Question

Read the following situation and decide whether you would use joint decision-making, consultative decision-making or directive decision-making to address the situation. Then, briefly explain your choice to us:

Your boss is breathing down your neck to continue cutting costs in your department and become more "lean". You have slashed your budget as thinly as possible without resorting to pay cuts, overtime reductions, reduced work schedules, and other measures that could affect your team member's pocketbooks and even their future with the company. You are still committed to avoiding such measures, but they are not sure you can. So far, you have not asked the team for their input on ways to cut costs. You are not sure whether or not you should talk with them now.

Read the following situation and prepare an assertive confrontation message and tell us what points you will use in your message. Why did you choose these points for your message?

Manuel has become a broken record. For weeks, he has come into your office to complain about something. Often, his complaints have to do with the way his co-workers are performing. Sometimes, he complains about a specific co-worker and subtly implies how superior his performance is to the co-worker. He then suggests how underpaid he is. Occasionally, he has even threatened to quit and find a better position elsewhere. Manuel is a good performer, but on average no better or worse than his co-workers. You would like to pay everyone more, but budget and market considerations don't allow it. Also, you do not feel additional pay is warranted for Manuel in comparison to his co-workers. Also, you want the complaining to stop.

Answer 1

As I have read the situation quite carefully, I think this problem can be solved with the help of consultative decision making. IN case of consultative decision making, the participants must have the belief that the point of views presented by them are considered quite well and they have an active role in the process despite not having the full inclusion of their views in the final decision.

There are a number of reasons for selecting this sort of decision making, the first and foremost is the time constraints. The reading begins with the sentence that stating "your boss is breathing down your neck...", this indicates that the time is the most important element and there may not be sufficient time for having a collaborated efforts from the team before making the decision and appear in front of the boss.

The second reason is that the manager, in this case, shows care for the team members and also consider the impact of the decision on the team members. The manager is also concerned about the requirement of working with the employees so that they can support the entire team. All the attempts are made by the manager so that reduction of hours of an employee can be avoided. This is a clear indication that manager is quite concerned about the results of the decision making and how employees are going to be affected.

These are the reasons I would choose a consultative decision-making process because time is short and the decision must reflect the concerns of all the people affected. ?