Ashley Bayoff
Learning and decision-making are two very important skills
to have in an organization. Since the business world is always evolving, it is
best to keep your knowledge up to date with the latest and newest ideas. We are
never too old to learn new things and this is especially true in a business.
Learning has a significant impact on decision-making. Decision-making involves
the thought process of selecting the best choice from available options. This
makes a lot of sense since employees in a business can make appropriate
decisions if they have more knowledge and skills. Every company faces many
obstacles. To have great decision makers, managers need to guide their
employees to obtain more knowledge. Getting employees to be dedicated is a
struggle they might face. It takes a lot of time and commitment from employees
and it might be hard to get that cooperation. This makes it even more crucial
for companies to encourage more learning. Employees with knowledge and good
decision-making skills will help the organization as a whole. It will
contribute to company expansion and help them remain competitive. Ultimately,
good decision-making is the leading force to an organizations success.
Since
decision-making is vital to an organizations success, it is very important to
gain as much knowledge as possible to help make the best decisions possible.
Learning does not only impact decision-making skills, but it also has a
positive effect on job performance. Employees will perform their jobs better if
they have a lot of knowledge and expert skills. People who work in a business
are always learning. Learning is significant for tasks to get done properly. If
someone is not willing to learn, they wont be able to fulfill tasks and
responsibilities.
Some
workers may be nervous and scared about learning new things in a business. They
might be worried that they are not going to understand new tasks or catch on
fast. A good organization will be ready to guide employees in the right
direction and teach them through reinforcement and observing others. Gaining
this new knowledge will keep employees ready to learn the latest techniques.
The best way to teach employees things is through active participation and
hands on activities.
As
I have mentioned before, new knowledge leads to great decision-making skills. Decision-making
is an essential part of an organization. Employees make several decisions each
and every day, so it is important for them to be ready at any time to make
speedy and effective decisions. There are many types of business decisions and
they include programmed decisions, non-programmed decisions, strategic
decisions, tactical decisions, and operational decisions. Programmed decisions
are decisions that are automatic and are based on the employee’s intuition
(Griffin). This type of decision could have bad results since decisions are
based on instincts and not well thought out.
Many
problems can arise if decisions are poorly made. Relying on gut instincts can
be very risky and lead to bad results. This is detrimental to an organization
and problems like this can ruin everything. In order to prevent problems from
arising, companies can be proactive and make necessary changes.
There
are many ways that organizations can improve the decision making process of
their employees. Training and development are two concepts that are very
popular. Training teaches employees to do specific job tasks through either
classroom development or on-the-job experience. On-the-job training allows
workers to learn by actually performing the tasks of the job, while classroom
training uses lectures, videotapes, and Web-based training. Development is
training that improves the skills and knowledge of managers and professionals.
Training and development are also used to improve the skills of the employees
in their present positions and prepares them for increased responsibility and
job promotions. Companies are engaging in more training exercises to help their
employees be even better at the many tasks that they already do. Today,
technology has been a very popular training tool. Another way to train
employees is through advice and knowledge from older and more experienced
workers. This type of training is more personal and can really help the
colleagues connect and relate to each other. For instance, if a new employee
spends the day learning how to perform certain tasks, they are getting a more
personal and hands-on type of training. Active participation seems to be a more
effective training technique used in businesses. All of the knowledge acquired
through training will be important when it’s time to make important decisions.
Every decision made will eventually affect the company and hopefully it does so
in a positive way. Can you imagine how your
company's bottom line would improve if all its managers' decisions improved by
as little as 20%? One out of five costly mistakes or missed opportunities--in
developing new products, in making acquisitions, in strategy formulation--would
be replaced by better choices with greater value to the organization. The
impact could be enormous (Harvard Management Update).
References
Griffin, Dana. “Decision Making Strategies in Business.” Chron.
Web. 2 April 2013.
<http://smallbusiness.chron.com/decision-making-strategies-business-2677.html>.
Harvard Management Update. “Make Better Decisions.” Harvard
Business. Web. 2 April
2013. <http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2008/02/make-better-decisions.html>.
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