Politics of Organizational Decision Methodology †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Politics of Organizational Decision Methodology. Answer: Introduction: Founded in the year of 1975, Telstra Corporation Limited, popularly known as Telstra, has emerged to be the most recognized telecommunications and media company of Australia (Telstra.com.au 2017). The company has been offering media, content, cloud and various other technology services to business organizations as well as government consumers across the world. Usually, 55 million calls and 356 million data connections are made over Telstra network each day in Australia and abroad, and hence it becomes imperative that the managers of Telstra must have been able to employ right technology and ensure effective organizational structure that has helped the company accommodate itself in an ever-changing business landscape of competitive market (Gardiner 2015). In the very last year, the companys total profit hit $27.1 billion while its net profit soared up to $5.8 billion, and hence it becomes clearly evident that the effective decision-making skills of the managers have largely contribute d to the success (Gardner 2015). Often the companies focus so much on its immediate success that it overlooks the prospect of planning and improving the present resources. However, companies like Telstra have managers who are continually engaging themselves in the decision-making process so that they can continually define new ideas, and execute the same through effective decision implementations. Hence, this report intends to critically analyze what role do the managers of an organization play as decision-makers, and the report focuses on the case study of Telstra. Although any employee working in a company contributes to the revenue of a company, it is a manager who is the ultimate decision-maker who plans, organizes, leads and controls the organization, helping it gain competitive edge over the rival nations. The managers ultimately make serious decisions pertaining to vital issues in an organization, such as employee retention, customer satisfaction, company reputation or organizational competitiveness in the market. There are usually few important steps in the decision-making process, which are as follows: Important Questions involved in Managerial Decision-making Process: According to Anthony Bell, there are five important issues that require serious managerial consideration while taking up an important decision. The manager has to consider the following questions: Is the product or service superior or inferior to its competitors? Is the product able to bring in consumer satisfaction? Are the employees motivated enough to ensure organizational growth? Does the business enjoy sufficient capital for future strategy implementation? How far is the business cash cycle safe and predictable? (Gutirrez and Magnusson, 2014) In case, the fifth question is positive, a companys manager can implement effective plans for future growth. The company must ensure effective decision implementations if the answer to the first four questions is negative. Managers as Effective Decision-makers in Telstra: Since the telecommunication industry operates in a highly competitive market, just like any other company, Telstra has also encountered serious problems with employee retention. The high employee turnover ratio had largely threatened the sustainability of a company that operates in a service-based industry. The employee survey showed that a mere 34% of the employees had job security as compared to 71% in other companies (Certo 2015). Hence, the managers needed to make an effective decision that could help in improving overall employee experience in the company and enhance retention rates. For the Human Resource managers of Telstra, the reflection-in-action facilitated an effective decision-making process, which has increased self-knowledge, and has improved managers global overview of their organizations whereby the HR managers revised its employee policies. In order to research about the managerial decision-making process as well as managerial decisions undertaken by the Telstra managers, the research has employed the use of qualitative research methods. The business articles, published journals and case studies of Telstra have been thoroughly reviewed (Mackey and Gass 2015). At the same time, a variety of management theories on decision-making process and organization and employee management theories have been reviewed and evaluated to gain an understanding of the managerial decision-making process and all the steps involved in the same. While analyzing the employee policies of Telstra, it has been observed that earlier the employee retention policies of the company have been extremely poor. In an employee survey conducted at Telstra, the majority of the employees complained of the striking absence of dedication and loyalty in an organization where everyone likes to discuss about redundancies. After reviewing the deplorable organizational culture, the middle managers of Telstra revised the HR policies of the organization. The managers of Telstra were confronted with an unstructured problem, the loss of employee motivation that could not be resolved in a day (Noel 2015). As they identified the problem via employee survey and high employee turnover ratio, the information regarding the solution was ambiguous and had to be tested before final implementation over the coming years. Instead of investing in employees, the company managers first undertook an international research to understand the employee experience at Telstra, overall employee motivation factors and trace the performance level of the employees. Once the managers achieved clarity over the fact that many employees are unable to work in an autocratic workplace, the company managers changed the workplace culture, making it more democratic and transformational. Consequently, employee needs were prioritized, and emplo yees could work in flexible times and even work part-time at the company, provided they meet the organizational goals. The managers at Telstra incorporated technology to improve the employee engagement, whereby it has introduced the My Future platform, through which the skilled employees can gain access to various learning opportunities aligning to their job roles and career advancement plans. The managers also introduced Connected Leadership Program and Core Capabilities Training Program meant to enhance the professional skills of the employees (Kilroy and Schneider 2015). Conclusion: To conclude, it should be stated that the managers of any organization play an important role in the decision-making process. Todays business world revolves around effective decisions and hence the managers should decide after having adequate information about the problem, or else it will involve problems. Telstra managers faced with the problem of employee turnover, and yet the managers have succeeded in exploiting all the available information, considering each viable alternative and without creating conflicts of interests, solved the problems by improving HR policies. Reference List: Abatecola, G., 2014. Untangling self-reinforcing processes in managerial decision making. Co-evolving heuristics?. Management Decision,52(5), pp.934-949. Certo, S., 2015.Supervision: Concepts and skill-building. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. EMPLOYEE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION. (2017). 1st ed. [ebook] Telstra Corporation Limited, pp.2,3. Available at: https://www.telstra.com.au/content/dam/tcom/about-us/investors/pdf%20D/telstra-employee-diversity-and-inclusion.pdf [Accessed 25 Aug. 2017]. Gardiner, B., 2015. Telstra CEO: Don't be afraid of machine learning.CIO, (Spring 2015), p.8. Gutirrez, E. and Magnusson, M., 2014. Dealing with legitimacy: A key challenge for Project Portfolio Management decision makers.International Journal of Project Management,32(1), pp.30-39. Kilroy, D. and Schneider, M., 2015. The real economic challenge for the leaders of a listed company Part 1: Establishing the right understanding.Governance Directions,67(11), p.653. Mackey, A. and Gass, S.M., 2015.Second language research: Methodology and design. Routledge. Noel, A., 2015. A great result but Telstra is facing threats. Pettigrew, A.M., 2014.The politics of organizational decision-making. Routled Telstra.com.au. 2017.Telstra - mobile phones, prepaid phones, broadband, internet, home phones, business phones. [online] Available at: https://www.telstra.com.au/ [Accessed 25 Aug. 2017].