Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Assignment 1
Assignment 1
Assignment 1
VERSION ENGLISH
SIGNATURE
1
Table of Content Page
Executive Summary......................................................................................................2
Introduction...................................................................................................................3
Making Decisions..........................................................................................................6
Type of Decisions.........................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................11
Bibliography................................................................................................................11
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Executive Summary
When one fails to plan, he actually plans to fail. However greater the vision may be
without proper planning and management, the chances of failure are very high.
Hence, it is of paramount importance that for any organization, the success is hinged
on the proper management of the organization. Managers are key personnel in any
management team. They play a pivotal role right from conception and planning
through up to the implementation and review of the plans. Since, they are needed at
all levels of the organizations, they ought to have different roles and skills according
to the positions they hold in the organization. Any mistakes they make will directly
affect the organization either in the short run or the long run. Therefore, every
Decision making is a crucial process where the manager is to weigh the pros and
cons of different alternatives to achieve the goals efficiently and effectively. Since,
they are in the lead role, they are also squarely responsible for any success or failure
of the organization. Hence, the author has made an attempt to summarize the roles
and decisions of the managers in brief, in the assignment paper enclosed herewith.
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Introduction
century. Their management skills and decisions will affect the reputation, the
them to internationally recognized trainings such as Lean Six Sigma and Harvard
Management Degree. In this assignment, the author has explained the function of
management, role of managers at different levels, types of decisions they make and
the mechanism of making decisions and finally, how information systems assist
activities of subordinates, so that their tasks are completed efficiently and effectively.
Management includes a set of principles pertaining the four main core functions,
Van Fleet and Peterson define management, ‘as a set of activities directed at the
efficient and effective utilization of resources in the pursuit of one or more goals.’
Besides, as per Harold Koontz, ‘Management is an art of getting things done through
environment in which people can perform and individuals and can co-operate
company to achieve its business goals. Once the underlying strategy is set,
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resources needed and setting up the line of reporting. Subsequently, the
management will lead the team by coordinating each individual’s task to ensure the
evaluate if the progress is as per determined in the planning stage and implement
The managers are expected to have various skills and play various roles in their
play of three different roles, namely interpersonal role, informational role and
decisional role. The interpersonal role involves interacting with people, subordinates
and performing other symbolic duties. The informational role involves collecting,
In an organization, managers can be divided into three levels namely Top Level,
Middle Level and Low level managers. The Top Level managers usually have the
titles such as President, Vice President, Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer
etc. and they are involved in the strategic planning and set the plans and goals for
the entire organization. They use the strategic information available from within the
organization and outside the organization to make decisions which have a long term
impact on the establishment and running of the organization. They play more of a
decisional role and are expected, in particular, to possess more of the conceptual or
intellectual skill. They are also expected to possess the human and technical skills
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The Middle Level managers have titles such as Senior Manager, Department
Manager, Office Manager and etc. They are supposed to analyse the information,
likely scenarios and to make tactical decisions to implement the plans set by the top
human and technical skills. They play more of an informational role and liaise
The Low Level managers are Front line Managers who oversee and control the day-
to-day operation of the organization. They are expected to have more of the
technical and human skills in order to execute the plans efficiently and effectively.
Making Decisions
Decision making is a crucial process in the job of a manager at all levels. Effective
Organizing, Leading and Controlling. The nature of the problems and the availability
of solutions may differ at different levels but the process remains the same. The
decision making process basically involves seven steps, as shown in the figure
below.
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1. Identifying the problem
First of all, the manager has to identify the problem clearly and the limiting criteria
that affects the decision to solve the problem. Based on the limiting factors and its
weightage, the manager then collects information on the alternatives available. With
against the limiting factors and its weightage. At the end of the analysis, the Manager
guided by past experience, expertise, knowledge, culture, emotions or data from sub
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Type of Decisions
Depending on the problems and situation, the managers have to take different types
of decisions. The following is the list of some of the different types of typical
decisions.
are straight forward and the solutions are readily available from the past experiences
in the form of guide books, rules and regulations. Usually these decisions are
repetitive in nature and taken by Middle and Low level managers. These decisions
have only a short term impact in the organization. Examples are purchase
the opposite of the programmed decisions. These are non-repetitive in nature and
the problems faced are new or unusual. These decisions are usually taken by Top
level managers. The manager has to study the problem, analyse, look for
alternatives, consider the choices and choose one to implement, forecast and
prepare strategic plans. These decisions have only a long term impact in the
organization. Examples are choosing the type of business to start or its location.
2) Individual and group decisions: If a manager makes certain decision on his own,
then it is an individual decision. Usually, these decisions are common in very small
having short term impact, the manager may make an individual decision. In large
organizations, certain decisions have to be made as group decisions, that is, they
have to be made with the consent of others such as Top Level managers or
shareholders etc.
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3) Tactical and Strategic decisions: Tactical decisions are decisions often taken by
Examples are working hours, providing parking facilities, cafeteria services and
deputing employees, etc. This decision requires the experience and intellect of the
which requires in depth analysis of the problem. These have a long term impact on
the organization. These are usually taken by the Top Level Managers.
4) Policy and Operating decisions: Policy decisions are taken by Top level managers
regarding the change in the organizational rules, regulations, persons and visions.
Whereas, the operational decisions are taken by the Low Level managers in the day-
5) Major and Minor decisions: The decisions that are more important, that involves
cuts are considered major decisions and these have a long term impact. On the
other hand, minor decisions are of less importance and have short term impact.
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Individual
and
Group
Programmed
Major and and
Minor Unprogram-
med
Types of
Decisions
Policy Tactical
and and
Operating Strategic
as applications and software are being developed. In other words, these tools are
certain order of importance, managers use information systems to assist them in the
following functions; scraping data items, analysising data files, obtaining pre-
‘Internet of Things’ (IoT), information systems can help managers to gather data from
various sources such as over the internet, millions of sensors and articles, and then,
compile tailor made report according to their needs, either in graphical or tabular
form. In addition, information systems also will enable managers to analyse the data
that has been compiled in various ways to get interesting insights. For an example,
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individual portfolios or groups of portfolios from different viewpoints, such as ranking
them in different ways, obtain breakdowns by industry or risk level. Once the
analysis is done, applications can be used to develop model and simulate the
various solutions that a manager have at hand for the problem to evaluate which
solution yields the most profitable and sustainable results. As a result of the
the issue at hand. For an instance, a consumer products company faced with short-
run supply problems for many of its raw materials. Thus, it developed an optimization
model to solve the equations of choosing and balancing among various product
recipes. The inputs to the model include a series of different recipes for many
products, short-run supply levels for raw materials, and production requirements for
finished products. The output is the choice of recipes that maximizes production
using existing supplies. The system brought a shift in perspective in how the
managers determine allocation policy. Previously, they will allocate scarce raw
proved that it was more advantageous to start with production requirements and then
In addition to the above mentioned functions, information systems also aid managers
sharing becomes easier across various people and thus, enable managers to make
decisions in collaboration with others easily. Other than that, these systems also
online discussions, such as what happening worldwide nowadays due to the COVID-
19 pandemic.
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Conclusion
ensure the strategy laid out are being executed and evaluated continuously. They
need to possess different skills and the assistance of information systems in order to
carry out their roles more efficiently. As we are stepping into the Industrial Revolution
4.0, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence can help managers to step up their game by
exploiting data that were invisible to the naked eyes. These state-of-the-art
timely and accurate decisions will determine the reputation, the profitability and
Bibliography
Books
Title of
Year of
No. Author’s Name Reference Publication
Publication
Book
Stephen P. Robbins Management
1. 2016 Pearson
and Mary Coulter (Global Edition)
How Effective
Harvard
Managers Use
2. Steven L.Alter 1976 Business
Information
Review
Systems
Business Asmita Book
3. Dhrub Raj Pokhrel
Studies-XII Publication
Websites
Year of Title of
No Author’s
Publica Reference Website
. Name
-tion Book
Concordia 7 Steps of https://online.csp.edu/blog/business/dec
1 2017
University, the ision-making-process
12
Decision
St. Paul Making
Process
13