peter F. 1975/81. Management Tasks, Responsibilities, & Practices, Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi.

Elbing, A. 1978. Behavioural Decisions in Organisations. Scott Foresman: Glenview.

Fielder, F.E. 1967. A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness. Mc Graw- Hill: New York.

Glueck, Williams F., 1980. Strategic Management and Business Policy. Mc-Graw-Hill Book Company: New York.

Graner, 1972. Evolution & revolution as organisation grows, Approved Business Review. July August.

G.R. Terry and S.G. Franklin : Principle of Management, Delhi. 1995

Hampton, Summen and Webber, 1973. Organisational Behaviour and the Practice of Management. Scott, Foresman: Glencove.

Harvey Donald F., 1984. Strategic Management. Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company: Columbus.

Kanter , Jerone, 1984. Management-oriented Management Information Systems. Prentice Hall Incorporated Englewood-Cliffs.

Kast, F.E. and Rosenwrig, J.E. 1985. Organisation and Management : A System and Contingency Approach, Mr Graw Hill Book Company: New Delhi.

Katz R.L., Skills of an Effective Administrator. Harward Business Review, 52(5) 90-102.

Kelly, J.1974 . Organisational Behaviour. Rev. Ed Irwin: Hornewood.

Khan, Mahmood A. (ed.) VNR’s Encyclopedia Hospitality and Tourism Management. New York 1992.

Koontz, H. and O’Donnell, C. 1976/85. Management : A System and Contingency Analysis of Managerial Function. Mc Graw Hill, Kogakusha Ltd: Tokyo.

Koontz, O’Donnell, and weihrich, 1982. Essentials of Management, .Tata Mc- Graw Hill: New Delhi.

Likert, R. 1961. New Patterns of Management. Mc- Graw Hill : New York.

Likert, R. 1961. New Patterns of Management. Mc-Graw Hill: New York.

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225

Myers and Myers, 1982. Managing by Communication: An Organisatinal Approach. Mc Graw International : Tokyo.

Newman, William H. Summer, Charles E. and Women, E. Kirby. The Process of Management : Concepts. Behaviour and Practice, Prentice Hall of India: New Delhi.

Paul, S. 1983. Strategic Management of Development Programmes. Management Development Services No. 19, International Labour Organisation : Geneva.

Peters, Thomas, J and Waterman, Robert H., 1985. In Search of Excellence. Harpen and Raw: New York.

Reddin, W.J. 1972, Effective Management by Objectives: The 3D Method of MBO. Tata Mc Graw Hill Publishing Company: New Delhi.

Robbins, S.P. 1985. Organisational Behaviour: Cases, Concepts and Controversies, Prentice Hall of India: New Delhi.

Roesthuisberger, F.J. and W.j. Dickson, 1939. Management and the Worker. Harward: Cambridge.

Rogers, H.A. & Slinn J.A. 1993, Tourism : Management of Facilities. London.

Simon, H.A. 1960. The New Science of Management Decision. Harper : New Delhi.

Sinha. J.B.P., 1980. The Nurturant Task Leader. First Edition, The Concept Publishing House : New Delhi.

Soelberg. P.O. 1967. A Study of Decisions Making, Job Choice. MIT Press: Cambridge.

Stoner, J.A.F. 1982. Management. Prentice Hall: New Delhi.

Taylor, E.W. 1909. The Principles of Scientific Management. Harper: New Delhi.

Thompson, J.D 1967. Organisation in Action. Mc Graw – Hill : New Delhi.

DECISION-MAKING MODELS, TECHNIQUES AND PROCESSES

 DECISION-MAKING MODELS, TECHNIQUES AND PROCESSES

 INTRODUCTION

You will possibly agree that decision making is a part of everyday life. The fact that you have taken up a course in tourism management or the fact that you are reading this Unit are both products of your decisions to do them against other alternatives which were available to you. Whether you are at a board meeting or in the playground, you are almost constantly making decisions, sometimes working on several at the same time. These may be major or minor, but some of these might have proved to be effective decisions, viz. appropriate, timely and acceptable. Some of your decisions might have been wrong, but you knew that there was something worse than a few wrong decisions and that was indecision!

Making decisions has been identified as one of the primary responsibilities of any manager. Decisions may involve allocating resources, appointing people, investing capital or introducing new products. Because of the peculiar nature of tourism products and services many a times decisions have to be taken on the spot, particularly in the case of front line managers. If resources like men, money, machines, materials, time and space were abundant, clearly any planning would be unnecessary. But, typically, resources are scarce and so there is a need for planning. Decision making is at the core of all planned activities. We can not ill

59

afford to waste scarce resources by making too many wrong decisions or by remaining indecisive for too long a time.

This Unit introduces you to various aspects related with the process of decision making like phases, types of managerial decisions, decision making models, etc. In this Unit, various techniques involved in decision making e.g. brainstorming, synectics, and nominal grouping are also described and discussed. The Unit goes on to describe various methods for identification, selection of various alternatives and implementation of decisions made. Differences and similarities between individual versus group decision making including the phenomenon of group think are also explained, Lastly, various barriers to effective decision making are enumerated.

6.2 THREE PHASES IN DECISION MAKING PROCESS

You can define decision making as the process of choosing between alternatives to achieve a goal. But if you closely look into this process of selecting among available alternatives, you will be able to identify three relatively distinct stages. Put into a time framework, you will find:

1) The past, in which problems developed, information accumulated, and the need for a decision was perceived,

2) The present, in which alternatives are found and the choice is made, and

3) The future, in which decisions will be carried out and evaluated.

Herbert Simon, the well-known Nobel laureate decision theorist, described the activities associated with three major stages in the following way:

1) Intelligence Activity: Borrowing from the military meaning of intelligence Simon describes this initial phase as an attempt to recognise and understand the nature of the problem, as well as search for the possible causes.

2) Design Activity: During the second phase, alternative courses of action are developed and analysed in the light of known constraints.

3) Choice Activity: The actual choice among available and assessed alternatives is made at this stage.

If you have followed the nature of activities of these three phases, you should be able to see why the quality of any decision is largely influenced by the thoroughness of the intelligence and design phases.

Henry Mintzberg and some of his colleagues (1976) have traced the phases of some decisions actually taken in organisations. They have also come up with a three-phase model as shown in Figure I.

Phase 1

Identification

1. Recognition

2. Diagnosis

Phase 2

Development

1. Search

2. Design

Phase 3

Selection

1. Judgement

2. Analysis

3. Bargaining

4. Authorisation

Source : Mintzberg et al 1976.

Figure I: Mintzberg’s Empirically Based Phases of Decision Making in Organisations

1) The identification phase, during which recognition of a problem or opportunity arises and a diagnosis is made. It was found that severe immediate problems did not have a very systematic, extensive diagnosis but that milder problems did have.

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2) The development phase, during which there may be a search for existing standard procedures, ready-made solutions or the design of a new, tailor made solution. It was found that the design process was a grouping, trial and error process in which the decision-makers had only a vague idea of the ideal solution.

3) The Selection phase, during which the choice of a solution is made. There are three ways of making this selection: by the judgement of the decision maker, on the basis of experience or intuition rather than logical analysis; by analysis of the alternatives on a logical, systemic basis; and by bargaining when the selection involves a group of decision makers. Once the decision is formally accepted, an authorisation is made.

Note that decision making is a dynamic process and there are many feedback loops in each of the phases. These feedback loops can be caused by problems of timing, politics, disagreement among decision-makers, inability to identify an appropriate alternative or to implement the solution or the sudden appearance of a new alternative etc. So, though on the surface, any decision-making appears to be a fairly simple three-stage process, it could actually be a highly complex dynamic process.

6.3 TYPES OF MANAGERIAL DECISIONS

There are many types of decisions which you would be required to make as a manager. Three most widely recognised classifications are:

1) Personal and Organisational Decisions

2) Basic and Routine Decisions

3) Programmed and Non-programmed Decisions.

The first classification of Personal and Organisational decisions was suggested by Chester Barnard, nearly fifty years ago in his classic book: “The Functions of the Executive”. In his opinion, the basic difference between the two decisions is that “personal decisions cannot ordinarily be delegated to others, whereas organisational decisions can often if not always be delegated” (Barnard, 1973). Thus, the manager makes organisational decisions that attempt to achieve organisational goals and personal decisions that attempt to achieve personal goals. It must be noted here that personal decisions can affect the organisation, as in the case of a senior manager deciding to resign. However, if you analyse a decision, you may find that the distinctions between personal and organisational decisions are a matter of degree. You are, to some extent, personally involved in any organisational decision that you make and you need to resolve the conflict that might arise between organisational and personal goals.

Another common way of classifying types of decisions is according to whether they are basic or routine. Basic decisions are those which are unique, one-time decisions involving long-range commitments of relative permanence or duration, or those involving large investments. Example of basic decisions in a tourism firm include organisation structure, wage negotiations, product line, target markets, areas of operation etc. In other words, most top management policy decisions can be considered as basic decisions.

Routine decisions are at the opposite extreme from basic decisions. They are the everyday, highly repetitive, management decisions which by themselves have little impact on the overall organisation. However, taken together, routine decisions play a tremendously important role in the success of an organisation . Examples of routine decisions are an accountant’s decision on a new entry, of a front office manager’s decision to appoint a new receptionist, etc. Obviously, a very large proportion (most experts estimate about 90 per cent) of the decisions made in an organisation are of the routine variety. For example, a first-line supervisor makes practically all the routine decisions whereas the chairperson of the board makes very few routine decisions but many basic decisions.

Simon (1977) distinguishes between Programmed (routine, repetitive ) decisions and Non-programmed (unique, one-shot) decisions. While programmed decisions are typically handled through structured or bureaucratic techniques (standard operating procedures), non-programmed decisions must be made by managers using available information and their own judgement. As is often the case with managers however, decisions are made under the pressure of time. In fact as far as tourism sector is concerned many 61

decisions, particularly those related to operations, have to be taken on the spot and they come under the category of non-programmed decisions.

An important principle of organisation design that relates to managerial decisions making is Gresham’s Law of Planning. This law states that there is a general tendency for programmed activities to overshadow non-programmed activities. Hence, if you have a series of decisions to make, those that are more routine and repetitive will tend to be made before the ones that are unique and require considerable thought. This happens presumably because you attempt to clear your desk so that you can get down to the really serious decisions. Unfortunately, the desks very often never get cleared.

After going through the three types of classification of managerial decisions, you could see that there is no single and satisfactory way of classifying decision situations. Moreover, the foregoing classifications have ignored two important problem-related dimensions:

1) how Complex is the Problem in terms of number of factors associated with it, and

2) how much certainty can be placed with the outcome of a decision.

Based on these two dimensions, four kinds of decision modes can be identified: Mechanistic, Analaytical, Judgemental, and Adaptive (See Figure II).

Judgemental Decisions Adaptive Decisions(e.g. marketing, investment and personnel (e.g. research and development and long-termproblems) corporate planning)Mechanistic Decisions Analytical Decisions(e.g. daily routines and scheduled activities) (e.g. complex production and engineering problems)LOW Problem Complexity HIGHOutcomeUncertaintyLowHigh

Figure II: Types of Managerial Decisions

1) Mechanistic Decisions: A mechanistic decision is one that is routine and repetitive in nature. It usually occurs in a situation involving a limited number of decision variables where the outcomes of each alternative are known. For example, the manager of a bicycle shop may know from experience when and how many bicycles are to be ordered; or the decisions may have been reached already, so the delivery is made routinely. Most mechanistic decision problems are solved by habitual responses, standard operating procedures, or clerical routines. In order to further simplify these mechanistic decisions, managers often develop charts, lists, matrices, decision trees, etc.

2) Analytical Decision: An analytical decision involves a problem with a large number of decision variables, where the outcomes of each decision alternative can be computed. Many complex production and engineering problems are like this. They may be complex, but solutions can be found.

Management science and operations research provide a variety of computational techniques that can be used to find optimal solutions. These techniques include linear programming, network analysis, inventory reorder model, queuing theory, statistical analysis, and so forth.

3) Judgemental Decisions: A judgemental decision involves a problem with a limited number of decision variables, but the outcomes of decision alternatives are unknown. Many marketing, investment and resource allocation problems come under this category. For example, the marketing manager may have several alternative ways of promoting a product, but he or she may not be sure of their outcomes. Good judgement is needed to increase the possibility of desired outcomes and to minimise the possibility of undesired outcomes.

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4) Adaptive Decisions: An adaptive decision involves a problem with a large number of decision variables, where outcomes are not predictable. Because of the complexity and uncertainty of such problems, decision makers are not able to agree on their nature or on decision strategies. Such ill-structured problems usually require the contributions of many people with diverse technical backgrounds. In such a case, decision and implementation strategies have to be frequently modified to accommodate new developments in technology and the environment.

1) What do your understand by personal and organisational decisions ?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

2) What is a mechanistic decision ?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

3) What are the three phases in decision making process ?

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6.4 DECISION MAKING UNDER DIFFERENT STATES OF NATURE

In the previous discussion on types of decisions you have read that a decision-maker may not have complete knowledge about decision alternatives (i.e., High Problem Complexity) or about the outcome of a chosen alternative (i.e., High Outcome Uncertainty). These conditions of knowledge are often referred to as states of nature and have been labelled:

1) Decision under Certainty

2) Decision under Risk

3) Decision under Uncertainty

IIconddld

Increasing Knowledge

Certainty Risk Uncertainty

Decreasing Knowledge

Lack of

Knowledge

Complete Knowledge

Check Your Progress-1

Figure III: Decision Making Conditions Continuum

Figure III depicts these three conditions on a continuum showing the relationship between knowledge and predictability of decision states.

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1) Decision making under certainty: A decision is made under conditions of certainty when a manager knows the precise outcome associated with each possible alternative or course of action. In such situations, there is perfect knowledge about alternatives and their consequences. Exact results are known in advance with complete (100 per cent) certainty. The probability of specific outcomes is assumed to be equal to one. A manager is simply faced with identifying the consequences of available alternatives and selecting the outcome with the highest benefit or payoff.

As you can probably imagine, managers rarely operate under conditions of certainty. The future is only barely known. Indeed, it is difficult to think of examples of all but the most trivial business decisions that are made under such conditions. One frequent illustration that is often cited as a decision under at least near certainty is the purchase of government bonds or certificates of deposit. For example, as per the assurance provided by Government of India, Rs. 1,000 invested in a 6-yrs National Saving Certificate will bring a fixed sum of Rs.2,015 after six complete years of investment. It should still be realised, however, that the Government defaulting on its obligations is an unlikely probability, but the possibility still exists. This reinforces the point that the outcome of very few decisions can be considered ‘a sure thing’.

2) Decision making under risk: A decision is made under conditions of risk when a single action may result in more than one potential outcome, but the relative probability of each outcome is known. Decisions under conditions of risk are perhaps the most common. In such situations, alternatives are recognised, but their resulting consequences are probabilistic and doubtful. As an illustration, if you bet on number 6 for a single roll of a dice, you have a 1/6 probability of winning as there is only one chance in six of rolling a 6. While the alternatives are clear, the consequence is probabilistic and doubtful. Thus, a condition of risk may be said to exist. In practice, managers assess the likelihood of various outcomes occurring based on past experience, research, and other information. A quality control inspector, for example, might determine the probability of number of ‘rejects’ per production run. Likewise, a safety engineer might determine the probability of number of accidents occurring or a personnel manager might determine the probability of a certain turnover or absenteeism rate.

3) Decision making under uncertainty: A decision is made under conditions of uncertainty when a single action may result in more than one potential outcome, but the relative probability of each outcome is unknown. Decisions under conditions of uncertainty are unquestionably the most difficult. In such situations a manager has no knowledge whatsoever on which to estimate the likely occurrence of various alternatives. Decisions under uncertainty generally occur in cases where no historical data are available from which to infer probabilities or in instances which are so novel and complex that it is impossible to make comparative judgements.

Examples of decisions under complete uncertainty are as difficult to cite as a example of decision under absolute certainty. Given even limited experience and the ability to generalise from past situations, most managers should be able to make at least some estimate of the probability of occurrence of various outcome. Nevertheless, there are undoubtedly times when managers feel they are dealing with complete uncertainty.

Selection of a new advertising programme from among several alternatives might be one such example. The number of factors to be considered and the large number of uncontrollable variables vital to the success of such a venture can be mind-bogging. On a personal level, the selection of a job from among alternatives is a career decision that incorporates a great deal of uncertainty. The number of factors to be weighed and evaluated, often without comparable standards, can be overwhelming.

6.5 MODELS OF DECISION MAKING PROCESS

By now, you have learnt what the different phases of a decision making process are, what types of decisions you are likely to make in an organisation and under what states of nature these decisions are made and should be made. Now, you are going to examine three suggested models of the decision making process which will help you to understand how decisions are made. These three models are: (1) the econologic model, or the economic man, (2) the bounded rationality model or the administrative man and (3) the implicit favourite model or the gamesman. You will notice that each model differs on the assumptions it makes about the person or persons making the decision.

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1) Econologic Model or Economic Man Model

The econologic model represent the earliest attempt to model decision process. Briefly, this model rests on two assumptions: (1) It assumes people are economically rational; and (2) that people attempt to maximise outcomes in an orderly and sequential process. Economic rationality, a basic concept in many models of decision making, exists when people attempt to maximise objectively measured advantage, such as money or units of goods produced. That is, it is assumed that people will select the decision or course of action that has the greatest advantage or payoff from among the many alternatives. It is also assumed that they go about this search in a planned, orderly, and logical fashion.

A basic econologic decision model is shown in Figure IV. The figure suggests the following orderly steps in the decision process:

1. Discover the symptoms of the problem or difficulty,

2. Determine the goal to be achieved or define the problem to be solved,

3. Develop a criterion against which alternative solutions can be evaluated,

4. Identify all alternative courses of action,

5. Consider the consequences of each alternatives as well as the likelihood of occurrence of each,

6. Choose the best alternative by comparing the consequences of each alternative (step5) with the decision criterion (step3), and

7. Act or implement the decision.

(4)

Develop all alternatives

(5)

Determine all outcomes

(2)

Set goal or define problem

(6)

Select best alternative

(7)

Act or implement decision

(3)

Develop criterion

(1)

Discover

Symptoms

Source : Behling and Schriesheim, 1976, p19.

Figure IV: An Econologic Model of Decision making

The economic man model represents a useful prescription of how decisions should be made, but it does not adequately portray how decisions are actually made. If you look closely in this prescriptive model you shall be able to recognise some of the assumptions it makes about the capabilities of human beings:

• First, people have the capability to gather all necessary information for a decision, i.e., people can have complete information.

• Second, people can mentally store this information in some stable form, i.e., they can accurately recall any information any time they like,

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• Third, people can manipulate all this information in a series of complex calculations design to provide expected values, and

• Fourth, people can rank the consequences in a consistent fashion for the purposes of identifying the preferred alternative.

As you can possibly imagine, the human mind is simply incapable of executing such transactions at the level and magnitude required for complex decisions. To that extent, this model is unrealistic. However, due to the advent of sophisticated data storage, retrieval and processing machines, it is now possible to achieve economic rationality to some extent.

2) Bounded Rationality Model or Administrative Man Model

An alternative model, one not bound by the above assumptions, has been presented by Simon. This is the bounded rationality model, also known as the administrative man model.

As the name implies, this model does not assume individual rationality in the decisions process. Instead, it assumes that people, while they may seek the best solution, usually settle for much less because the decisions they confront typically demand greater information processing capabilities than they possess. They seek a kind of bounded (or limited) rationality in decisions.

The concept of bounded rationality attempts to describe decision processes in terms of three mechanisms:

• Sequential attention to alternative solutions: People examine possible solutions to a problem sequentially. Instead of identifying all possible solutions and selecting the best (as suggested in the econologic model), the various alternatives are identified and evaluated one at a time. If the first solution fails to work it is discarded and the next solution is considered. When an acceptable (that is, ‘Good enough’ and not necessarily ‘the best’) solution is found, the search is discontinued.

• Use of heuristics: A heuristic is a rule which guides the search for alternatives into areas that have a high probability for yielding satisfactory solutions. For instance, some companies continually select Tourism Management graduates from certain institutions because in the past such graduates have performed well for the company. According to the bounded rationality model, decisions makers use heuristics to reduce large problems to manageable proportions so that decisions can be made rapidly. They look for obvious solutions or previous solutions that worked in similar situations.

• Satisfying: Whereas the econologic model focuses on the decision maker as an optimiser, this model sees him or her as a satisfiser. An alternative is optimal if:

1) there exists a set of criteria that permits all alternatives to be compared, and

2) the alternative in question is preferred, by these criteria, to all other alternatives.

An alternative is satisfactory if:

1) there exists a set of criteria that describes minimally satisfactory alternatives, and

2) the alternative in question meets or exceeds all these criteria.

Based on these three assumptions about decision makers, it is possible to routine the decision process as seen from the standpoint of the bounded rationality model. As shown in Figure V, the model consists of eight steps:

1) Set the goal to be pursed or define the problem to be solved.

2) Establish an appropriate level of aspirations or criterion level (that is, when do you know that a solution is sufficiently positive to be acceptable even if it is not perfect ?)

3) Employ heuristics to narrow problem space to a single promising alternative.

4) If no feasible alternative is identified (a) lower the aspiration level, and (b) begin the search for a new alternative solution (repeat steps 2 and 3).

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(6)

Unacceptable

(1) Set goal

or define problem

(5a)

Feasible

alternative

identified

(7a)

Acceptable

(4b) (8b) (4a)

Adjust No feasible

aspiration alternative

level identified

(2)

Establish

level of

aspiration

(3)

Employ

heuristic

programmes

to identify

feasible

alternative

(7b)

Act

(8a)

Appraise

ease of aspiration level attainment

(5b)

Appraise

alternative

Source : Behling and Schriesheim, 1976, p.29

Figure V: A Bounded Rationality Model of Decision Making

5) After identifying a feasible alternative (a), evaluate it to determine its acceptability (b).

6) If the identified alternative is unacceptable, initiate search for a new alternative solution (repeat steps 3-5) .

7) If the identified alternative is acceptable (a) implement the solution (b).

8) Following implementation, evaluate the ease with which goal was (or was not) attained (a), and raise or lower level of aspiration accordingly on future decisions of this type.

As can be seen, this decision process is quite different from the econologic model. In this we do not seek the best solution; instead, we look for a solution that is acceptable. The search behaviour is sequential in nature (evaluating one or two solutions at a time). Finally, in contrast to the prescriptive econologic model, it is claimed that the bounded rationality model is descriptive; that is it describes how decision makers actually arrive at the identification of solutions to organisational problems.

3) Implicit Favourite Model or Gamesman Model

This model deals primarily with non-programmed decisions. You will recall that non-programmed decisions are decisions that are novel or unstructured , like seeking one’s first job. Programmed decisions, in contrast, are more routine or repetitious in nature, like the procedures for admitting students to a secondary school.

The implicit favourite model developed by Soelberg (1967) emerged when he observed the job choice process of graduating business students and noted that, in many cases, the students identified implicit favourites very early in the recruiting and choice process. However, they continued their search for additional alternatives and quickly selected the best alternative candidate, known as the confirmation candidate. Next, the students attempted to develop decision rules which demonstrated unequivocally that the implicit favourite was superior to the alternative confirmation candidate. This was done through weighing systems designed to highlight the positive features of the implicit favourite. Finally, after a decision rule was derived that clearly favoured the implicit favourite, the decision was announced.

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Ironically, Soelberg noted that the implicit favourite was typically superior to the confirmation candidate on only one or to dimensions. Even so, the decision makers generally characterised their decision rules as being multi-dimensional in nature.

The process is shown in Figure VI. As noted, the entire process is designed to justify to the individual, through the guise of scientific rigour, a non-programmed decision that has already been made in intuitive fashion. By doing so, the individual becomes convinced that he or she is acting in a rational fashion and making a logical, reasoned decision on an important topic.

Decision rule dose not

Just implicit favourite

Decision rule

justifies implicit

favourite

Source: Behling and Schriesheim, 1976, p . 32

Figure VI: An Implicit Favourite Model of Decision Making

Set

goal

Identify

implicit

favourite

Compare

And rank

Implicitly

rejected

alternatives

Identify

Confirmation candidate

Establish

decision

rule or

criterion

Act

Check Your Progress-2

Announce

decision

1) Read the following assumptions about the nature of human beings as decision makers. Identify which assumptions are made under which models of decision making.

Assumptions Economic Man Administrative Gamesman

Man

1) In choosing between alter- ( ) ( ) ( )

natives, people look for the

one which is satisfactory or

good enough

2) Decisions are made after ( ) ( ) ( )

examining all possible alter-

natives

3) People usually arrive at a ( ) ( ) ( )

decision in an intuitive manner

much before they find logical

support for the same decision

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2) Recall the process through which you decided to apply for joining the course in Tourism Studies and management. Which model best characterises your decision process ? Would you claim that as a rational decision? Why or why not ? Prepare a short note.

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6.6 TECHNIQUES USED IN DIFFERENT STEPS OF DECISION MAKING

In the models of decision making, you must have observed that any systematic approach to decision making starts with a proper definition of the problem. You will often experience that a problem well defined is a problem half-solved because the proper definition helped you to search at relevant place for promising alternatives. You would also agree that “fair” approach to decision-making demands that parameters (for judging alternatives which are sometimes referred to as “criteria”. “level of aspiration”. “decision rules”, etc.) should be explicitly developed before the alternatives are generated and not after. This imperative minimises the chances of unnecessary compromise which is the hall-mark of a low-quality decision. However, once you have developed the criteria, keep them aside and forget about them at the time of generation of the alternatives. This dissociation of criteria form the alternative-generation phase will improve your chance of coming up with a reasonably sufficient number of alternatives. You will understand the importance of generating a “reasonable” number of alternatives by the simple realisation that the quality of decision can be no better than the quality of the alternatives that you identify.

6.6.1 Identification of Alternatives

Generation of a reasonable number of good alternatives is usually no problem. Occasionally, however, developing a variety of good alternatives can be a complex matter requiring creativity, thought, and study. Three means of generating alternatives are particularly well-known. These are brainstorming, synectics, and nominal grouping.

1) Brainstorming: Developed by Alex F. Osborn, brainstorming is the oldest and best known technique for stimulating creative thinking. It involves the use of a group whose members are presented with a problem and are asked to develop as many potential solutions as possible. Members of the group may all be employees of the same firm or outside experts in a particular field . Brainstorming is based on the premise that when people interact in a free and uninhibited atmosphere they will generate creative ideas. That is, as one person generates an idea it serves to stimulate the thinking of others. This interchange of ideas is supposedly contagious and creates an atmosphere of free discussion and spontaneous thinking. The objective is to produce as many ideas as possible in keeping with the belief that the larger the number of ideas produced, the greater the probability of identifying an acceptable solution.

Brainstorming is governed by four important rules:

1) Criticism is prohibited. Judgement of ideas must be withheld until all ideas have been generated. It is believed that criticism inhibits the free flow of ideas and group creativity.

2) ‘Freewheeling’ is welcome. The wilder the idea the better. It is easier to ‘tame down’ than to ‘think up’ ideas.

3) Quantity is wanted. The greater the number of ideas, the greater the likelihood of an outstanding solution.

4) Combination and improvement are sought. In addition to contributing ideas of their own, group members suggest how ideas of others can be improved, or how two or more ideas can be combined into still another idea.

Brainstorming sessions usually involve six to eight participants and run from thirty minutes to an hour. A one-hour session is likely to produce anywhere from 50 to 150 ideas. Typically, most ideas will be impractical, but a few will merit serious consideration. Brainstorming has given encouraging results in 69

the field of advertising, in all branches of the Armed Forces, and in various Central, State, and local agencies.

Brainstorming, however, is not without limitations. It is usually most effective when a problem is simple and specific. In addition, brainstorming often produces superficial solutions. This latter limitation of course, can be overcome by selecting group members who are familiar with at least one aspect of the problem being considered.

2) Synectics: Developed by William J.J. Gordon, synectics is a more recent and formalised creativity technique for the generation of alternative solutions. The term synectics is derived from a Greek word meaning “the fitting together of diverse elements.” The basic intent of synectics is to stimulate novel and even bizarre alternatives through the joining together of distinct and apparently irrelevant ideas.

Members of a synectics group are typically selected to represent a variety of background and training. An experienced group leader plays a vital role in this approach. The leader states a problem for the group to consider. The group reacts by stating the problem as they understand it. Only after the nature of the problem is thoroughly reviewed and analysed does the group proceed to offer potential solutions. It is the task of the leader to structure the problem and lead the ensuing discussion in such a manner, so as to force group members to deviate from their traditional way of thinking. Various methods are employed to “invoke the preconscious mind”. These may include role-playing, the use of analogies, paradoxes, metaphors, and other thought-provoking exercises. The intended purpose is to induce fantasies and novel ideas that will modify existing thought patterns in order to stimulate creative alternatives. It is from this complex set of interactions that a final solution hopefully emerges. A technical expert is ordinarily present to assist the group in evaluating the feasibility of their ideas. Thus, in contrast to brainstorming where the judgement of ideas is withheld until all ideas have been generated, judicial evaluations of members’ suggestions do take place from time to time.

In general, available evidence suggests that synectics has been less widely used than brainstorming. While it suffers from some limitations as brainstorming (it can be time-consuming and costly), its sophisticated manner makes it much more appropriate for complex and technical problems.

3) Nominal Grouping: Developed by Andre Delbecq and Andrew Van De Ven, nominal grouping differs from both brainstorming and synectics in two important ways. Nominal grouping does not rely on free association of ideas, and it purposely attempts to reduce verbal interaction. From this latter characteristics a nominal group derives its name; it is a group “in name only”.

Nominal grouping has been found to be particularly effective in situations requiring a high degree of innovation and idea generation. It generally follows a highly structured procedure involving the following stages:

Stage 1: Seven to ten individuals with different background and training are brought together and familiarised with a selected problem such as, “What alternatives are available for achieving a set of objectives ?”

Stage 2: Each group member is asked to prepare a list of ideas in response to the identified problem, working silently and alone.

Stage 3: After a period of ten to fifteen minutes, group members’ share their ideas, one at a time, in a round-robin manner. A group facilitator records the ideas on a blackboard or flip chart for all to see. The round-robin process continues until all ideas are presented and recorded.

Stage 4: A period of structured interaction follows in which group members openly discuss and evaluate each recorded idea. At this point ideas may be reworded, combined, deleted, or added.

Stage 5: Each group member votes by privately ranking the presented ideas in order of their perceived importance. Following a brief discussion of the vote, a final secret ballot is conducted. The group’s preference is the arithmetical outcome of the individual votes. This concludes the meeting.

Nominal grouping has been used successfully in a wide variety of organisations. Its principal benefit is that it minimises the inhibiting effects of group interaction in the initial generation of alternative solutions. In this sense, the search process is pro-active rather than reactive. That is, group members must generate their

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own original ideas rather than “hitch-hike” on the ideas of others. Additionally, the use of a round-robin recording procedure allows risk-inclined group members to state risky solutions early, making it easier for less secure participants to engage in similar disclosure. Nominal grouping, however, also has limitations. Like brainstorming and synectics, it can be time-consuming and, therefore, costly.

Creative Thinking: There are many ways of searching for information and alternatives in problem solving. Effective managers use all of their capacities - analytic and creative, conscious and subconscious - and seek broth individual and group involvement in this state of decision making process.

As you have seen, the basic requirement at the stage of identification of alternatives is to become more creative. Creativity involves novel combination of ideas which must have theoretical or social value or make an emotional impact on other people. Like the decision making process itself, the creative process also has three stages as shown in the following exhibit:

STAGES IN THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Stage Type Behaviours

Preparation Conscious Saturation: Investigating the problem in all directions to become fully familiar with it, its setting, causes and effects.

Deliberation: Mulling over these ideas, analysing and challenging them, viewing them, from different optics.

Latent period Unconscious Incubation: Relaxing, switching off, and turning the problem over to the unconscious mind.

Illumination: Emerging with possible Answers – dramatic, perhaps off beat, but fresh and new.

Presentation Conscious Verification: Clarifying and flushing out the idea, testing it against the criterion of appropriateness.

Accommodation: Trying the solution out on other people and other problems.

6.6.2 Evaluation and Selection

Evaluation of various identified possible courses of action constitutes the second step of decision-making. Having identified a ‘reasonable’ number of alternatives as a manager you should now be in a position to judge the different courses of action which have been isolated. Each alternative must be evaluated in terms of its strengths and weaknesses, benefits and costs, advantages and disadvantages in achieving organisational goals. Since there are usually both positive and negative aspects of every alternative, most evaluations involve a balance or trade-off of anticipated consequences. Needless to say, such assessment should be as objective as possible.

Evaluation of the relative merits of various alternatives may be performed by a single manager or by a group. An evaluation may be completely intuitive or it may be scientific, using analytical tools and procedures associated with what is known as operations research (OR). More than likely, it will employ a combination of both approaches. Whatever the basis of evaluation, the more systematic the assessment, the more likely it is that the resulting judgements will be accurate and complete.

Once appropriate alternatives have been identified and evaluated, you must select the one alternative with the greatest perceived probability of meeting organisational objectives. Of course, it is entirely possible that the decision maker may be made to go back and identify other alternatives if none are judged to be acceptable.

Theoretically, if the identification and evaluation of alternatives has been properly handled, making a choice should be an easy matter. The most desirable alternative will be obvious. In practice, however, selection of a course of action is often the result of a compromise. Enterprise objectives are multiple. As a 71

consequences, choice of an alternative must be made in light of multiple and often conflicting objectives. Indeed, the quality of a decision may often have to be balanced against its acceptability. Resource constraints and political considerations are examples of confounding factors which must be carefully weighed. At this point, sound judgement and experience play important roles.

6.6.3 Implementation of Decision

Once a plan (course of action) has been selected, appropriate actions must be taken to assure that it is implemented . Implementation is crucial to success of an enterprise. Indeed, it is considered by some to be the key to effective planning. The best plans in the world are absolutely worthless if they cannot be implemented. The activities necessary to put plans into operation must be skilfully initiated. In this respect, no plan is better than the actions taken to make it a reality.

With selection of a course of action, you must make detailed provisions for its execution. You must communicate the chosen course of action, gather support for it, and assign resources to see that it is carried out. Development of a sound means of implementation is every bit as important as the decision as to which course of action to pursue. All too often, even the best plans fail as a result of being improperly implemented.

In service industries like tourism extra caution is required while implementing decisions for a bad service cannot be withdrawn or withheld at the time of its simultaneous production and consumption.

6.7 INDIVIDUAL VERSUS GROUP DECISION MAKING

You are perhaps aware that in recent times most of the decisions in any large organisation are usually taken by a group of people (e.g., Board of Directors, Committees, Task-force, etc.) rather than by a single individual manager, however, brilliant, bright or powerful the manager may be. Perhaps from your own experience, you are also aware of some of the obvious advantages and disadvantages of group decision making like the one given on the next page :

Advantages and Disadvantages of Group Decision Making

Advantages

Disadvantages

• Groups can accumulate more knowledge and facts

• Groups often work more slowly than individuals.

• Groups have a broader perspective and consider more alternative solutions

• Group decision involves considerable compromise which may lead to less optimal decisions.

• Individuals who participate in decisions are more satisfied with the decision and are more likely to support it.

• Groups are often dominated by one individual or a small clique, thereby negating many of the virtues of group procedures.

• Group decision processes serve an important communication function as well as a useful political function.

• Over-reliance on group decision making can inhibit management’s ability to act quickly and decisively when necessary.

Source: Maier S.N.R.F., “ Assets and Liabilities…….” 1967.

Looking at this kind of a balance-sheet on decision making, you may ask whether, on the whole, groups, are superior to individuals as far as the decision making effectiveness is concerned ? It is not possible to give a categorical answer without reference to the nature of the people, the nature of the group and the context in which the group is making a decision. However, what we know about the impact of the groups in decision making process has been summarised by Harrison (1975) in the following way:

• In establishing objectives, groups are typically superior to individuals in that they possess greater cumulative knowledge to bring to bear on problems.

• In identifying alternatives, individual efforts are important to ensure that different and perhaps unique solutions are identified from various functional areas that later can be considered by the group.

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• In evaluating alternatives, group judgement is often superior to individual judgement because it brings into play a wider range of viewpoints.

• In choosing an alternative, involving group members often leads to greater acceptance of the final outcome.

• In implementing the choice, individual responsibility is generally superior to group responsibility. Regardless of whether decisions are made individually or collectively, individuals perform better in carrying out the decision than groups do.

As you can well see, groups do have some edge over individuals in certain stages of the decision making process. For this, reason, you have to ‘decide’ to what extent you should involve others (particularly, your subordinates in the work group) to participate in decisions affecting their jobs. In fact, you have to take a position on the continuum of degrees of participation in decision making (See Figure VII).

Occasional

consultation

of subordinates.

Minor Decision

No Participation Benevolent Participation in Complete

Dictatorship Many Minor Involvement

(Listens to Opinion Decisions and in Major

but no Genuine Several Major and Minor

Involvement Decisions Decisions

Permitted)

Figure VII : Continuum of Degrees of Participation in Decision Making

Based on a series of studies on managerial decisions making behaviour, Vroom and Yetton (1973) found evidence in support of the following propositions:

1) Managers tend to be more participative when:

• the quality of the decision is important,

• subordinate acceptance of the decision is critical for its effective implementation,

• they trust their subordinates to focus on organisational rather than personal goals and when conflict among subordinates is minimal.

2) Managers tend to be less participative when:

• they have all the necessary information to make a high quality decision,

• the immediate problem is well structured or there is a common solution that has been applied in similar situations in the past, and

• time is limited and immediate actions is required.

At this juncture, it will be useful for you to be aware of two phenomena which have been observed in group decision making situations. Technically these two phenomena, which are sometimes experienced in a group decision situations, are referred to as ‘Risky shift phenomenon’ and ‘ Groupthink’.

1) Risky Shift Phenomenon

Contrary to the popular belief that groups are usually more conservative than individuals there is abundant evidence to support the proposition that groups make riskier decisions than individuals do. There are four possible reasons. First, risk takers are persuasive in getting more cautious companions to shift their position. Second, as members of a group familiarise themselves with the issues and arguments they seem to feel more confident about taking risks. Third, the responsibility for decisions making can be diffused 73

across members of the group. Fourth, there is the suggestion that in our culture people do not like to appear cautious in a public context.

2) Groupthink

Closely related to the risky-shift, but more serious, is the phenomenon known as ‘groupthink’. This phenomenon, first discussed by Janis (1971), refers to a mode of thinking in a group in which the seeking of concurrence among members becomes so dominant that it over-rides any realistic appraisal of alternative course of action. The concept emerged from Jani’s studies of high level policy decisions by government and business leaders. By analysing the decision process leading up to each action, Janis found numerous indications pointing to the development of group norms that improved morale at the expense of critical thinking. One of the most common norms was the tendency to remain loyal to the group by continuing to adhere to policies and decisions to which the group was already committed, even when the decisions proved to be in error.

Outcomes of Groupthink: Groupthink can have several deleterious consequences on the quality of decision making. First, groups often limit their search for possible solutions to problems to one or two alternatives and avoid a comprehensive analysis of all possible alternatives. Second, groups often fail to re-examine their chosen course of actions after new information or events suggest a change in course. Third, group members spend very little time considering whether there are any non-obvious advantages to alternative courses of action compared to the chosen course of action. Fourth, groups often make little or no attempt to seek out the advice of experts either inside or outside their own organisation. Fifth, members show positive interest in facts that support their preferred decision alternative and either ignore or show negative interest in facts that fail to support it. Finally, groups often ignore any consideration of possible roadblocks to their chosen decision and, as a result, fail to develop contingency plans for potential setbacks.

6.8 EFFECTIVE DECISION MAKING

You have just examined different outcomes of a faulty group decision process under the phenomenon called group think. In fact, these “faults” are not exclusive to group decisions only. You will appreciate that in the early stages of any decision process, there is the likelihood that a variety of perceptual biases may interfere with problem analysis or the identification of possible solutions. Elbing (1978) has identified several roadblocks that can impede managerial effectiveness in arriving at the most suitable decision:

• The tendency to evaluate before one investigates. Early evaluation precludes inquiry into a fuller understanding of the situation.

• The tendency to equate new and old experiences. This often causes managers to look for what is similar rather than what is unique in a new problem.

• The tendency to use available solutions, rather than consider new or innovative ones.

• The tendency to deal with problems at face value, rather than ask questions that might illuminate reasons behind the more obvious aspects of the problem.

• The tendency to direct decisions toward a single goal. Most problems involve multiple goals that must be handled simultaneously.

• The tendency to confuse symptoms and problems.

• The tendency to overlook unsolvable problems and instead concentrate on simpler concerns.

• The tendency to respond automatically or to act before thinking.

Problems like these often cause managers to act in haste before the facts are known and often before the actual underlying problem is recognised or understood. A knowledge of these roadblocks will assist you in your attempts to analyse problem situations and make reasoned decisions.

In case you are a member or leader of any decision making group, you would like to overcome the emergence of a groupthink mentality in groups and organisations. Taking your cue from Janis you can now formulate several strategies to overcome the barriers:

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• Group leaders can encourage each member to be a critical evaluator of various proposals.

• When groups are given a problem to solve, leaders can refrain from stating their own position and instead encourage open enquiry and impartial probing of a wide range of alternatives.

• The organisation can give the same problem to two different independent groups and compare the resulting solutions.

• Before the group reaches a final decision, members can be required to take a respite at intervals and seek advice from other wings of the organisation before returning to make a decision.

• Outside experts can be invited to group meetings and encouraged to challenge the views of group members.

• At every group meeting, one member could be appointed as a devil’s advocate to challenge the testimony or those advocating the majority position.

• When considering the feasibility and effectiveness of various alternatives, divide the group into two sections for independent discussions and compare results.

• After deciding on a preliminary consensus on the first choice for a course of action, schedule a second meeting during which members of the group express their residual doubts and rethink the entire issue prior to finalising the decision and initiating action.

In other words, if groups are aware of the problems of groupthink, several specific and relatively simple steps can be taken to minimise the likelihood of falling victim to this problem. As you already know, recognising the problem represents half the battle in the effort to make more effective decisions in organisational settings.

Check Your Progress-3

1) How do you identify alternatives ?

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2) What do you understand by risky shift phenomenon ?

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6.9 LET US SUM UP

In this Unit, you have made yourself familiar with the three phases of any decision making situation. You have seen that these phases deal with identification, evaluation and selection of alternatives to a problem. It is possible to follow a logical process of taking decisions, as the Economic Man Model suggests, particularly when your problem is routine, mechanistic and programmed or when you are taking decisions under conditions of certainty or risk.

Many analytical techniques under Management Science are available to help you take decisions. But when your problems are of the non-programmed variety, it is not sufficient to be alert and analytical. You have to use your creative thinking in identifying viable alternatives, judgement and discretion in evaluating and making a choice. We have also brought the issue of group decision to your attention as you often make decisions as a member of a group. You have observed certain inherent advantages of group decision situations. At the same time, we have drawn your attention to some phenomena like risky-shift or group

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think which might emerge in the group process and affect the quality of your decisions. Since you have also reckoned the usual barriers to effective decision making and have noted some strategies to overcome them, we are sure this Unit will sharpen your skills of decision making as a manager.

6.10 KEY WORDS

Adaptive Decision : An adaptive decision involves a problem with a large number of decision variables where outcomes are not predictable.

Brainstorming : A group process, where the members are presented with a problem and are asked to develop as many solutions as possible in a free environment.

Heuristics : Heuristic is a rule which guides the search for alternatives into areas that have a high probability for yielding satisfactory solutions.

Mechanistic Decision : A routine and repetitive decision.

Operations Research : Use of scientific methods of analysis to process complex information and arrive at decisions achieving an optimum balance of probabilities as well as identifiable facts.

Synectics : A method of generating alternatives by combing diverse and apparently irrelevant ideas.

6.11 CLUES TO ANSWERS

Check Your Progress-1

1) Read Sec. 6.3.

2) One which is routine and repetitive in nature.

3) Identification, development and selection, see Sec. 6.2.

Check Your Progress-2

1) (i) Administrative Man Model (ii) Economic Man Model (iii) Gamesman

2) Write a note on your own.

Check Your Progress-3

1) Read Sub-sec. 6.6.1.

2) Read Sec. 6.7.

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