Group name:

Regal Events Co-ordinators

Members that participated in the activity:

Initial & Surname	Student number	Contribution
T Kotole	29491339	LO 2 definition of Certainty, Risk & Uncertainty
KM Masukela	31022308	LO 2 Application of Certainty, Risk & Uncertainty
NT Mokhothu	32092148	LO 1
L Mokgosi	31597742	LO 3 Routine decision making
M Makgolane	30596823	LO 3 Adaptive + Innovative decision making
ML Garura	31782574	LO 5 Rational Model + Half Political Model
KD Hlungwane	29308402	LO 5 Bounded Model + Half Political Model
AKC Mcunu	31505287	LO 4 line 1-5
PM Tsotetsi	27124886	LO 4 line 6-11

 

Scenario:

Regal Events Coordinators has been hired by The Adams Family to plan the wedding of their son Richard and his wife-to-be Mellissa. The couple want an intimate outdoor summer wedding for only 50 invited guests.

 

1. Define decision-making and explain the role of decision-making for managers and employees

Decision making is the process of deciding about something important in a group of people or in an organization, it also involves the selection of a course of action from two or more possible alternatives in order to arrive at a solution for to a problem.

The role of decision making for managers and employees:

An effective manager relies on all 6 managerial competencies to make a decision. The Manager of Regal Events coordinators needs to envision the goal of the event and demonstrate Strategic action in executing the goal. The manager has to communicate well with all stakeholders which include the Adams family, the couple, suppliers and her staff when making decisions and planning the proceedings of the day. Regal employees have to portray great teamwork and self-management in terms of executing the decisions taken by all stakeholders.

 

2. Discuss the conditions of certainty, risk, and uncertainty under which decisions are made

Certainty is the condition under which individuals are fully informed about a problem, alternative solutions are obvious and the likely result of each solution are clear. This condition allows control of events and their outcomes. In this case a decision is made in terms of planning an intimate outdoor wedding and as Regal Events Coordinators we are certain that only 50 people have been invited to the Adams wedding.

Risk refers to the unforeseen condition under which individuals can define as a problem, where we can specify the probability of certain events or risks occurring, where we can identify alternative solution and state the probability of each solution leading to the desired result. Risks generally means that the problem and alternative solutions fall somewhere between the extremes of being relatively common and well defined. With planning an outdoor wedding, it is not out of the normal to anticipate bad weather. This means there should be provision in terms of indoor settings or a marquee that can withstand bad weather conditions and still maintain the appeal of the atmosphere. With small weddings, one of the biggest problems would be a larger amount of people showing up and not being catered for.

Uncertainty is when an individual does not have the necessary information to assign probabilities to the outcomes of alternative solutions. One may not be able or define the problem, much less identify alternative solutions and possible outcomes for instance in the case of an accidents e.g.; fire or natural course, we wouldn’t be able to deal with the situation as we see ill-equipped and did not plan for it.

 

3. Describe the characteristics of routine, adaptive, and innovative decisions

Routine decisions

Routine decisions are the type of decisions that the managers make on a daily basis in order to keep the organization functions and such decisions do not require a lot of evaluation, analysis or in depth study. These decisions are made in order to solve common problems or to provide alternative solutions to problems.

Application: Regal events coordinators are planning an outdoor wedding for the Adams’ family. The manager as well as the employees of the “REGAL EVENT’’ need to do a checklist in order to avoid having problems on the day of the wedding. It is the manager’s responsibility to make sure that all the things in the wedding that needs to be covered are on track, things like having an alternative venue if the outdoor theme fails due to weather conditions. It is also the manager’s responsibility to follow up on whether the family is satisfied with the work being done, are they comfortable with what is given to them and if not then a different arrangement can be done in time to solve the issues encountered.

Adaptive decisions

Adaptive decisions are the choices made in response to a combination of moderately unusual and fairly uncommon problems with alternative solutions.

Application: Regal Events Coordinators used the experienced based techniques for solving problems (weather changing and uninvited quests) that they faced during the wedding by deciding that only those who are invited to the wedding can enter the venue first then the rest shall enter afterwards and with regards to the weather they decided to make the marquee more closed so that any type of weather patterns don’t affect the setting and the proceedings during the course of the day.

Innovation Decisions

Innovative decisions are choices based on discovery, identifies and diagnosed if unusual and ambiguous problems and and/or the development of unique or creative alternative solutions.

Application: Regal Events Coordinators used this decision making by developing some possible ways in which they can use in future in case they face problems when doing their work. They managed to get transparent water repellent marquees in case it rains on the day but also keep consistency with the outdoor wedding theme.

4. Explain how goals affect decision-making

Our goal as Regal events coordinators is to cater an elegant and classy outdoor wedding for 50 people and hope for it to be a success, and the challenge we are facing we wanted to add 2 more tables with 20 chairs meaning we are planning to cater for 20 more uninvited guests which might require more space or a bigger tent and they might have to cook more food than planned to avoid any inconvenience. We charged the bride and groom the amount we charge when catering for 60 people and the remaining 10 will be covered from our own pocket which will be more like a discount to them. Our goal helped us improve our decision making process. Since we are catering for an outdoor wedding we should have an alternative solution to be able to achieve our goal and make the wedding a success, therefore we have organized a transparent wedding marquee just in case it rains and the wedding will not be ruined or disrupted.

 

5. Differentiate between the rational, bounded rationality, and political models of decision-making

Rational Model:
Prescribes a series of steps that Regal Events Coordinators should follow to increase the likelihood that their decision regarding wedding planning will be logical and sound.

Rational decision making model it's a seven-step process:
STEP 1: Regal Events Coordinators define and diagnose the problem, utilizing 3 skills which are noticing which involves identifying external and internal wedding. Interpreting and incorporating skills.

STEP 2: Coordinators should set specific goals, such as booking a good venue that will accommodate all the guests as well as be fine for any weather.

STEP 3: Search for alternative solutions.
Regal Events Coordinators should research which venue will be best for the wedding. The alternative would be an outdoor and indoor wedding.

STEP 4: Comparing outdoor and indoor wedding venue, then evaluate and also determine the cost of each wedding venue.

STEP 5: Choose from outdoor or indoor wedding.

STEP 6: Implement the solution selected.

STEP 7: Follow up control. To ensure that the solution implemented is functional.

Bounded Rationality Model:
This model partially explains why different individuals make different decisions when they have exactly the same information. It consists of the following factors:

SATISFICING: -The goal that The Adams have is to have their intimate outdoor wedding. Their acceptance goal would be to have their wedding at a venue that is both indoors and outdoors which would be safer in terms of weather purposes.

LIMITED SEARCH: - Regal Events Coordinators has provided The Adams with alternative solutions, so instead of them having a limited venue they could just pick and do more research on the alternative solutions provided.

INADEQUATE OR MISINTERPRETED INFORMATION:-If Regal Events Coordinators provide the The Adams with inadequate or misinterpreted information about alternative solutions then the reputation of the company will no longer be good and customers will not us our services.

Political Model:
The political model describes the decision making process in terms of the particular interests and goals of powerful external and internal stakeholders.

 

Regal Events would have to consider the following factors:

1. Definition of the problem: The wedding being outdoors.

2. The choice of the goal: Catering for 50 guests.

3. The consideration of alternative solutions: Having the wedding in spring when there is no rain or having the wedding indoors.

4. The selection of alternative to be implemented: Have a venue that is both indoors and outdoors. Example: A lapa with a garden

5. Actions and success of the organization: Coming up with alternative solutions to help The Adams.