Managerial and Organizational Factors Associated with Company Performance - Essay Example

Organizations, regardless of their scope and functions, are becoming more complex and comprehensive today than they were a hundred or so years ago. Organizations are exposed to complex environments with complex needs and demands and there is no way for them to move forward but to evolve into something equally complex (Barnatt, 1995). With all the complexities surrounding organizations, individuals that hold key responsibilities must be able to sift the complexities and filter important data and information in order to make informed decisions that would help organizations thrust their way forward. Organizations make decisions for a variety of reasons, whether valid or not. Are we going to increase our manpower? Are we going to cut cost? Do we need more time? How far can we go? What would stop us? How can we get there? Is it even possible? The decisions organizations make reflect the organization as a whole including its functions, nature and extent of operation, future goals, and previous histories. These decisions also tell a lot about the people working for the organization, their perceptions, aspirations and their ideals which are embedded in the decisions they make for the organization. But organizations do not make decisions at a whim, particularly if the decisions involved are very important for their long-and short-term growth and development. The decision making process that the organization goes through are often rigid, unbiased, and focused in order to achieve the goals set by the organization with as little waste as possible, both in time and resources. However, this is the ideal view towards decision making. Actual decision making process organizations go through involve a lot of elements that, when taken together, make decision making a convoluted process. This paper analyzes what went wrong in one particular event where the organization was with had to make a decision but was unable to efficiently do so because of the inability of the organization to handle internal and external factors that could potentially cloud the objectivity of individuals involved in the decision making process. The Scenario It was the end of the school year and the school had seen a significant increase in enrollment for the last five years. Our school was owned, run, and managed by private individuals whose management styles are somehow lame and incompetent. The 15-man organization comprising of a principal, 12 teachers, and two administrative assistants (excluding our security and facilities management force since these are outsourced by the organization) were left to run the organization on a daily basis. With the increasing number of enrollees, the teacher-student ratio would be no longer suitable and ideal for our school. The principal discussed this issue with the owners of the private high school but they expressed their disinterest in playing any significant roles in resolving this issue. Our school principal called us for a meeting and informed us about the current need of the school to increase its teaching force and the disinterest of the owners to take part in the decision making process. The principal had two plans in mind: First, he wanted to add another three teachers to distribute the teaching load for the incoming school year. Second, he wanted to put the burden of the extra loads on teachers who have already full teaching loads. The first option seemed to be a better way to resolve the issue of the increased enrollment. The school’s teaching force can perform their duties more efficiently if they can have their regular teaching loads. However, a significant part of a teacher’s salary lies in the number of students he has in his class (as was defined in our contracts and is practised by the school). The more students there are in the class, the better the pay is for teachers (as well as the administrators). Because each of these two choices offered something equally important to all the stakeholders involved – better salary for the teachers or better quality of education for students – everyone in the organization had to face a difficult choice. With all the emotions involved and the interests that would not be met by whatever decision was made, the decision-making of the organization should be more incoherent. Power Struggle In the scenario, it is easy to identify that there is some sort of a power struggle that develops between and among individuals in the organization. Each individual struggles to protect their own interests without much regard for the interests of their colleagues. Everyone wanted to become the one who would run the show as their interests are at stake. Individualism and isolation easily occurred within the team and each of us considered every available option. In this scenario, nobody wants to let the other group win. Everyone is putting their best interests forward and failed to objectively address the issues faced by the organization. As a result, the factions were not able to get the best results and hence are forced to close their doors and fight for what they believe is due to them. Organizations experiencing internal conflicts would have difficult time resolving issues if power struggles exist (Karr, 1975; 772). Power struggle divides organizations into smaller but equally powerful groups that tend to distract organizations from making equivocal compromises. This is because as individuals coagulate to form groups large enough to struggle and protect their positions, their collective bargaining power increases as well (Hollway, 1991; 114). As organizations go through the process of conflict resolution, any form of distractions that would bar organizational management committees to successfully and efficiently resolve issues must be removed or addressed to in the early stage of the decision making process. This is because resolution will be next to impossible if conflicts such as power struggle exist. However, resolving issues on power struggle takes more than just giving each faction what they need; it’s about understanding the existing needs of each individual in the organization and how these needs can be addressed, what would the effects of the failure to address these concerns be, and how to efficiently and effectively handle them. In order to gain a better understanding of the nature and the context of power struggles in organizations, it is necessary to identify and discuss some important concepts in organizational management like organizational psychology, workplace culture, and motivation at work. This is because these elements are the same factors that would lead individuals to go through the process of struggling for power and positional advantage since these are the things that encompass what they need to protect in their lives. Organizational Psychology  Different people have their own interests and in difficult situations, people will protect these interests no matter what, especially if it concerns future goals, family and relationships, and dreams and ambitions. Deciding on one’s own is a simple balancing of the pros and cons of the decision and then choosing the decision that offers a lot of positive things with very low exposure to risks. However, this simplistic look at the decision making process becomes problematic when various individuals are involved. In situations where conflicts in decision-making process arise, a simple management approach would not suffice. There is a need to understand related concepts such as organizational psychology, sociology in the workplace, and in-group and out-groups are very important in handling conflicting personal issues in the workplace. More importantly, combining this knowledge with the established management practices, organizations can expect to reduce the irregularities and irrelevant aspects of the decision making in progress in order to come up with the most logical, most balanced decision that would benefit the organization. Organizational psychology has become important as organizations are developing behaviors that affect how individuals perceive the organization and on how it will contribute to the bigger perception of the organization. In the broadest sense, organizational psychology is a subfield of industrial psychology that attempts to explain and understand social processes in organizations. It attempts to explain social interactions using scientific methodologies and approaches in solving social and psychological issues within the organization (Jex, 2002; Hollway, 1991). Unlike organizational behavior that focuses on the behavior of the organization and how the behaviors affect organizational growth, organizational psychology looks into the psychology of the individual components of an organization to determine the efficiency and the probability of success of the organization (Jex, 2002). Organizational psychology is related to other social sciences like economics and sociology. The goals of organizational psychology coincide with that of corporate economics which means that it aims to maximize the output of the human resource of the firm and minimize the expenses through understanding how human psychology works. Organizational psychology also looks at the key economic indicators of the company in order to propose necessary changes in the organization. Organizational psychology and sociology are the same in the sense that they deal with human interactions. Organizational psychology differs from sociology in many ways. Sociology focuses on the interaction between and among individuals in a social context whereas organizational psychology looks into the individuals themselves and how internal and external influences affect how the individual behaves towards the people around him. Sociologists are more concerned with the rules governing interpersonal interaction; organizational psychologists are more interested on how individual behavior affects interpersonal interactions. (Jex, 2002). Workplace Motivation One aspect of organizational psychology that is very important in understanding the context in which the problem discussed above revolves is the motivation of the individuals to work. Motivation is an internal impulse that causes the person to act towards something in definite motion with clear purpose and vision to achieve the goal and adhere to the initial impulse. It can also be defined as the forces that induce individuals to perform. It can be money, happiness, ideas, intellect, or anything that inspires people to perform better on their jobs. Since it causes individuals to act on a particular drive, it is considered as an internal factor that influences human behavior (Hill & Jones, 1997).  What motivates employees to achieve the desired output? What keeps them from achieving their work potential? How can organizations motivate employees to perform better? Motivation and motivation theory are some of the most discussed and studied concepts in the field of organizational science. However, there has not been any single unified concept or theory made that could explain the immense characteristics of motivation despite the volume of research studies conducted on the subject since the industrial revolution (Hill & Jones, 1997).  In the last 20 years, motivational environments have been trying to adopt whatever motivational theory suits their situational needs as they adapt to the challenges that their organizations face. Motivation is different from manipulation. Manipulation introduces an external factor that alters the natural impulse of a person. Manipulation is the use of emotions, logic, appeal, or a combination of them to be able to influence the behaviors of other people, especially in achieving something. Coaxing a person to do something that he or she did not initially intend to do is a form of manipulation. Motivation does not use external forces to prompt an individual to act on something but rather calls on internal impulses to initiate a chain of reaction in him to achieve the goals. We can say that manipulation is the inverse of motivation. (Hill & Jones, 1997) Some Theories on Motivation Adam’s Equity Theory (Mind Tools, 1995-2009) was developed by John Stacy Adams in 1963 and it speaks a lot about the sensitive balance between what the employees can offer the company compared to what the company can offer them. Frederick Herzberg’s Motivator-Hygiene Theory (Net.MBA 2002-2007) states that the factors causing job satisfaction are different from the factors causing job dissatisfaction. In simpler terms, the employer can easily reinforce or decrease the factors that increase job satisfaction if they want to retain their employees. Learned-Need Theory by David McClelland (Net.MBA 2002-2007) stated that an individual’s specific needs are acquired over time and are shaped by the individual’s experience. Simply put, organizations can gradually condition and influence the mind of their employees so that their motivation can be anticipated. Among these motivation theories, Adam’s Equity Theory and McClelland’s Learned Need Theory provide more relevant perspective on the issues considered in the given situation. Adam’s Equity Theory talks about the perception of individuals about fairness and equality and how these perceptions influence their motivation. McClelland’s Learned-Need Theory suggests that needs are learned over time. Adam’s Equity Theory and McClelland Learned Theory succors the decision making process of the organization were the differences in the opinion and perspectives about the issue. In addition, half of the teachers wanted to increase their salary and thus choose to take more students in their class. The remaining teachers on the other hand believed that their teaching load was more than enough and so they wanted to hire additional teachers. These teachers wanted to take some time off from work to spend more quality time with their families and friends. These conflicting motivations caused a lot of stress for the individuals involved in the decision making process. The school principal could not take sides because the concerns raised were all valid. Hence, the principal needed to balance the motivations involved in order to choose the best course of action. Authority and Power Struggle Power is directly related to authority although having power does not necessarily mean possessing authority (Shapiro, 2002; 34). The main function of authorities is to restore balance and keep order as power is delegated to them by their constituents. Authorities in organizations are typically those that are a part of the management team. They are the ones often tasked to oversee roles and functions of those under their responsibilities and meet the aims and objectives of the organization. In the event of power struggle, those in the authority exert more influence than the collective bargaining power of individuals, but only to some degrees. In order to analyze how authority play an important role in the resolution of internal conflicts in organizations and in power struggle, it is necessary to gain a deeper understanding of the sociology in the workplace. Sociology in the Workplace The organization I was with is not quintessential; it experienced a lot of stress and strain after the initial meeting. Teachers with the same position on the issue began to form small groups.  In a way, they affected on how the organization performed in a collective manner. Tension built up as both groups lobbied their cause to the principal. Just as importantly, the individuals in the organization experienced a strained working relationship. This negative social interaction in the workplace prompted the principal to discuss with a few of us some strategies he had thought of in order to resolve the issues. Generally speaking, social networks proportionally affect organizational behavior. This is because organizations, like social networks, are governed by people’s relationships within the organization, as well as the fit between the individual and the organization-fit (Mowday & Sutton, 1993, 44). On top of that, social networks are microcosmic forms of organizations and whatever the minutiae feels, the whole system feels. If social networks harbor certain feelings/attitudes/emotions towards organizations, the general behavior of the organization in that particular department will be influenced by the attitude of the majority. For example, if a company focuses primarily on the sales and marketing effort at the expense of its manufacturing department, it might impose low hourly wage rates on those employees in the manufacturing department. These low wages might lead to high absenteeism, which in turn will cause the manufacturing department to fail to meet its deadlines. In the case of my organization, the conflict that led to the negative social interaction in the workplace was caused by the options that the organization needed to choose in order to handle the increase in the volume of enrollees. Because individual interests were in conflict, individuals experienced a strenuous social relationship within the work setting. Social Interactions Social interactions in organizations play important roles in the achievement of organizational goals and objectives. How each member of the organization interacts with each other individually affects a larger context of interaction within the organization which in turn affects the performance of the organization as a whole. Isolation of roles and functions within organizations are becoming difficult to achieve and sustain. As organizations adopt structures that encourage communication between and among individuals; design strategies that allows one individual to work with other individuals; and implement systems that force individual members to cooperate and coordinate their skills and functions in order to achieve certain goals and perform certain tasks, social interactions are becoming difficult to control (Salas, Stagl & Burke, 2004, 19). Organizations that allow negative social interaction to permeate its system will most likely fail to implement a good strategy to deal with the current issues it is facing due to internal failures. Interaction between and among individuals in organizations is not confined to functions or roles required by the organizations. Social interactions typically include exchange of gossip, personal concerns, and other non-work related issues and ideas that help forge the social bond between individuals within the team (Child, 1975, 12-27). True enough, in this case the group’s professional relationship was not only the one that was affected by the split in the decision; the informal relationships of individuals were affected as well. Individuals from different position rarely spoke to each other as the principal deliberated on the best decision to make. Team work suffered a lot as the communication process between individuals and committees declined as well. Communication in general was limited to those who shared the same stand. Because of the lack of effective communication within the team, there were a lot of projects and work that were left undone. Prompted by these events, our principal realized that doing nothing about this fact would put the organization at a disadvantage in the long run.  Organizations encourage healthy social relationships on and off work. Positive interaction in the workplace is known to increase efficiency and productivity (Kerr, 1975, 18) and a workforce that derives inspiration and sense of belonging with their workmates, superiors, and colleagues is known to perform better and achieve more compared to workers who are off side with their colleagues. By creating programs that would reinforce formal and informal social interaction in the workplace, especially programs that will persuade the workforce to behave in a manner that the organization decides necessary, the organization can achieve what it wants and when it wants it. Organizations can make good use of the principles of organizational psychology to curb organizational behavior to its advantage, either by increasing productivity and efficiency or by lowering the instances of workplace issues such as diversity conflicts and unionization. Strategic Management It took a while before the principal figured a way out of the cul-de-sac that the organization had experienced. With the intense pressure that the organization experienced as a whole, and with the thought processes that the team had come up with to address the issues involved without committing serious and irreversible errors, leadership played an important role in the team’s success. Leadership, according to Nemetz-Mills (1999, 326), is “an influence process”. People involved in this- leaders- aim to rally the people around them towards a common goal. If the leaders can use their influence in a positive manner and rouse the enthusiasm of their members, or if they use their skills, knowledge, or experience to come up with the best plans to address certain issues, then it is most likely that the organization will succeed in its endeavors. In our case, our manager employed a series of steps on strategic management in order to objectively resolve the issues. Jobs Analysis The very first step he did was to perform a job analysis. In today’s business where competitive job matches are to be made, knowing who to put in a specific position and what position to fill are very important. Job analysis is the process that includes the collection of data and information concerning a certain job function and the thorough analysis of this data and information using existing tools. The resulting analysis usually yields a series of descriptions and a job specification. In the job analysis process, four factors usually come up to be analyzed: duties and tasks, environment, relationships, and requirement (HR Guide, 2001). Defining these four aspects of a job position makes it easier for the management to delegate jobs and create a continuous chain of command that invariably lowers the risk of job-related operational failures. Without providing a thorough analysis on the job functions of each individual in the organization, some employees may end up doing what they are not supposed to do while some employees end up doing nothing. Simply put, job analysis is important in today’s world because it specifically points out what kind of person the company will be looking for to perform certain tasks that the company or the organization defines to be important. The principal argued that the workplace indeed needed other teachers in order to operate efficiently. Choosing the three teachers would have been an easy task but having them successfully integrate in the workplace could prove to be difficult considering that half of the current workforce was against the idea. On the other hand, choosing not to employ more teachers for the next school year could result in operational failures as well since only half the teaching force was enthused with the idea that their teaching loads would be increased. On top of that, the principal did not have the necessary management ability to sift through all the conflicting information and propose balanced, unbiased, and strategic solutions. However, the whole situation presented him the opportunity to think out of the box. He did not want to prolong the negative social interactions in the workplace that resulted from the conflicting views towards the decisions that had to be made and so he did something totally unexpected. He hired an external business management consultant to resolve the problem for us. This action was totally unexpected and all of us were surprised. After listening to the consultant who speaks for a few minutes, everyone in the organization believed that hiring this person was the best thing to do at the moment. What the consultant did was fairly simple – he assessed the strategic strengths and weaknesses of the organization, particularly focusing on the current issues the organization was involved with. His assessments were very objective and direct to the point. He was able to present the problem from various perspectives and what was important was that he was able to provide an analysis that average teachers like me were not able to fathom. He led us through an effective management process all of us would never forget. First, he discussed about strategic marketing and how it defines strategic management processes. In addition, marketing, like any other business process, has evolved from a very simple task to a lot more complicated workload. The whole system has changed and all of the changes happening in the business must be met with strong and able people to decide which courses of actions to take. Because of these complexities involved in the business process, deciding the correct course of action becomes too difficult to do especially when one relies on gut feeling alone. Thus, the necessity of relying on well informed and carefully thought marketing approach comes up through the aid of strategic marketing. Decision Making Process There are many ways to make a decision. Various decision making models present various strengths and weaknesses and each of them (or their combination) can only do as much as each problems organizations face are unique. Among the many possible decision-making theories, concepts, and principles (Expected Utility Theory, Satisficing, Prospect Theory, Pseudocertainty, Regret Theory, Multi-Attribute Choice Theory, or Noncompensatory Strategies), the solutions in the activities given generally fall under the Expected Utility Theory and Prospect Theory of the decision making process. Expected Utility is a concept that gets the best possible solution or combination of solutions in an uncertain event by looking at the statistical weighted average or expected probability. Under the Expected Utility Theory, a decision is made by ranking the probabilities for each possible option and obtaining the most favorable probability for the particular situation. Activities one through five can be analyzed by using expected probability because each situation presents calculable risks. The calculability of each concept is given by the probabilistic approach of each problem. Drawing conclusions from the cases is relatively easy since the solutions can be measured based on their utilities or their favorable outcome using probability tools and concepts (Cox and Vjollca,2001).       Prospect Theory on the other hand looks at the best outcome in the presence of risks (Byrns, 2008). Risks are always present in the decisions that one make because not all situations are risk-free and most risks could not be eliminated. To be able to get the optimal solution to the problem at hand, a concept similar to cost-benefit theory is used wighing the risks against the benefits of the decision making process. Each activity has values for probability or chances of getting the best options. The problem gave values for the probability of losing or getting the unfavorable outcome. Expected probabilities of each outcome can then be calculated by using the probability equation . The risks involved in choosing this decision can then be integrated to get a more realistic picture. The values for the probability and the available choices and incorporating risks to the picture, one could then draw optimal inferences based on logical results.       People make decisions based on the most probable favorable outcome for their preferences as what can be observed in the activities. In an ideal problem, risks are eliminated so that the optimal result can be achieved. However, real-world applications have risks incorporated in each problems and choosing the best result becomes tricky and difficult. Approaching the problem using the prospect theory is what people often consider. The prevalence of these two concepts in the activities implies that people see decision making process as risky and uncertain. Since there is not way to eliminate the risks involved in them, people choose the decision that gives little damage or pay-off.       However, not every decision can be quantified and analyzed quantitatively. There are decisions that have to be made using qualitative data and options which are beyond Expected Utility Theory and Prospect Theory. The qualitative nature of the data makes it hard for decision makers to choose the most objective and most rational choice and so mistakes can often be made during the decision making process.   Learning Process Through the help of the business consultant, the organization was able to choose the best and most appropriate decision which balanced the desires of all stakeholders concerned. The organization hired two teachers to handle the additional teaching load and the rest of the load was distributed to those teachers who particularly wanted to increase their salaries. Everything fell in place afterwards. The individuals in the organization began to work again as a team and all issues were patched up. This experience offered everyone a positive learning curve. What this experience taught us was to see beyond our emotions and our interests in making decisions so as to avoid making serious mistakes. Decision making in an organization is more complicated than decision making on a personal level because there are a lot of factors involved in the organization. For one thing, the organization has no direct control of the future. This means that regardless of the preparation the organization makes, there will be issues which it will encounter in the future which could shake the very foundation of the organization. Secondly, the organization is only as good as it is designed. The ability of the organization to address its issues depends on how well it is constructed to face these issues. I assume that the larger the organization is, the more complex the decision making process becomes, especially if one is to take into account or protect the interests of all the stakeholders involved. Handling all the interests of the stakeholders involved lessens the negative impact of the decision. However, this does not happen all the time. Sometimes, painful decisions have to be made. By using the strategic marketing process of strategic planning, strategic management, and strategic implementation of plans, decisions are made as objectively as possible and thus are expected to produce good results. The two theories: Adam’s Equity Theory and McClelland’s Learned Need Theory tremendously assist in the decision making processes with the organization. References Adams' Equity Theory (1995-2009). Retrieved online on September 3, 2009 http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_96.htm Barnatt C. (1995). Cyber Business: Mindsets for a Wired Age, John Wiley and Sons Ltd., Chichester, UK.   Byrns, Ralph. Prospect Theory. Economics Interactive. 2008. Accessed from http://www.unc.edu/depts/econ/byrns_web/Economicae/Figures/Prospect.htm   Chapter 1: Scope of Strategic Marketing. Retrieved online on September 3, 2009. media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/51/.../0470849851.pdf Child, J. (1975) “Managerial and organizational factors associated with company performance--part II: A contingency analysis.” Journal of Management Studies, 12: 12-27. Cox, James & Vjollca Sadiraj. Risk Aversion and Expected Utility Theory. Coherence for Small and Large-Stake Gamble. 2001. Accessed from http://209.85.175.104/search?q=cache:xFpZgjZdAv0J:econ.arizona.edu/downloads/working_papers/riskavers.pdf+expected+Utility+Theory&hl=tl&ct=clnk&cd=7   Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory (2002-2007). Retrieved online on September 3,2009 http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/herzberg/ Hills, C. and Jones, G. (1997). Strategic Management, Fourth Ed. Houghton Mifflin Company. Hollway, W. (1991). Work Psychology and Organizational Behavior: Managing Individuals at Work. Sage Publications Ltd.   HR Guide. (2001). Job Analysis: Overview. Retrieved online on September 3, 2009. http://www.hr-guide.com/data/G000.htm Jex, S.(2002). Organizational Psychology: A Scientist Practitioner Approach, First Ed. John Wiley and Sons Inc., New York, NY. Kerr, S. (1975). On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B. Academy of Management Journal, 18, 4, 769-783. McClelland's Theory of Needs (2002-2007). Retrieved online on September 3, 2009. http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/mcclelland/ Mowday, R.T. and, Sutton, R.I. (1993). Organizational behavior: Linking individuals and groups to organizational contexts. Annual Review of Psychology, 44, 195-229. Nemetz-Mills, P. (1999). Chapter 14- Leadership Basics. Retrieved online September 3, 2009. http://www.cbpa.ewu.edu/~pnemetzmills/326ch14.html  Salas, E., Stagl, K.C. and Burke, C.S. (2004). 25 years of team effectiveness in organizations: research themes and emerging needs. In C.L. Cooper and Ivan T. Robertson (Eds.),International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 19, 47-91.  Shapiro, Scott, 2002, “Authority,” The Oxford Handbook of Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law ed. Jules Coleman and Scott Shapiro (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) Watkins, Thayer. Kahneman and Tversky’s Prospect Theory. Accessed from http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/prospect.htm Assessment Criteria for Reflective Case Study Quality and relevance of content and discussion [35 marks] Has a relevant and sufficiently significant organizational decision issue been identified as a suitable case for reflective study? Has the decision context at hand been adequately articulated and described? Has sophisticated analytical insight and understanding of the selected decision context and its processes been demonstrated? Have relevant concepts, theories, and ideas been drawn on from the literature, and integrated appropriately in support of analysis and understanding? Has there been satisfactory reflection on relevant cognitive, contextual, social, and political factors associated with power and authority in the decision context, and have possible alternative processes and scenarios been considered? Have appropriate narrative ‘voices’ been used in articulating and analysing the case at hand? Has adequate reflection on what has been learned from the case at hand occurred? Mark 4 4 1 2 0 2 2 15/35 Quality of writing and expression [5 marks] Is the case study written in a clear, lucid and engaging style with appropriate grammar, spelling and punctuation? Is there a smooth transition between paragraphs? Are ideas structured, organised and developed in a flowing, coherent and logical manner? Mark 3 Use of sources and documentation [10 marks] How adequate are the number, range and complexity of sources consulted and what evidence is there of this in the writing of the case study? Have sources and quotations been used and integrated appropriately into the reflection, and how well has research material been synthesised? Have alternative or varied points of view been identified and discussed in the analysis of the case at hand? Does the reflective case study observe proper footnoting and bibliographic conventions? Mark 4 TOTAL [50 MARKS] 22/50 ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: , your paper was expected to focus on concepts and theories relating to power, authority and processes of decision making. You did not do this and although you did write about various issues affecting the personal positioning of the participants in the decision context (issues such as organizational psychology, social interaction, motivation, and so on), you failed to meet the requirements for the assignment. I also have concerns about your referencing; please refer to my comments on page 17. Read More