Alvis Corporation 1. Were the TWO decisions appropriate for a group decision procedure according to the Vroom-Yetton model? The underlying assumption of the Vroom-Yetton-Jago Decision Models is that no one leadership style or decision making process fits all situations. By analyzing the situation and evaluating the problem based on time, team buy-in, and decision quality, a conclusion about which style best fits the situation can be made. The model defines a very logical approach to which style to adopt and is useful for managers and leaders who are trying to balance the benefits of participative management with the need to make decisions effectively. Thereon, I think the two decisions by Kathy McCarthy are appropriate for a group decision procedure according to the Vroom-Yetton model. The first decision which involved holiday schedules was important to plan a holiday schedule that would ensure adequate staffing for all of the essential operations performed by the department. The second decision which involved production standards was important because sales had been increasing steadily and the company recently installed some new equipment to increase productivity, therefore, the new equipment would make it possible to produce more with the same number of workers.
2. What mistakes were made in using participation, and what could have been done to avoid the difficulties the manager encountered? Making good decisions is one of the main leadership tasks. Part of doing this is determining the most efficient and effective means of reaching the decision. The primary mistake of participative management is that important decisions can be turned to long discussions. When these long discussions happen, competitors can show up and take advantage. These competitors can destroy the decision once it is made. Another mistake is the unclear and confusing communication generated by the manager who wants to be participative, or at a minimum, nonautocratic. Such communication can be a danger if the manager did not evaluate his communication methods well. What could have been done to avoid the difficulties the manager encountered is to follow standards and use templates. There are good reasons why experienced professionals took the time to create and publish industry and company standards. Standards detail best practices and procedures learned over years of trial and error
3. Were these TWO decisions appropriate ones for introducing participation into the department? I do not think so because they did not allow enough time for the workers to adapt to the situation. Failure to allow enough time for each stage of the project can lead to missed requirements, inadequate analysis, poor design, rushed programming, insufficient testing, and incomplete documentation. The result can be a system that doesn’t meet expectations and fails in one or more key areas. Estimating the time needed to accomplish each phase of a project is difficult. If I am an employee I will achieve the best results when I sat down with my supervisor and determined the time allotted for each major task in the project plan. One should be overly optimistic in his estimates; the other should be much more realistic in his estimates, and this turned out to be right. As a good rule, doubling initial estimates came close to the actual time required. That information was useful for developing project plan timelines. You may need to develop a similar rule until you can more accurately estimate completion dates. Ideally, you want to complete each stage of the project on time, and the best way to do that is estimate them correctly from the beginning.
4. How does the revised model as designed by Vroom and Jago differ from the Vroom-Yetton model? In three samples of manager-reported decisions the Vroom–Jago model's predictions were supported. Decisions that more closely fit the recommended decision method were rated as higher in effectiveness. The model was also found to account for more variance in decision effectiveness than the prior Vroom–Yetton model. It was also found that the Vroom–Jago model's greater precision in situational assessment and derived prescriptions allow for greater discrimination in choice of decision method across all situations. The Vroom-Yetton: When do not know about the model, 96 managers from a variety of organizations described 181 actual problem-solving or decision-making situations and their behavior in these situations. The model was then employed to predict ratings of the technical quality, subordinate acceptance, and the overall effectiveness of the final solutions chosen or decisions made. Substantial support for the model and its various components was obtained. Its concurrent validity was greater than that of a noncontingent model proposed by other theorists. The validity of the Vroom-Yetton model is due, in large measure, to relationships between agreement with the model and subordinate acceptance of or commitment to decisions. Relationships with decision quality were smaller.
