Academies Australasia Polytechnic Decision Making Models Plan Paper

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Academies Australasia Polytechnic

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This assessment requires you to plan, conduct and report on applied research to influence the strategic directions and outcomes of a case study organisation.

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Research Report on Collection of Data to assist in informed Decision-making in all
Areas of the Business

Student’s Name
Professor
Course
Institution
Date

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Research Report on Collection of Data to assist in informed Decision-making in all Areas of
the Business
Summary
The research's main aim is to find out the reasons that lead staff in King Edward VII
College to make decisions that, in the long run, harm the school community. In some cases,
decisions made were beneficial for a short period. Still, after, say, four months, they become
costly to manage, costing the school money that could be put in more productive channels or
it occupies space that could be used for a laboratory or a lecture theatre. One of the important
findings is that the decision-making process could be improved in a number of ways; and by
making the process better and more efficient; the decisions will be sounder and more wellinformed (Zeelenberg, 1999). Another area that requires attention is the information that is
used when making decisions. Since data is regarded as one of the most powerful tools today,
especially in the academic world, measures should be put in place to ensure information
gathering for any decision is always done correctly (Sawada, 2017). Some of the factors that
affect decision-making processes are not major, for example, distractions when making the
decision or being in a rush. Any decision-making process, especially one that can affect how
a lot of people's lives, should be a careful and deliberate process. Therefore, it is necessary to
consider the procedures and policies laid down in the rules and regulations. There must be a
clear indication, and record kept; also, accountability is essential. If people realize that they
are never held responsible for what they do wrong, they are likely to get more careless at the
school's cost (Byrd, 2011). Notably, personal biases should be acknowledged as possible, the
decision to be made by someone who has no personal interest in the issue. Personal biases are
one of the common causes of bad decision making starting from something as simple as the
design of chairs picked for a lecture theatre to admission of students into the school who did
not meet the pass mark.

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Methods
Given that the research had no funding and had to be done in-house, the school's
methods did not cost the school. One of the ways used was an observation. I observed how
the school body made different decisions. The observations were made starting from the
simple decisions that may seem insignificant to those that directly impacted everyone in the
school. The processes were written down for analysis. The similarities and differences
between the techniques were also clearly noted. Another variation was letting the people
know that their decision-making process was being observed versus letting them go on about
it and quietly making observations. Secondly, questionnaires were administered. Since the
topic is broad, I used four differently set questionnaires. The areas of focus where: what the
respondent thinks of the decision-making process, how the respondents made their personal
decisions and how they affect the decisions they make when working, what they would
suggest being done differently in the decision-making process, and what they think to
influence the decision-making process. The questionnaires were numbered serially to easily
input the data, and they were placed at four different points where the school community
could pick them up at their convenience. While the members of the city were asked to
participate, they were not pressured into co-operating. The questionnaires were also filled out
anonymously to encourage the respondents to be more honest in their answers. The third
means of data collection was interviews with different members of the community. Starting
from some top management members, the support staff, and the students, the interviews were
carried out for three weeks, and each respondent was interviewed alone. The talks focused on
the existing decision-making process, whether the respondents think it exists and its
functionality, the factors that affect the decision-making process, what can be changed about
it, and lastly who is the most affected by the decisions.

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Results
From my observation, I realized that there was no particular decision-making process.
When selecting what meals to be set out during a scheduled meeting, the main determining
factors were attendance, how long the meeting was, and the number of people attending.
When deciding on where a lecture was held, it was merely any lecture theatre that was free at
the time. Sometimes its capacity was well less than the number of students attending the
lectures, which inconvenienced both the lecturers and the students. When people were aware
that I was observing the process, they made sure to consider everyone's opinions and make
sure that the process was inclusive. In the cases when they were not aware, the process was
hazy. Most of the time, they ended you [discussing several topics that were not related to the
decision; the decision was made with haste when the time was almost up or delegated to one
person to do it. The data collected from the questionnaire was entirely instrumental in my
findings.
Most of the respondents felt that the decision-making process was unsatisfactory and
needed a lot of improvement. The remaining found it satisfactory. A majority of the
respondents, when making a decision, considered the benefits and disadvantages of a
decision. They did this for both short term and long-term effects. Admittedly, a vast number
of respondents stated that they mostly followed the same process when deciding on their
work. However, the smaller percentage said that they put more thought into their personal
decisions and often spend days before deciding. A large number of respondents insisted that
the inclusivity of the people that their decision is most likely to affect is one of the ways the
decision-making process could be improved. Others stated that decision making should be
done by people who are experts in the area. Most of the respondents believe that decisions are
made to please the top management most of the time. Even if one of the lower-level
managers knew that the decisions had ramifications, they simply agreed and said nothing

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about it. The results from the interviews bore very little differences from the one in the
questionnaires. Most of the interviewees said there was a decision-making process, only that
it was followed occasionally. However, a majority of the interviewees believed that the
decision making process' functionality was barely existent hence more effort should be put in
place to ensure its productivity. Most of the people from the top management stated that the
decision-making process was proper nut those on the lower management levels said that most
of the decisions once made by the top management were irrefutable. More than half the
respondents stated that the decisions mostly affected students.
Analysis
For the observation, I used a notebook that held the data on the decision being made,
the number of people present, the number of people who participated in the actual decisionmaking process, the conduct of those present, and whether there was a process followed as
well as how long it took to make the decision. No names were listed. The questionnaires, as
earlier indicated were numbered sequentially; each category of questionnaires had its
numbering system. They have filled anonymously; any respondent had included their name
or any other detail counted as spoiled and not included in the analysed data. The four
categories of the questionnaires were collected; differently, data entered, and analyzed
separately. The time given to answer for the questionnaire was any hours starting from when
people reported in the morning to the end of the day. Any that were taken out of the school
grounds and brought back a day later were also considered spoiled. A total of 400
questionnaires were made, with each category having 100 questionnaires. Out of the four
hundred, 34 were spoilt. 45 were lost; therefore, only 319 were analyzed. The four types as
aforementioned were; the first category asking about what the respondent thinks of the
decision-making process, two; how the respondents made their personal decisions and how
they affect the decisions they make when working, three; what they would suggest to be done

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differently in the decision making process, four; what they think influence the decision
making process.
Category one had 71 questionnaires that were returned unspoiled. Out of the 71, 52
indicated that the decision-making process was unsatisfactory and needed improvement, ten
found it satisfactory, and nine did not even know that a decision-making process existed. For
category two, a total of 85 were returned unspoiled. Nine of the respondents indicated that
they followed the same method of making a decision. Sixty-five stated that they took longer
making personal decisions. Eleven suggested that the process was different depending on the
decision being made. Category 3 had a total of 78 that were analyzed. Forty-nine thought that
a more inclusive decision-making process was the best option; 15 stated that experts in that
field should make the decision. The remaining 14 gave several other options, such as voting
and unanimous agreement. Category 4 had 85, 40 respondents believe the decisions are made
according to the top management's wishes, 23 considered the decisions were fair, and 22
stated that they were not sure.
Impact
From the data collected during the research and the analyzed results, it is clear that the
organization would benefit from a change in the learning strategy. It is advisable to choose a
more inclusive learning strategy. This will first require the Learning and Development Policy
and Procedures of the college. This is not a problem since they are flexible and can be
changed. One of the options available to the organization is the communities of practice
approach. This is when the staff of an organization shares knowledge and skills to build a
significant knowledge base. The organization can t...


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