Employee engagement relates to decision effectiveness by
having employees understand what the goals are for the organization, by making
them a reality, and being able to understand the changes that may come from the
decisions made. When you have the employees feel a part of the organization they
(leaders) can influence the buy-in from the decision effectiveness. Roberts
& Wood (2010) described that “When staff throughout an organization know
who makes decisions and know how decisions are made, good things happen.” (p.
192) when I was in charge of the NCO school house in my organization which
staffed 9 personnel, I always informed them in what went on in my meetings with
the higher echelons in my organization.
I always took their recommendations into account and brought
the issues to those meetings. When I come back with the reports I notify them
this is the restrictions, alternatives, and solutions that came out of the
meeting. Although the decisions made weren’t favored the employee engagement and
participation was high, because they knew they had a say whether they were
listened too or not their voices were heard.
Some impediments to good decision making is personal
feelings, relationships, and affiliations within the organization. Brown (2011)
discusses selective perception as the selectivity of information given or received.
Information would be ignored or not given attention because it may conflict
with others or ideas. (p. 97) this concept that Brown shared is something that I
have experienced myself. I had a best friend from high school in my unit and
had to make a decision on his career because of the violation he had committed.
I was blind to the facts, slow at the decision making, and wanted to put no
effort in making the right decision. I actually did make the right decision and
ensured the discipline was handed down accordingly, however, through that
particular experience of making personal feelings cloud my decision making. I learned
from it and took it with me in my career and now I am able execute decisions at
will so long as it benefits the organization.
If there was one element that I can add it is accountability.
Dive (2008) stated “Lack of true accountability causes excessive cost, both
economic and psychological, de-motivation in those who work for the
organization, dissatisfaction in those served by it, and sub-optimal
performance in general.” (p. 12) Accountability to the decisions made not only
puts those who make the decisions in check but prevents the finger pointing in
the organization which will bring distrust and stalling in making the other
decisions for the organization. I always inform my subordinates to own their decisions
and be accountable whether successful or not. It shows a true definition of a
leader because it shows those under you that you are trustworthy and reliable.
What I can take immediately and use in my career is Marcia
Blenko’s four elements of decision making. I actually will print this out and
put into my wallet and use as a guideline for myself and some of my peers. To
be able to provide quality, fast, thought out, and good effort into making decisions
I think will amaze some of my superiors most of all my subordinates. This is a
great tool for all to follow.
I would also caution to myself that realistically that I may
need practice before taking this into consideration. I don’t want to go guns
blazing and fail, for I know this is a great tool as I stated earlier.
I would research a little bit more into Marcia Blenkos work
and guidance to effective decision making.
References:
Brown, D. R. (2011). An Experiential Approach to
Organization Development (8th ed.). Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Dive, B., & Books24x7, I. (2008). The accountable
leader: Developing effective leadership through managerial accountability
(1st ed.). London;Philadelphia;: Kogan Page.
Roberts, K., & Wood, D. (2010). How organizations make
decisions. Feliciter, 56(5), 192. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/759966705?accountid=27203
No comments:
Post a Comment