Problem Identification

There is always a problem in an organization that must be resolved. There are many different types of decision making processes that an organization can use to help resolve these problems. This paper will examine some of the different types of decision making processes with examples from four organizations. This includes the decision making processes strengths and weaknesses, as well as comparing and contrasting them with each other. This paper will also describe how a problem can best be identified and described to stakeholders in a manner that is sensitive to their perspectives.

All of the different organizations and their decision making processes vary tremendously. The Stanford Hospital payroll and the store manager in a retail store seem to approach things in a similar manner because everything has to be outlined, analyzed, worked on, re-worked, and finalized before it can be completed. The YMCA decision making process is also similar in that the problem can easily be identified and then a course of action can be determined. By examining all the aspects and taking into account what is needed, why the decision has to be a certain way, or what is expected from the results, all three of these organizations can make decisions which will be successful and also easily changeable if the need arises. The Navy’s decision making process seems more involved than the others because it is a constant series of questioning, answering, and questioning the situation again until a final cause and result can be determined. Instead of being very structured in the planning such as with the other organizations, decision making has to be worked out in a more complicated manner. This is good because there is a high chance of success after the decision is made and alterations may not be required as is the case in some of the other decision making processes. Overall it depends on the situation and what exactly the organization has as far as expectations, time constraints, and resources as to how they can analyze and deal with a situation.

Each problem formulation and identification style has its own strengths and weaknesses. The benefit of the why-why diagram and the root cause analysis is that it uses all of the strengths of the team to arrive at a favorable solution. “Every answer turns into another question, and the exercise continues until the team cannot reasonably ask why anymore” (Nelson, 2003).