OF

“HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT”

Topic-“Managing uncertainty through hard decision”

Submitted to: -
Miss Tejbir Kaur
Submitted by:-
SUDHIR KUMAR GAUTAM
ROLL NO-RR1901B39
Sec-1901
MBA 1ST SEM
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

“No gain without pain is a common saying”. Gratitude is the hardest of emotion to
express and often does not find adequate words to convey. Therefore, a report is
not an effort of a single person but it is a contributory effort other brain. So I would
like to thanks all those who have helped me directly or indirectly during my report.

I am also thankful to Tejbir Kaur for their keen

interest, constructive criticism, persistent encouragement and untiring guidance
throughout the development of the report. It has been my great privilege to work
under his inspiring and provoking guidance.

CONTENT
a) Emergence of the topic ………………………..

b) Review of literature ………………………..

c) How companies are handling these issues …………………..

d) Critical appraisal/Summary and findings ……………………….

e) Bibliography …………………………….

MANAGING UNCERTAINTY THROUGH HARD DECISIONS

Transition walks along side of change. The transition process contains a period
where uncertainty reigns, as we simultaneously evolve to a new state of solidity,
growth, and renewal. While the outcome of this process ultimately moves us
forward, adjusting positively can also be challenging too many individuals
psychologically, emotionally, and behaviorally. Periods of uncertainty are known
to increase levels of stress in some individuals and workgroups going through this
experience.

As human beings, we often become attached to our, roles, responsibilities, work

group, and historical / current structures within the organization.  Reorganization
requires thoughtful, hard, and timely decisions. We understand that some
employees may fear potential job loss, changes in work responsibilities that can
leave one feeling little control over possible outcomes resulting from change.  Such
circumstances can trigger transient feelings including frustration, a sense of
powerlessness, and anxiety.  Expect throughout this transition, a time of letting go
of the old ways as you begin to appreciate, embrace, and integrate the new. 

Change as we know, is an inevitable part of life. Impermanence is a given.  In

order to managing change effectively means not fearing or resisting change and
challenges, but instead empowering oneself with the necessary skills to navigate
through uncertainty.  Preparing oneself for inevitable change and understanding the
normal range of responses to stress, can help you to feel more confident and leads
to sustained /increased organizational performance. Below is a list of normal
reactions to change, and some strategies that lead to resilience.

Normal Reactions to Significant Change

• Shock, numbness, and withdrawal

• Fear, and insecurity
• Frustration, resentment, and anger
• Sadness, depression, and guilt
• Unfairness, betrayal, and distrust
• Relief, and optimism, excitement
• Lack of interest in activities
• unusually quiet
• Preoccupied, unable to focus
• Sarcasm, cynicism

Strategies for Resilience

• Simply acknowledge your current situation, and be aware that normal reactions to
the transitional period are to be expected.
• Take charge and plan in advance how you will respond to the changed workplace
environment.  Prioritize steps that will aid in minimizing your anxiety and stress
levels. 
• When change occurs, both positive and negative feelings will often emerge often
at the same time.  It’s important to talk and confide in a few people you trust about
current changes and pressures associated with the transition.  Don’t isolate yourself
with your concerns.  Seeking out individuals who have a sense of hope and who
can help you strategize about managing your current situation is helpful.
• Seeking out lines of communication.  Clear communication and information in
times of uncertainty can aid in minimizing stress and anxiety levels. 
Acknowledging ambiguity and what you don’t know is equally important.
• Develop adaptable coping skills.  Examples include exercise even if it’s for thirty
minutes a day. Maintain a schedule such as waking up the same time every
morning, or going to bed at a predictable time.  Calm the mind through the practice
of yoga, or meditation. Bringing awareness to your present moment can have
calming effects.
• Think back to challenging times in your life and draw upon how you coped,
managed to get through the transition period successfully, and thrive.
• Develop positive emotions that include gratitude, happiness, compassion towards
self and others. Positive emotions increase optimism and resilience.
• Laughter and humor are important tools in times of stress. Laughter can break up
seriousness in a conversation and trigger the release of endorphins such as
serotonin in your body which helps relieve tension and reduce stress.
• Be proactive. Each individual has the capacity to cope and deal with situations
effectively.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Nicholas Davis, 2010 in his article “Managing Uncertainty” stated that one way of
approaching the issue of “uncertainty” is to use scenarios to envisage a variety of
different, challenging futures. This activity alone allows stakeholders to
individually and collectively generate, communicate and test ideas about important
external events that could impact them – giving an insight into their “mental maps”
and exposing some of the assumptions behind how they approach their market and
make decisions. This is a valuable exercise in its own right, and, in addition to
improving communication, often gives a crisper sense of the collective uncertainty
being faced by a team, business or strategic unit.

Michaela Quirk, 2010 in his article “Soft intelligence for hard decisions”
explained that soft metrics are attributes of decision criteria that cannot be
expressed numerically but nevertheless could be the core of a computational
engine that is perception-based and can work with natural language rather than
number crunching. For the intelligence community involved in national defense
and strategy, a disproportionate number of the decisions being made represent a
matter of life.

Adam Gordon, 2009 in his article “Unexpected prediction modesty highlights

problems of timing and impact" stated that determining the direction of change is
hard enough. Assessing timing or extent of impact — a ‘total future impact index’ — is
wickedly difficult. It’s a task not to be underestimated, and to simply extrapolate
current trends (= assuming the trend’s timeline and impact stay the same as in the
past) is the royal road to underestimating it.
This is the reason foresight for complex, uncertain; changing situations can only be
grasped by NOT predicting (quantitatively or otherwise) but by exploring the limit-
conditions of the plausible.

Michael E. Raymore, 2007 in his article “Solving the Strategy Paradox” examined
that – Companies that have achieved greatness have typically done so only at the
cost of increased risk – something that has been ignored in much of established
strategic thinking. The new frontier of value creation is therefore the management
of risk through a portfolio of business models. The author points out that the same
strategic behaviors that are associated with great success are also associated with
failure. That is, the greatest rewards pose the greatest risks. He explains how
corporations should manage risk differently at different levels of responsibility
using the concepts of Requisite Uncertainty and strategic flexibility.

Mathew Petoskey, 1999 in his article “Managing Uncertainty through

Bureaucratic Design” examined that how state politicians use administrative
procedures to design air pollution control agencies. Drawing on a variety of
data, the analyses show that politicians use different procedures to manage
different types of uncertainty, thus mitigating transaction costs between the
politicians and agencies. Procedures can reduce politicians' uncertainty about
how agencies perform their policy activities, how future political coalitions
might influence the agencies' performance, and how to solve complex policy
problems. By using data from a survey of state clean air administrators, the
article demonstrates both the conditions under which politicians design
agencies to be politically responsive and the conditions under which
politicians grant agencies more policy autonomy.

Guido A. Krickx, 2000 in his article “THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN

UNCERTAINTY AND VERTICAL INTEGRATION” analyzed that performance
ambiguity and general measures of uncertainty are positively related with vertical
integration, technological uncertainty is negatively related, while market
uncertainty and complexity are not systematically related to vertical integration.

Ed Kugler, 2010 in his article “Managing Change - Helping Your People Cope
with Change” stated that people are used to change. It's happening all around them
every single day. The seasons changes, our neighbors are moving, even time
changes twice a year. It isn't the change that gets us, it's the uncertainty that change
brings. That's not just a play on Webster's words, it's a fact. Changes that people
don't understand will give you trouble. For most people, the lack of understanding
drives their resistance, not the changes.