Strategic Leadership and Decision-Making

In the midst of Congressional Hearings and a demand to become more customer focused, the
Internal Revenue Service found it more critical than ever to target development efforts that
supported strategic objectives. They solicited bids to develop two programs they believed
necessary to develop "macro-level attributes such as systems thinking, possessing a broad and
long-term perspective, and possessing the ability to understand complex situations and take
effective actions."

After much research into the culture of the Internal Revenue Service, we designed and
implemented a five-day Strategic Decision Making program and a ten-day Strategic Leadership
program that included an Application Project between Weeks One and Two.

Strategic Leadership was designed to enhance strategic thinking abilities and prepare
advanced and executive leaders to better utilize strategic leadership skills. Leaders needed
to be able to think and act strategically, reframe problems and issues from all perspectives,
and address them with more dynamic approaches. Strategic Decision Making, targeted for
mid-level managers, introduced strategic decision-making models to cause participants to
view issues from a systems perspective. Strategic Leadership built on the knowledge and
skills gained in the Strategic Decision Making program. Leadership Development

"Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have
greatness thrust upon them."

- William Shakespeare

Are leaders born or made? This question has been debated for years.

What is the definition of leadership? There are hundreds of definitions from every
imaginable source.

What are the characteristics of great leadership and are they universal?
We provide tools to assist our participants in their leadership development. One tool is a
feedback instrument that provides confidential feedback to participants on their leadership
practices as perceived by their peers, employees and supervisors. Self-knowledge is a
critical success factor for leadership development. Change

"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."

-Andy Warhol

Change is all we hear about today. We have many prospective customers who call and ask us if
we have a program that deals with resistance to change. They are planning or implementing a
change and are anticipating resistance. Our approach to organizational change is to PREEMPT
RESISTANCE.

We have done considerable research in the area of organizational change and we know that there
are three possible outcomes when implementing organizational change:

1. employees accept the change because it is forced upon them, or they feel coerced;
2. employees comply with the change because it is the thing to do; or
3. employees internalize the change because it is congruent with their values and goals.

Commitment is the ultimate goal, where employees can truly support the change. Without long-
term commitment, the change becomes a house of cards.

So how do you build commitment? The Oasis " Integrated System Approach " to organizational
change recognizes and assists the leaders in your organization to crystallize and communicate
their vision, create the environment needed to facilitate and support the change and to actively
engage employees in implementing the change. We use workshops as a tool to communicate and
understand emotional reactions to the change. Reactions to change are always personal. If you
want to affect change in people's perceptions, you've got to affect their hearts. Our "Integrated
System Approach" gets employees involved and helps to develop a willingness and positive
attitude toward change.

"To the man who only has a hammer in the toolkit, every problem looks like a nail."

-Abraham Maslow

Our consultants are experienced in assisting both public and private sector
organizations implement change.

Another tool that we often use is the Bolman and Deal Four Frame Model, from their book,
"Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadership".   The book develops four practical
perspectives: structural, human resource, political, and symbolic to help managers understand
what is going on in their organizations and what they can do about it. 

We believe leadership potential exists in everyone and at every level in an organization. Our
leadership programs are custom designed to ensure relevance to your environment and
appropriateness for the audience.

 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

"All men by nature desire knowledge"

-Aristotle

The more we know about our self, the better we are able to manage our self and our relationships
with others, both professionally and personally. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a
validated, self-report instrument that helps us to understand personality preferences and
differences. It guides us to understand and appreciate our unique and natural strengths and
possible areas for development, as well as the differences in others.

The MBTI is used in many different ways, including career development, team building,
managing conflict, managing change, emotional intelligence, problem solving, leadership and
management development, and relationship counseling.
We use the MBTI to help our participants learn how personality influences the way we live our
lives. Depending on the focus of the workshop or organizational intervention, we focus on how
our personality influences, for example, the way we lead, the way we make decisions, the way
we react to change, and how we can find career satisfaction.

One of our more popular workshops is "Personality Types and Career and Life Transitions".
This workshop helps participants to deal with life's changes and to do the things that help them
gain greater satisfaction from their work and their relationships with others.

"Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you
must see the world."
To stay competitive in today s new economy, simply acquiring technology is not enough.
Organizations must manage IT effectively to gain the competitive advantage and obtain the
maximum benefits from investing in IT. The performance of a contracting company is closely
linked with the quality of the decisions at the strategic level. However, the increasing complexity
of organizations’ internal and external environments and the unstructured nature of decisions at
the strategic level make the decision making a very complicated task. The number of influential
variables is so large and their effects are so varied that any attempt to encapsulate them in a
rational manner can indeed hinder the decision making process. To this end, this research
explores the advantages of decision support tools and the benefit these tools can yield for the
strategic management. Some of these tools are deterministic and structured: they rely on
straightforward calculation or optimisation techniques. The solution to the unstructured
problems, however, has relied on heuristic approaches and judgement of the decision-maker.
While deterministic problems have to a large extent been addressed and appropriate models and
algorithm have been developed for them, the unstructured problems have remained relatively
unattended and the research works in this area tend to focus on single issues. This paper
conceptualizes an umbrella framework using a “Viable Systems Diagnosis” VSD Model and a
"Decision Framework", within which strategic decision making research applicable to
construction can be coordinated and developed, thus avoiding wasteful duplication and gaps in
knowledge. To this end, the research highlights the relevance and potential use of artificial
intelligent techniques in assisting the managers with unstructured decisions. Further, it is argued
that a strategic decision support system should assume an integrated structure, as many decision
nodes, within the overall decision making structure, share common attributes and the inter-
connection amongst these decision nodes has a complex structure. Therefore, the object oriented
approach will provide an efficient structure for the development of the overall framework. This
study develops an integrative model that explains the relationship between Chinese culture,
managers' strategic decision making (SDM) processes, and organizational performance. For the
study 1200 participants were randomly selected from a business club's company register,
resulting in 204 valid respondents. The results highlighted two significant SDM paths used by
managers: (1) the cognitive-speed path, which suggested that Overseas Chinese managers (the
Chinese who live outside of Mainland China) focus on the big picture, draw analogies from past
experiences, and use extensive networks to reduce the duration of the decision process; and (2)
the social-political path which shows that Overseas Chinese managers focus on collective
interests, strive to maintain harmony, and to save face while using a collaborative style to handle
conflict; this approach reduces dysfunctional political behavior, while reinforcing the decision
team's focus on common goals. From these results we concluded that a speedier decision making
process (based on intuition, experience, and networks) accompanied by the appropriate use of
political behavior (that created harmony, through a hierarchical structure, during conflict
management) in the Overseas Chinese managers' strategic decision making process could
positively influence organizational performance. The present study considers potential
performance effects associated with the communication enhancing capacity of information
technology. Enhancement of an organization's communication capabilities may influence
performance through improved strategic decision making, better coordination of strategic actions
and by facilitating learning from strategic initiatives. Accordingly, the paper investigates the
effects of internal communication through use of computer networks, Intranet, and external
communication via the Internet in association with autonomous and participatory strategic
decision making approaches and strategic planning. These relationships are tested in two
different industrial settings characterized by low and high levels of dynamism and complexity to
assess possible environmental contingencies. In less dynamic and complex industries, the results
show a positive association between Intranet use and innovation, while Internet use has a
positive association to profitability and to innovation in organizations adhering to a participatory
decision approach.

A model of strategic decision making

A specific implementation strategy that works in one organizational context might not work in
another. In our opinion, a central role is played by the top managers. Confronted with a specific
problem, managers must decide how they will deal with it: they have to decide on how decisions
are going to be made. For each possible solution that arises, e.g. a smoking ban, management has
to assess the level of acceptance in the organization, and it has to estimate how effective,
efficient and satisfactory this specific solution will be. Based on these considerations, a specific
decision-making approach is chosen. This approach will determine the smoothness and length of
the implementation process and the resulting outcomes. Hence, the central issue is the decision-
making approach of managers, and how this is determined and affected by how managers
perceive the organizational context.
In terms of decision making, the `standard' approach, which is very much in line with the
Dimensions of decision making
In the literature on strategic decision making, various types of decision-making styles have been
distinguished Pool and Koopman have reduced these to four central dimensions on which
decision-making processes can be controlled (Pool and Koopman, 1992, 1994). The first is
centrality: the extent to which top management involves lower levels in the decision-making
process. A second dimension is formalization: the extent to which the decision-making process is
formalized (following standard procedures) or more informal and ad hoc. The third dimension is
information: the extent to which decisions are based on the collecting of information and a
consideration of pros and cons based on this information. The fourth dimension is confrontation:
the extent to which decisions are the result of a political process in which a manager has to
confront other parties that have opposing interests.
The freedom of managers to decide how they are going to handle a specific problem (i.e. which
dimension of decision making) is restricted by both content and context factors. For example, if a
problem is a key issue for the company (a content factor), chances are that managers will opt for
a highly centralized approach. In a highly bureaucratic organization (a context factor), a formal
approach is most appropriate. Once a manager has decided on a specific approach, the end result
will again depend on content and context factors: it may be necessary to adjust the decision-
making style during the process or it may fail, because unforseen factors do not fit with the
chosen style.

 Outcomes
 The outcomes of the decision-making process can be measured in terms of its
effectiveness (e.g. reduction of environmental tobacco smoke), efficiency (i.e. cost-
effectiveness and cost-benefits) and satisfaction: how satisfied are employees with the new
ban and with the way the ban came into effect (e.g. with respect to employee
participation).
 Strong leadership
 The director of this company was a very strong leader, with a clear vision. He first
convinced the other members of the board of directors to back him up. These were all non-
smokers, which made it easier to come to an agreement at top-level to go ahead with the
 ban. Then he confronted the workers' council and succeeded in getting them to accept a
smoking ban, after having made one concession (i.e. a sheltered smoking area outside the
main office building).
SUBMITTED BY:

Ms.NIDHI BHATIA

Mr. SHIVAM NANDA

LECTURER

IIMS COLLEGE