Principles of Management

Assignment On Decision Making and Creative Problem Solving

Foundations of Management, Kreitner
Chapter 06: Making decisions and solving Problems

Prepared For: Mr. Neaz Ahmed

Course Instructor

Prepared By: Name Roll

Laura Mohiuddin 73

Section: B, Batch: 40,

MBA (Day), Spring Semester (Feb 2006)

INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (IBA)

Hands-On Exercise: How Creative Are You?

A steel pipe is embedded in the concrete floor of a bare room, as shown below.
The inside diameter is 0.06" larger than the diameter of the ping-pong ball
(1.50") that is resting at the bottom of the pipe. You are one of a group of
people in the room, along with the following objects:

 100 feet of clothesline  File

 Carpenter’s hammer  Wire coat hanger
 Chisel  Monkey wrench
 Box of Wheaties  Light bulb

List as many ways as you can think of to get the ball out of the pipe without
damaging the ball, the tube, or the floor.

1. In terms of the definition in this chapter, what is the “problem”

here?

Answer:

Actual situation: The ball is inside a pipe which is embedded in a concrete

floor. The diameter of the pipe is almost equal to that of the ball.

Desired situation: The ball is outside the pipe and the ball, pipe and floor
are undamaged.
 Fig 1: The actual and desired situations (drawn to scale)
Problem: The gap or difference between the actual and desired situation,
which is the distance from where the ball is resting to the top of the pipe.
We are to reduce this gap.

2. What assumptions did you make about any of the objects?

Answer: We made the following assumptions:

i. The box of wheaties was not empty

ii. The wire coat hanger could be cut with the file
iii. The handle of the hammer was made of wood

3. How would you rate your creativity on this exercise on a scale of

1=low to 10=high?

Answer: We would rate our creativity as 8, since we could not develop the
solutions within five minutes.

4. How many of the eight resource objects did you manage to employ?
Which was the most useful? Why?

Answer: We used the following six resources for the four solutions:

i. Wire hanger iv. Box of wheaties

ii. Hammer v. Clothesline
iii. File vi. Chisel

Wire hanger was the most useful tool because it led to the most effective
and efficient solution.

5. How many solutions did you develop? Which one is the “best”?
Why?

Answer: We developed the following four possible solutions:

A. Chew the wheaties to form a paste. Tear off a strip of clothestine and
stick it to the ball using the paste. Allow paste to dry, then pull on the
strip of clothe

Strip of clothe

Wheaties paste

Fig 2: Solution A
 B. Chisel out wooden sticks from the handle of the hammer. Use the sticks
to get the ball.

C. Empty the box of wheaties, and make a pipe by rolling one of the sides
of the box. Place this pipe around the ball, and tighten its grip on the
ball by further rolling. Once the grip is tight enough, pull up the ball

Pipe made out of the

box of wheaties

Figure 3: Solution C

D. Halve the wire coat hanger with a file in such a way that it can act like a
pair of tweezers. Flatten the ends with the hammer (see figure below).
Additionally we can grind the wheaties and pour them along one side of
the pipe as we lift the ball so that it does not slip back into its original
position.

Wire Hanger

Curved flattened ends

Fig 4: Solution D

In case of solution A, the wheaties may not be able to hold the ball to the strip
of clothe, so the solution may not be effective. It is also time consuming, and
therefore not so efficient. In case of solution B, it may take a while before the
ball can be retrieved, and the success will depend on hand maneuvering skills.
Thus the solution is not very effective or efficient. Solution C may not be
effective, since the ball may slip. Solution D is the most effective and efficient
solution, because it ensures that the ball can be brought out of the pipe, and
this can be done in the shortest possible time.