decision_making

=DECISION MAKING=

This Includes a Levels of management chart.
Every day we make hundreds of small decisions, ranging from what to wear, to what to eat for lunch and dinner, to what time to go to bed. While our parents made most of our decisions for us when we were small children, as we grow up, we became more responsible for making our own decisions. These are things such as whether or not to marry, what car to buy, to have children or not to have children, where to live, and where to work. Decision making within organisations is similar to your own personal descision-making: the further you travel up the promotional ladder, the more responsibility you recieve and the more important your decisions become.

Large companies usually have four levels of management. At the highest level, senior management (chief executive officer, president, vice-president) is responsible for making what are referred to as stragetic decisions; middle management (department directors) make tactical decisions; lower/operational management (section managers) makes operational decisions, and operational workers make minor day-to-day decisions. Medium-Sized and small businesses also have to make strategic, tactical and operational decisions, but they often made by one person or a small management team.

Senior Management Decision Making
Strategic decisions can involve very complicated problems that relate to the long-term goals of an organisation. They can take senior management years to make. Strategic decision making often involves studying market trends, choosing new products to manufacture or market, analyzing social, legal and environmental concerns, determining site locations and adjusting management structure.

Middle Management Decision Making
Middle management makes tactical decisions to solve problems that affect the running of the organisation. The managers of each department within the organisation are responsible for the running of their own department, whether it be human resources, sales, marketing, accounts or information and communications technology. They are also responsible for making sure that the strategic decisions made by senior management are successfully carried out. Some tactical decisions could take up to a year or more to be finalised; however, most are made within weeks or months.

Operational Management Decision Making
Operational managers, or lower management, are the supervisors of the workers. They deal with day-to-day operational decisions, such as: > These problems require decisions that need to be made on the spot or within a very short time frame. Such decisions don't usually have lasting effects on the organisation, but they do affect the morale of workers and the customers. Operational management uses a transaction processing system (TPS) to aid their problem-solving and give them a detailed understanding of what stock is going out and what stock needs to be replaced.
 * Directing customer complaints
 * Replacing a worker who calls in sick
 * Ordering more stock
 * Changing the placement of certain products to eye level for quicker sales

Operational Workers Decision Making
The workers at the operation level also make day-to-day decisions that help the efficient running of a business. The workers are usually the first point of contact with the public and need to make decisions such as: These are also short-term decisions that usually have very little bearing on the overall success of the business.
 * Who is next in the queue
 * Should a complaint go to management
 * Where can I direct a particular customer query
 * What type of software is going to be required for a specific task