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Chapter 13 defines organizational decision making, the condition in which decisions are made, and then gives details to some decision making models. Slack and Parent defines decision making through Peter Drucker's definition which is, "a decision is a judgment . . . a choice between alternatives" (258). Decision making is a large part of whether an organization runs smooth and effective, or if the organization is a "flop". Slack and Parent gives three conditions in which most organizational decisions are made under, and they are certainty, risk, and uncertainty. Certainty is the condition that the person in charge knows what all of the alternate decisions are, the costs and benefits of each decision, and all of the alternate outcomes are. In short certainty is the knowledge that you are making the very best decision for your organization as the person in charge. Risk occurs when a person is unsure of the benefits and costs that are associated with the decision, such as they do not fully know or understand what they could be gaining or losing. Uncertainty is when the alternate decisions and their outcomes are both unknown to the decision maker. There are both individual decision making models and organizational decision making models that are described in this chapter. The individual decision making models are the rational model and the administrative model. The organizational decision making models are management science, the Carnegie model, the structuring of unstructured processes, the garbage can model, and Bradford studies. All of the decision making models pertain to different decisions that are made within an organization, meaning that one model would work far better than another model. The model that I found to be the most interesting is the garbage can model which is an organizational decision making model. The garbage can model relies on the change that is forever happening within an organization, and that some situations are much more confusing than what they appear to be. In the garbage can model there are usually four streams of events that have happened or are happening within an organization at the time of decision making. These streams are a stream of problems, a stream of choice opportunities, a stream of participants, and a stream of solutions. Slack and Parent says that "the existence of these four streams means that the process of decision making is somewhat random" (267). All decision making models are important assets to every organization because as I have already stated the decisions that are made within an organization plays a large part in the effectiveness, because if decisions cannot be made appropriately then how can an organization be seen as being effective.
Culture is an ever changing part of any organization, and because culture is always changing it must be managed in its own way. Chapter 14 discusses how to manage organizational culture by explaining it and explaining the different ways to effectively manage it. In our text Slack and Parent gives many definitions of what others believe organizational culture is; the definition that I most relate with organizational culture is Sathe's definition which is, "the set of important understandings (often unstated) that members of a community share in common" (275). The characteristics that are listed in our text to explain organizational culture are "stories, myths, symbols, and rituals" (275), these are attributes that differ across different cultures and change from person to person, organization, to organization. Stories and myths are described by Slack and Parent as "Stories are narratives recounted among employees and told to new employees. Myths are stories, often about origins and transformations of a company, that are not supported by fact" (276). I think that anyone that has worked any where can say that they have heard either stories or myths about the organization that they work for. I think that stories are a more common part of organizational culture and that the stories of the organization can either change a lot of a little depending on the turnover rate of the employees. An example of an organizational story from my own life would come from when I worked in a retail store in the Mall of America. The store had a very high turnover rate and there were not that many employees that stayed there over a year, unless you were a manager. One of the things that the older employees would tell the new employees was that they worked there so long that they remembered when the men's side of the store was the women's and vice versa. By the time I quit that job there was only one more employee that had experienced the swap besides me, and I'm sure that the story died after that person left; but for a long time that was a large part of our organizational culture, even though it was a seemingly insignificant event. Symbols is described by Slack and Parent as, "Symbols are used to convey meaning about a sport organization to its members and the public at large" (277). Basically symbols are the objects, emblems, etc that can be directly related back to the organization. Slogans also are a part of organizational symbols because some slogans can be directly related back to a specific organization. Organizational language is the direct language or jargon that is used within the organization; this can be anything from football terms if you are a football team, to personal jargon that is only found within your specific organization. I think that the characteristic that is the most influential to an organization's culture is the stories and myths within the organization, because most of the time these are things that cannot be picked up outside of the organization like symbols and language can be. Stories and myths can only be obtained once you are on the inside of the organization and interacting with the other employees.
In this blog I will address how I believe actors, processes, culture, structure, and environment impact leadership within an organization. Actors such as different people within an organization impact leadership because they influence the type of leadership that is going to be performed. All people are different and we all respond to different leadership styles in our own individual way. for example if you are trying to lead a group of outgoing people, you will use a different leadership approach that you would use with a group of strict uptight individuals. One of the big impacters of leadership within an organization is the structure of the organization. If you have a very top down structure, where all of the decisions are made at the top of the chain of command, then the head of the organization will have to demonstrate a different type of leadership than he/she would if they were a part of a less complex organization where decisions are made within specific areas of the organization. A leader who is at the top that is approving all of the decisions will have to chow a lot of confidence in themselves, because they have to believe that they are always making the right choice for their organization. Culture is another big impacter on leadership; I look at culture as the style in which you run your organization and the people that work for your organization. So their is the culture of your organization, and there are the cultures within your organization (your employees and such). Again this goes with what i said with my last two points, that different people react better or worse to different types of leadership and you have to conform to their individual needs without losing sight of the goals and missions that your organization is trying to achieve.
Change much like conflict is an ever occurring part of any organization and it must be adjusted to constantly to keep the organization running smoothly and effectively. Slack and Parent identify four different areas where change can occur within a sport organization, these areas are technology, products and services, structures and systems, and finally people. All four of these areas can occur in any combination together to create a multitude of different organizational changes. There are two forms of change and they are radical change and convergent change, these forms of changes can occur no matter what the area of change may be in. Radical change is a dramatic change that happens very fast. Convergent change is a small change that occurs to fulfill a specific purpose. The perspective on organizational change that I found most intriguing was evolution and revolution. This perspective focuses on how an organization will not change even when the existence of the organization is at risk, or in other words a organization will resist all changes even is it means failure. Slack and Parent identify many different factors that lead up to this resistance and they vary from cost of facilities and equipment, managers fearing loss of their power, to the organizational culture. The different changes in this perspective are evolutionary which means that incremental adjustments are made, and then revolutionary change, where drastic changes must be made in response to a crisis or upheaval. Innovation is a very important aspect to organizational change and it was discussed at the end of the chapter as being "one of the major challenges confronting all sport organizations" (252). There are three types of innovation that can occur within a sport organization and they are, administrative innovation, technological innovation, and product or service innovation. Administrative innovation happens within the structure of the organization or within the administrative processes. Technological innovation happens with the development of tools, knowledge, techniques, etc. Finally product or service innovation involves the development of new services or products. In conclusion organizational change can occur in many different forms and there are perspectives to accompany most if not all types of organizational change.