Table of Contents

Answer to question 1: 3

Answer to question 2: 3

Answer to question 3: 4

Answer to question 4: 4

Answer to question 1:

A) The super majority rule lies somewhere between unanimity and simple majority rule.

The basic deficiencies of the simple majority rule are lack of incentive to reach consensus and the lack of protection provided to the minorities who are vulnerable. The supermajority rule establishes a status quo between two alternatives available which can in turn protect the minorities. The supermajority rule is used in decision which makes positive consequences even weightier and the negative consequence (Anderson et al. 2015).  This rule is generally used in legislatures and assemblies.

B) People have different viewpoints, perspectives and values as a result of different cultures and thought processes and beliefs that exist within the mindset of the society. In the democratic society, people are free to voice their opinion and to vote for their preference who they believe will bring about positive changes in the society and therefore it is difficult to achieve 100% consensus (Chen and Tsai, 2014).

When 100% consensus is not achieved, it is necessary to see that this does not lead to weaker decision and it is for this purpose, that the supermajority rule is applied which maintains the status quo between two alternatives. Sometimes the minority group also gives their consensus when the supermajority has been achieved for a decision.

Answer to question 2:

Autocratic decision making can be used in situation of emergency or where the environment is very uncertain and continuously changing and quick decision has to be taken in order to sustain. In such chaotic situations, people automatically look for a leader who will lead them through difficult times by telling them what to do and how to do it. Autocratic decision making can be effective in military or manufacturing industry. In autocratic management style, the leader takes the full responsibility and control over the work environment and keeps a close watch over the proceedings. It is best used when the workers are not experienced and not motivated. Martha Stewart flourished because she was an autocratic leader (Chen, Cheng, and Lin. 2015).

Answer to question 3:

A) A manager needs to be flexible in adopting different styles of decision making since organizations operate in a dynamic environment. Consultative style is used by leader when they look for new ideas of doing a work. This style helps the employees to actively participate in the decision making process and provide meaningful inputs. This style works effectively with strong leaders because they are assertive and have the ability to ultimately make a final decision (Huffman et al 2014).  Strong leaders clarify to his team whether the input will be considered or ultimately he will make the final decision. This style also helps the decision maker to understand that how well his decision will be accepted.

B) The leader has to be trained and experienced in order to use consultative decision making style. He must be able to clarify the team about what he is doing and should be patient enough to thoroughly  listen to all inputs provided by the employees. If the leader is ineffective, then this style can be dysfunctional as the leader won’t be able to manage time required to conduct the procedure. (Chen and Tsai, 2014). If the leader is not able to clarify the objective then it might lead to low quality input from members. The manager cannot use this method when decisions are to be made quickly.

Answer to question 4:

A) Honey Bee democracy relates to how honey bees take democratic yet collective decisions. The Honey Bee democracy is a book written by Thomas Seeley which tells the stories of how honey bees take collective decision after several debates and group thinking and fact finding to change their home every year. This book is based on the extensive research of Seeley which indentifies how the decision making process has been evolved among the honey bees over thousands of years. He also tries to convince that the effective processes used by honey bees for decision making can also be used by humans. (Czaczkes et al 2015).

B) The decisions made by brainless bees yield optimal results because they engage into debates and deliberations openly before reaching to any final decision and they have shared interests and mutual respect for each other’s viewpoints and also the interference by the leader is minimal(Makinson et al 2014).

The key components of the decision of relocating are searching for potential nest site with thousands of members along with the old queen while a few stays back to rear the new queen, then convincing others by advertising their discoveries and then together analyze the pros and cons of the nest site. If all goes well their entire community flies to their new nest together.

C) Distributed and decentralized decision making is a process where the division is divided into autonomous work units. Decentralization leads to flexible and flatter organization structure which makes the communication effective. (Anderson et al. 2015). This style yield excellent results as it diversify the activities thus reducing the burden on the top management. It enables quick decision making by reducing the hierarchy. As the employees have the authority to take decisions they feel a sense of belongingness and are highly motivated which in turn increases the productivity of the organization as a whole.

References

Anderson, D., Sweeney, D., Williams, T., Camm, J., and Cochran, J. (2015). An introduction to management science: quantitative approaches to decision making.

Cengage Learning.Chen, S. M., and Tsai, B. H. (2014). A new method for autocratic decision making using group recommendations based on intervals of linguistic terms and likelihood-based comparison relations. In Intelligent Information and Database Systems (pp. 273-281). Springer International Publishing.

Chen, S. M., Cheng, S. H., and Lin, T. E. (2015). Group decision making systems using group recommendations based on interval fuzzy preference relations and consistency matrices. Information Sciences, 298, 555-567.

Huffman, J. B., Hipp, K. A., Pankake, A. M., and Moller, G. (2014). Professional learning communities: Leadership, purposeful decision making, and job-embedded staff development. Jsl Vol 11-N5, 11, 448.

Vohs, K. D., Baumeister, R. F., Schmeichel, B. J., Twenge, J. M., Nelson, N. M., and Tice, D. M. (2014). Making choices impairs subsequent self-control: a limited-resource account of decision making, self-regulation, and active initiative.

Czaczkes, T. J., Czaczkes, B., Iglhaut, C., & Heinze, J. (2015). Composite collective decision-making. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 282(1809), 20142723.