HI6005 - Rational Decision Making

• Subject Code : HI6005
• University : Holmes Institute My Assignment Services is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university.
• Subject Name : Marketing

Rational Decision Making

Ans.1

a)

Rational Decision Making 

It is a process undergoing through several steps from the identification of the problem to solution by analysing the objectivity, insight and subjectivity. This decision making aims to bring the optimum outcome with minimum resource or cost. This decision making is common from day to day life to the corporate to make rational choices to bring the best outcomes. The word rationale means the logic behind a course of action or a belief that could be justified and can be just an impulsive action. This idea can bring many benefits to a firm as it will save the cost and will give the maximum output. Under this model other aspects such as ethical considerations, value, feeling, honesty, loyalties, obligations, intuitions and desires are not considered because they cannot be quantified. However, critics claim that this model seems to be unrealistic and oversimplified because not every person has the same rationality and the information required to make such decision are not always available (MacNeela et al. 2016).

b) 

Three reasons for

• The city would be efficient in terms of infrastructure and the waste of the resources would be less and being a green city the environment would be pure and will give fresh air to breath. 

• The sustainable city will grab the attention of the investors across the nation and many companies would like to invest or set-up their business in the city.  

• The sustainable city will consume less electricity and water that will save much cost in the long term. 

Three reasons against

• The city rebuilding will cost much more and it may need to borrow additional funds.

• There is no skilled and visionary leader to lead this project and thus it's doomed to failure.

• Rebuilding green will consume a long time and homeless people cannot wait for such a long time.

Ans. 2

1.  Horizontal communication 

This communication is the process of transmission of information among people, units, departments, divisions and plants at the same organisational hierarchy level. Unlike vertical communication, it does not flow through the different levels of the organisational hierarchy. The horizontal communication helps the organisation to promote internal communication across the employees or the staffs that hold similar positions. This makes communication between the two people at the same level effective and efficient and also help them to achieve the organisational goals. Though it has some advantages such as easy understanding, easy to remember and grab attention, it is often carried out in through oral and in an informal tone which is not as credible as the vertical communication. It decreases the misunderstanding among the people who are working on the same problem but from other departments or units. However, it becomes very difficult to manage and control such communication because there is a scope that people may have conflicts (Kim et al. 2016).

2. Horizontal form of communication is more prominent in Intermountain Healthcare because the organisation is using a clinical information system to record the information about the patient in an organised and easy to understand manner. The information is stored on a portal that can be easily accessed by the other clinicians and doctors across the branches and clinics of the hospital chain and the practitioner also networks with peers through meetings. Also, the organisation uses the Care Process Guidelines based on extensive research and in combination with other data tools for communication across the enterprise enables the organisation to provide consistent quality in care every time. In sum, the information is shared with the patient for their knowledge of their health condition and also invest in modern techniques and tools to facilitate information to the practitioners in the rural region for better treatment there. 

Ans. 3

a)

Considering the given scenario about the city administrator Steve Hewitt, it seems like he falls under the middle of the road leadership. In such leadership, the leader is a kind of realistic without clear ambition. He is trying to demonstrate that they failed to build the better city earlier and therefore they are regretting now. On the other side, he is also showing an opportunity to build a new city that could not be built earlier. He is convincing people to believe that before the storm, they were building a new city by using new methods that will be more effective and efficient at the same time even there were no many constructions of new buildings. So it reflects that Mr Hewitt was quite balanced in his approach and he successfully expressed the regret over the failure but also given suggestion to build a new sustainable city.

b)

Although Mr Hewitt is having middle of the road leadership style, he lacks some quality to influence the people and address the problem and opportunity more realistically. Instead of just highlighting what went wrong, he should have focused on the reason for the failure and also should have admitted that he was also responsible for that. It seems like he lacked the vision and the exact outcome that he wanted to obtain. Therefore, before the commencement of the project, he should have analysed the risk and cost associated with it. He could have created the plan with all precautionary steps to cover the risk and improving the infrastructure quality (Angelidou et al. 2018). Considering the new construction plan, he should seek the opinions and expertise of others instead of doing in his way merely. He must know the role of people involved and materials required to get the best and cost-effective result.

Ans. 4

a)

The issues with China-based suppliers that required Numi’s managers to use influence and persuasion tactics are how everything should be done. The first thing is the quality of the product because it one of the essential attribute to sell a product. Second, the level of sustainability across the supply chain because saving the planet is one of the core focus and motive of the company's practice. Third, the treatment of the workers because it is also a major concern for the company as the company cares for the people. All these factors need the influence and persuasion tactics because it will influence the culture at industry and standard of living of worker along with the production.

b)

To get the suppliers to comply with the policies of the Numi, the company uses a system that complies with the policies of the different country and managing the orders in different languages and measures adhering to the international regulations. The company takes a long time in identifying suitable suppliers that meet the three core criteria of the company. They also provide money and funds to the to improve themselves to meet the company's expectation and also uses the influence and persuasion tactics by describing the supplier the reason and benefits of adhering to it. Apart from these, the company uses an ERP system that eases the difficulties of the company as it gives a chance to place orders from the home country to other country and they just need to push a button to place the order and the same get manufactures meeting the required expectancy. The accessibility of the knowledge from the same page across the suppliers eliminate the scope of misinterpretation and improve visibility and transparency (Laudon and Laundon 2015). Besides, information's remote accessibility creates seamless communication between the suppliers and the company.

Ans. 5 

a)

Honest Tea has a more mechanistic structure because the company seems to be more leaned toward the centralisation and less toward the decentralisation. Mechanistic or Organic structure both have its advantages and disadvantages for the company to develop culture and to execute the mission and vision of the organisation. Under the Mechanistic structure, the organisation chart has the hierarchy level and teams are led by the team managers and communication flows from the top to bottom (Ahmady et. al 2016). Whereas in the organic structure the company has a decentralised way to operate and no hierarchy across the enterprise and it also gives rooms to the inclusion of others thought and often achieve the innovation comparatively quickly.

b)

The reason to prove that the company has the mechanistic structure is that in the given case study, it is stated that the founder and the TEO have done everything by himself from production, filtration to the accounting, sales and marketing. The founder applied his mind across these areas of the company and later when the employees grew the company continued to work based on the founder’s experience and expectancy. The TEO has clearly stated that he the person who thinks differently in the organisation does not last for long. The company hires certain kind of people and avoid certain kinds that reflect that the company is quite selective about the employees and only focuses on the specific group of the people that fits into the requirement of the company. Despite all these, the company has somehow managed to innovate the products and expand the product line to five which a positive point. However, the company has a good vision to not get satisfied with the accomplishment and continuously improve and innovate the products it makes.

References

Ahmady, G.A., Mehrpour, M. and Nikooravesh, A., 2016. Organizational structure. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 230, pp.455-462.

Angelidou, M., Psaltoglou, A., Komninos, N., Kakderi, C., Tsarchopoulos, P. and Panori, A., 2018. Enhancing sustainable urban development through smart city applications. Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management.

Kim, S., Magnusen, M.J. and Andrew, D.P., 2016. Divided we fall: Examining the relationship between horizontal communication and team commitment via team cohesion. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 11(5), pp.625-636.

Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2015. Management information systems. Upper Saddle River: Pearson.

MacNeela, P., Scott, P.A., Clinton, G., Pontin, D. and Sellman, D., 2016. Judgement and decison-making. Becoming a Nurse: Fundamentals of Professional Practice for Nursing, 327.