CHAPTER SEVEN END-OF-CHAPTER ACTVITIES - MGMT201 - GB

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201

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Management

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Apr 30, 2024

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BUILDING MANAGEMENT SKILLS 1. Identify the criteria you used, either consciously or unconsciously, to guide your decision making. My decision was to accept another role within my current place of employment. I unconsciously used the classical model when deciding on whether to accept the new role or not. 2. List the alternatives you considered, Were they all possible alternatives? Did you unconsciously (or consciously) ignore some important alternatives? I considered whether to maintain my current role. I considered of course accepting a new role. I considered trying to find a different job at another employer. And I considered not working all together and solely focusing on school. I consciously ignored the possibility of not working all together because I know that having some extra money makes life more enjoyable. 3. How much information did you have about each alternative? Were you making the decision on the basis of complete or incomplete information? I had a decent amount of information about the alternatives that had me still working in the same place of business. However, I did not have a lot of information about changing places of employment. I did
not know which places were hiring or how easy it would be to find a job. 4. Try to remember how you reached the decision. Did you sit down and consciously think through the implications of each alternative, or did you make the decision on the basis of intuition? Did you see any rules of thumb to help you make the decision? I reached the decision after about a week of considering it. I did not do any deep thought on the decision. Instead, I just tossed around some of the alternatives and then made my decision. Therefore, I did go through all the alternatives that I proposed and made my decision based upon that. I did not make my decision based on the basis of intuition because it was not a decision that required me to do so. I used a rule of thumb that suggests that it typically is not easy to find a different place of employment considering that I am a college student that is only able to work part time hours. I knew that the opportunity to change roles within my current place of employment was one that might not always be available. 5. In retrospect, do you think your choice of alternative was shaped by any of the cognitive biases discussed in this chapter? I do not believe that this choice was influenced by any of the cognitive biases discussed in this chapter.
6. Having answered the previous five questions, do you think in retrospect that you made a reasonable decision? What, if anything, might you do to improve your ability to make good decisions in the future? In retrospect, I do believe that I made the correct decision to change roles within my current place of employment. Doing so allowed me to get the schedule I needed without having to go through the hassle of searching for a different place of work. Perhaps next time, I might use the information on cognitive biases learned in the chapter to guide myself when making more decisions later on in my career. As the chapter stated, I need to know which biases I am prone to, and use that knowledge to prevent myself from making a poor decision. MANAGING ETHICALLY 1. Either alone or in a group, think about the ethical implications of extreme decision making by groups. In the proposed situation, I would first request a meeting with both the CEO and COO of the company. Hopefully both the CEO and the COO would accept a meeting of this sort to discuss the current situation. Before the meeting, I would consider the answers that were previously given in response to all of the proposed initiatives that I gave earlier. I would see if there was any truth to the statements that the CEO and COO gave to the previous proposed initiatives or if the
statements could be founded upon any cognitive biases. For example, when the COO stated "we think it's a good idea, but the timing is off. Let's shelve it for the time being and reconsider it next year," perhaps a cognitive bias such as escalating commitment could be at play in this situation. Maybe the COO has a current initiative that is performing poorly but is continuing to be funded. This might be the answer as to why the first proposal was shot down. The second listed proposal received a statement that said, "Mike [the CEO] reminded me that we tried that two years ago and it wasn't well received in the market." This would be an example of representativeness bias. The CEO and COO are convinced that the proposed initiative will not work because a previous attempt did not work. The previous failure could have been due to factors that are not currently at play. The third initiative was shot down by the CEO and COO simply saying, "we aren't convinced it will work." Perhaps the CEO and COO would require a bit more convincing on this proposal, or maybe this idea should be scratched for good going forward. I would review all of this before the meeting with the CEO and COO. Once the meeting is arranged and in session, I would begin by reminding them that they asked for "an outsider to help them step out of the box and innovate." I would then politely point out any flaws such as cognitive bias in their answers to my previously proposed initiatives. Perhaps more evidence would be needed for the CEO and COO to continue forward with one
of my proposals. Hopefully by doing this, a previously proposed initiative would be accepted, or perhaps the CEO and COO would be more likely to accept any future proposals. 2. When group decision making takes place, should each member of a group feel fully accountable for the outcomes of the decision? Why or why not? When it comes to a group decision, I feel like each group member should feel fully accountable for the outcomes of the decision. As a group, we all made decisions, we all created a vision, we all participated in the decision making process, we all helped each other to make sure that the vision was made to perfection. If one person was given the accountability for the decision, it puts pressure on them because it is unknown if the manager or supervisor is going to accept the decision or not. If the supervisor likes the decision, then they will give them all of the credibility instead of the group. If the supervisor doesn’t like the decision, then that person is being held accountable for the decision and could face consequences. Group decision making contributes unique information and expertise to the project. Sharing information can increase understanding, clarify issues, and facilitate movement toward a collective decision. When everyone contributes to the decision making process, it makes the group feel good about their decision and confident about it. They will feel accountable for it because they
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