Management Ideas and Concepts in the Practice of Management

Theories of management in business incorporate business management philosophies, approaches and mental models. Each business organisation applies a business theory that the management views as both purposeful and more so conscious towards the realisation of business goals and objectives. This essay seeks to discuss how business theories lead to effective influences on the resolve of goals and objectives, the preferences in organisational structure, the options taken with regard to available policies, the development of organisational culture and the process through which businesses employ production techniques for the desired outcome. The theory of business adopted determines the operations of an organisation’s management. It is worthy noting that contemporary market conditions have effectively caused a lot of change in the manner with which management institute decision making processes and getting work done.

Groupthink in decision making

The groupthink theory has been widely studied with regard to decision making processes and outcomes in business organisations. Decision making processes that are time conscious and effective are the most significant requirements in each and every business management process. This implies that decisions made by an organisation’s management have to be made more quickly and instituted more effectively than those made by competitors. In the group thinking theory, there is a leader who is in most cases a manager. Members of a given group provide a pivotal role in enabling their managers make the appropriate decisions by providing them with vital information, analysis and suggestions necessary in the decision making process as well as implementing decisions arrived at unit activities levels. Managers depend heavily on the groups members ability to offer assistance on planning for an organisation’s future operations and more so the feedback necessary for the development of plans towards the optimisation on the execution of ongoing operations. Therefore, groupthink in the decision making process is critical t the methodology adopted by management in the operations planning process notably reliant on information available, analysis and suggestions also made available in a collaborative and cohesive group environment.

Groupthink has been attributed to a number of low quality decisions and more so defective processes in making decisions. These have been attributed to poor analysis of information available and the failure to address risks of the accepted decisions arrived at by management. For instance, in January of 1986, the NASA space shuttle Challenger exploded less than two minutes after liftoff  leading to the death of all astronauts on board/. This is cited as a failure of the group think theory by the decision to go ahead with the mission even though mechanical components in the space vehicle were known to be defective.

Feedback control

This management practice entails the focus on the output realised by an organisation after a given transformation has been instituted. It is at times referred to as output control and is critical to the fulfilment of a number of decision making processes in the management of a business. Feedback is critical to managers since they are in a position to access vital information as to how effective a given transformation has been in the realisation of an organisation’s goals and objectives. Feedback offers managers with indicators in terms of variances between the projected standard performances and the actual performance. When the variance is within the acceptable levels, then the decision making process with regard to such a transformation can be viewed conclusively as being successful. If the variance is greater than envisaged then this is vital information for managers in the decision making roles for the formulation of new plans so that the outcomes are more effective.

Feedback control is also a strong motivator for the staff such that they are made more confident in their productivity towards meeting the objectives and goals of an organisation. It is worthy to note that there is one significant disadvantage with feedback control in the operations of a business organisation. In the eventuality that the deviation realised with regard to set targets and actual outcomes is great and the damage caused on the normal operations of a business is significant then relying of feedback control tends to be an expensive business venture.

In recent years, feedback control has been embraced by business organisation in marketing campaigns. Information given to marketers by the consumers has been effectively used in the formulation of decision making outcomes that encompass consumer preferences in the production of goods and services. MacDonald’s entered the Japan market with the American model but the Japanese consumer failed to associate with the American fast food culture. Upon using feedback information available from the consumer, the company embarked on a marketing campaign that effectively incorporated Japanese culture in to the MacDonald’s fast food chains in its Japan market. This is a great example as to the effectiveness of feedback control in management decision making processes.

Problem solving

The most significant role played by management in business organisations involves problem solving and decision making. On a regular basis, managers are faced with new problems which translate to the formulation of decisions which have in the past been successful in offering solution for the same or similar problem. It is therefore critical that an organisation formulates necessary mechanisms towards problem solving and subsequently the decision making process. However, not all problems can have solution simply by following some rational approach, it is therefore critical that a business management formulates guidelines with which decisions can be comprehensively arrived at to effectively tackle problems at hand through a rational approach. Problem solving skills in the management practices of business organisations is important in that it offers a guarantee as to the effectiveness of the organisations ability to make decisions which are both strategic and operational. In the problem solving process, managers are required to be able to define and more so identify a given management problem. Secondly analysis of the problem and the subsequent development of solutions is also critical to decision making. Managers are tasked with making decisions whose outcome provides the best possible solution from a given set of alternatives. After a decision has been made in an effort to remedy an identified problem, mangers are tasked with coordinating efforts to transform the decision made into action.

Toyota, one of the world’s largest automobile manufacturers has in recent years been plagued with faulty components in its vehicles. This has been largely attributed to the managements decision to outsource some of the components in its vehicle. This has led to massive recall all over the world. The company made the decision to publicly point out the problems it was facing with regard to customer satisfaction and making efforts to remedy its shortcoming in its quality control and quality assurance departments. This was viewed as an act of good faith by the consumers effectively limiting the damage on its consumers’ confidence and its financial position.

Project planning

For every business organisation, the outcome of a favourable project is essentially dependent on appropriate and effective project planning. The management has to consider and incorporate the expectations of outcomes as highlighted by stakeholders. In this context a stakeholder can be defined as an individual or legal person directly or otherwise indirectly affected by the outcome of the project. The effective identification of stakeholders is therefore critical for the successful outcome of a given project. Priorities of these stakeholders’ expectations are outlined with respect to the eventual purpose of the project undertaken. Thi8s aids the management in formulating project goals and as such presents managers with the most challenging phase of project planning. After goals have been identified project deliverables are established and delivery dates are accurately set. At this point, management is in a position to analyse project cost estimates and enable the management to optimise project outcomes by setting a balance between project resource allocation and project duration.

This has been crucial for the effective decisions making process of businesses in the real estate market. In most instances the financing for such construction projects is funded for by potential home owners through project partners such as banks. Managers have to therefore strictly adhere to strict project completion schedules and project cost budgets to realise favourable outcome. Proper project planning by the managers is thus inherently crucial to the successful completion and outcome of such a project.

In conclusion, business theories adopted by organisations define the methodology adopted in realising desired results and effective achieving targeted goals and objectives. The effective use of management ideas and concepts in management practices enables the decision makers’ ability to curtail barriers among staff, departments and stakeholders. In the world today, it is critical that managers tasked with the decision making roles in organisations are in a position to effect decision that ensure possible barriers with regard to customers, raw material and services suppliers and the community at large are effectively removed or avoided by the organisation in its operations.

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