Decision Making

Decision-Making

Nutrorim has a lot to learn about decision-making. They can go about changing their decision-making process into an effective tool for the company several ways. Don Rifkin needs to change his leadership style and research the different methods of decision-making that will be useful for his company. He needs to reformulate the problem and consider all the employees’ ideas before a final decision is made. In order for good decisions to be made, Nutrorim will have to try different methods and learn through trial and tribulations to end the conflict that plagues their discussions.

The main problem at Nutrotim is the decision-making process, or lack there of. When it is time to make a decision, there is a lot of bickering and conflict and no resolution. It is good that there are several different opinions on how to handle things, but the group needs to take the differences and make them work to their advantage. When people express differences openly and challenge underlying assumptions, they can flag real weaknesses and introduce new ideas (Garvin & Roberto, 2001). It would be effective for Nutrorim to discuss all their ideas and ways that they can incorporate their ideas into a universal solution. This way everyone feels that they are contributing in the decision-making process.

Don has a way of trying to avoid conflict. When ChargeUp was in the marketing phase, the marketing manager asked the opinion of the entrepreneur Nora. Nora was not keen on the product with the new ingredient. This caused friction between her and

the R&D manager Steve. Don’s solution to the situation was simply to end the conflict by tabling the issue. First, this causes Nora and Steve to feel that their opinion is not really a factor in the decision and they are not as willing to provide input into any other decisions concerning the product. Second, if Don would have at least inquired into why there was a difference of opinion Nora and Steve would have given feedback into their opinion and it could have helped the outcome of the decision and added a little unity to the group.

Don realized that Nutrorim needed help in the decision-making area. He decided to get an expert to come in and give them advice on how to establish a reliable decision-making process. Bringing in an outside source to give advice is good and bad. Occasionally, top teams bring in outsiders who can offer knowledge and experience that is unavailable within the firm (Roberto, 2003). This was good because the consulting firm pointed out that there were several mixed feelings from the employees about how they felt the company handled conflict. Having these issues addressed will help Nutrorim to come up with a plan to fix them. The down side of having an outside consulting firm come in is how it can divide the employees and make them feel that they do not get to contribute in the capacity that they would like. This will make them less committed to the overall outcome of the decisions.

When Don was faced with the decision to recall his product due to consumers possibly becoming sick due to the use of it, he could not make an on spot decision. He had to have three of his employees gather data and then present it in a meeting the

next morning. This was a very critical decision and it needed to be handled immediately. Don should have called a meeting right when he received the call and had everyone give their input and come up with a decision right then and not hesitate. Decisions of this caliber need to be handled when it is fresh on everyone’s mind. The members of Nutrorim had the information they needed and an understanding of the consequences of not acting on the allegation quickly. Don’s hesitation to the decision was particularly frustrating to Nora the entrepreneur. She feels that Don needs to “take a more dictatorial approach to decision making” (Garvin, 2006). Don strays from this approach due to a previous experience with an old boss.

One approach Don could use is to utilize Victor Vroom’s Development-Driven Model to determine how to approach major decisions (Vroom, 2000). In the instance of the possible product recall, he could start by establishing that there is high significance of the decision to the company as a whole. Once he has determined that, he needs to find out the importance of team commitment to the decision. In this case, it is very important that the team be committed to the decision because all the team members will play a part in the process of the recall. If