• Home
• Module overview
• 1. The challenge of management
  • Introduction
  • 1.1 Defining management
    • 1.1.1 The art of getting things done through people
    • 1.1.2 Defining management by its functions
    • 1.1.3 Is management a profession?
  • 1.2 Management knowledge , skills and performance
    • 1.2.1 Types of managers
    • 1.2.2 Effectiveness and efficiency
    • 1.2.3 Managing the customer within
  • 1.3 The evolution of management thought
  • Conclusion

• 2. Understanding external environments

  • Introduction
  • 2.1 Putting the e xternal environment into focus
    • 2.1.1 Classifying external elements
    • 2.1.2 The changing environment
    • 2.1.3 The international dimension
  • 2.2 Relating the o rganisation to its environment
    • 2.2.1 So many issues: Which should you focus on?
    • 2.2.2 How do you acquire the relevant information?
    • 2.2.3 Clarifying the relationship between the internal and external environments
  • Conclusion

• 3. Social responsibility and ethics in management

  • Introduction
  • 3.1 Business is not value neutral: Social responsibility, obligation and responsiveness
  • 3.2 Focussing on ethics
    • 3.2.1 Why business ethics now?
    • 3.2.2 Ethical quandaries
    • 3.2.3 Approaches to ethical dilemmas
    • 3.2.4 Defining your ethics
  • Conclusion

• 4. Managerial decision making

  • Introduction
  • 4.1 Decision making and problem solving
  • 4.2 The nature of decision making as part of management
    • 4.2.1 Programmed and non-programmed decisions
    • 4.2.2 Certainty, risk and uncertainty
    • 4.2.3 Urgent vs important decisions
  • 4.3 Problem solving: making the most of opportunities
    • 4.3.1 Looking further at problem solving
    • 4.3.2 The effective decision making process
    • 4.3.3 Improving managerial problem solving: overcoming barriers
    • 4.3.4 Thinking 'outside the box' and creativity
  • 4.4 Interrelated problems
  • Conclusion

• 5. Managing strategically

  • Introduction
  • 5.1 Planning ahead
  • 5.2 Strategic management
    • 5.2.1 Some definitions
    • 5.2.2 The process of strategic management
  • Conclusion

• 6. Organisational design and structure

  • Introduction
  • 6.1 The terminology of organisational design
  • 6.2 Strategic organisational design and structure
    • 6.2.1 Types of organisational structure
    • 6.2.2 Strategic organisational design
  • 6.3 Teamwork
    • 6.3.1 The success of teamwork
  • Conclusion

• 7. Organisational culture and workforce diversity

  • Introduction
  • 7.1 Defining organisational or corporate culture
    • 7.1.1 Culture defined through its response to change
    • 7.1.2 Culture defined through the influence of the external environment
  • 7.2 Strong and weak cultures
  • 7.3 The functions of culture
  • 7.4 Creating and sustaining culture
  • 7.5 Types of culture
    • 7.5.1 Dominant culture
    • 7.5.2 Subculture
    • 7.5.3 Core values
  • 7.6 Changing culture
  • 7.7 Cultural diversity in the maritime industry
  • Conclusion

• 8. Change management

  • Introduction
  • 8.1 Dealing with change and the changing nature of change
    • 8.1.1 In what areas of the organisation can managers expect change?
    • 8.1.2 Reacting to change
  • 8.2 Key issues accelerating change
    • 8.2.1 External forces
    • 8.2.2 Internal forces
  • 8.3 Managing change
    • 8.3.1 Reactions to change
    • 8.3.2 Why employees resist change
    • 8.3.3 Emotions accompanying change
    • 8.3.4 Overcoming resistance
    • 8.3.5 Leadership and successful change
  • Conclusion

• 9. Motivating for performance

  • Introduction
  • 9.1 The nature of motivation
  • 9.2 Theories of motivation
    • 9.2.1 Do rewards really work? needs theories
    • 9.2.2 Are substantive rewards the only motivator? process theories
    • 9.2.3 Learning behaviour reinforcement theory
    • 9.2.4 Social learning theory
    • 9.2.5 Putting it all together systems theory
  • 9.3 The power of positive thinking
  • 9.4 Motivation: The implications for managers
  • Conclusion

• 10. Leadership

  • Introduction
  • 10.1 The nature of leadership
    • 10.1.1 Thinking about 'leaders' and 'leadership'
    • 10.1.2 Theories of leadership
    • 10.1.3 Refining our definition of leadership
  • 10.2 Perspectives on leadership
    • 10.2.1 Manager, leader, or both?
  • Conclusion

• 11. Teamwork

  • Introduction
  • 11.1 Work groups and group dynamics
    • 11.1.1 Work groups, work teams, taskforces, self-managing teams and team building
    • 11.1.2 High-performance teams
  • 11.2 Managing meetings and committees
  • 11.3 Group decision making
    • 11.3.1 Some advantages and disadvantages
    • 11.3.2 So, do groups make better decisions than individuals?
  • Conclusion

• 12. Managerial evaluation and control

  • Introduction
  • 12.1 Evaluation and control as a management process
    • 12.1.1 Why evaluate and control performance?
    • 12.1.2 Getting and using necessary information
  • 12.2 Levels of control
  • 12.3 Steps in the control process
  • 12.4 Assessing control systems
  • 12.5 Back to ethics
  • 12.6 Quality control systems
  • Conclusion

4.3.3 Improving managerial problem solving: overcoming barriers

A short quiz

Answer the following questions:

1. Two men played chess. They played five games, and each man won three. How do you explain this?
2. Answer this question within five seconds. How many animals of which species did Adam take aboard the Ark with him? (Note this question is not how many pairs, but how many animals?)
3. An archaeologist reported that he had discovered two gold coins in the desert near Jerusalem dated 439 BC. How many of his fellow scientists refused to take his claim seriously. Why?
4. If you had only one match and you entered a room to start a kerosene lamp, an oil heater, and a wood-burning stove, which would you light first and why?
5. Explain the following true boast:
   In my bedroom, the nearest lamp that I usually keep turned on is twelve feet from the bed. Alone in my room, without using wires, strings, or any other aids or contraptions, I can turn out the light on that lamp and get into bed before the room is dark.

Whetten and Cameron (1984), pages 158-159.

How long did it take you to answer these five questions? To what extent did you find yourself artificially constraining the problems or making assumptions about possible solutions? (Turn to the end of the chapter for the answers to the five questions.)

Artificially constraining the problem means limiting the problem definition and the possible alternative more than the problem requires. Creative problem solving requires that you recognise hidden assumptions and expand the alternatives. Do you remember our note on attitude in Chapter 1? Your attitude influences your decisions. Think out the following:

A young woman was out walking on a property in South Australia and fell into an abandoned well. She stayed there for three nights. On the fourth morning she was relieved to hear movement outside and thought that rescuers had arrived. Machinery started up and imagine her horror when dirt began coming into the well. Her screams for assistance went unheard due to the noise of the machinery. So what would you do - stop here and think about. Is this really the end...or have you missed an opportunity?

After the first few dousings 1 of dirt, she realised something. Every time dirt landed on her, she could shake it off and step up! The dirt kept coming and she kept shaking it off and stepping up. Shake it off and step up 2 .

So, no matter how difficult the situation, no matter how bad things get, no matter how much dirt gets dumped on you, just remember - shake it off and step up.

Perception. Consider the following story:

A father and son are driving to work one morning. A terrible accident occurs. The father is killed instantly and the son is badly injured. An ambulance arrives at the accident scene and the son is rushed to hospital. When they carry him into the emergency room the nurse says 'He's in terrible shape. We've got to get him into surgery.' They rush him down the hall to the operating theatre. The surgeon walks in, takes one look at him and says, 'I'm sorry. I can't operate on him; he's my son'.

How can this be?

Adapted from Huseman R; Galvin M and Prescott D (1988). Chapter 1 'Communication in business'. In Business Communication: Strategies and Skills . Sydney : Holt, Rinehart and Winston, page 11.

Think about it. Perhaps the son is the father's stepson. Perhaps the 'father' is a Roman Catholic priest. Perhaps the boy was adopted. Yet actually the surgeon was the boy's mother. Did you think of this as the obvious answer? It is likely that you didn't because our experiences in real life and in the mass media suggest that most surgeons are male.

In the same manner your ability to make effective and creative decisions can be stifled by preconceptions influenced by your perception of your world.

Perception is affected by cultural background, by our life experiences, our attitudes and beliefs - personal, moral, ethical, religious, social and cultural; and it is natural to make decisions so that they 'fit in' with our view of the world. No decision is ever made that is not affected by personal perception.

Personal perception, then, can be a barrier to creative and effective decision making because your perception of a situation may not 'allow' or encourage you to think in ways that would be innovative and often successful.

There are other barriers which interfere with objective, creative decision making, some of which are outside the control of the individual making the decision, but many of which are not. The following reading in Stoner et al. deals mainly with barriers. While it is unquestioned that knowing what is wrong is vital to putting something right (improving it), merely pointing out what is wrong is not always very helpful.

Having said that, the best way to put things right is to learn not to do them incorrectly the next time you do them. To this end this section is very useful since once we are aware of what we were doing wrong, we can take evasive action before we make the same mistake again.

Satisficing. A further barrier to effective problem solving is termed satisficing . Here managers take the first solution that comes along that appears to satisfy the problem. This may be a suitable approach for some problems, but it does rule out the generation and evaluation of alternatives and optimisation.

Read on in your textbook as to some ideas for overcoming decision making barriers.

In your text

Bartol, K M; Martin, D C; Tein, M H and Matthews, G W (2001), pages 135-144.

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