Six Stage Decision Making Process
Managerial decision making is a systematic way of choosing a viable solution from available alternatives. The process of making decision making has six distinct stages. The stages include defining a problem, identifying decision criteria, weighting the criteria, generating an alternative course of action, evaluating every alternative and computing the optimal decision (Liebler & McConnell, 2016). Evaluating alternatives is the fourth step undertaken after weighting and generating a list of possible alternatives. The stage requires more time and is costing more than the other stages. The alternatives are systematically evaluated against a series of criterion. One of the airline’s industries that apply rational decision-making models to identify the problem and evaluate the alternatives is British Airlines.
Evaluate the Alternatives
With the global pandemic, COVID-19 paralyzing nearly all the sectors across the globe, British Airlines is no exception. The lockdown imposed earlier impacted the operations and profitability of the company and thus requiring the organization to implement a cost-cutting decision (Shodiev, 2020). As such, the organization published reports indicating potential layoffs of employees. The organization has some alternatives it can utilize to implement such decisions. The first alternative is providing employees with opportunities for unpaid leave. For instance, a four day working will curb the employee layoffs by nearly 20%. Others can even opt to work half time to secure their jobs. The option will reduce the operational and physical costs of the organizations.
The second alternative is considering decelerating pay increases for a low salary range to bail out the most vulnerable employees. For instance, the organization can reduce the salaries of most paid employees by 15% and the least paid by 5% (Tarki et al., 2020). The approach reduces the costs, and in some cases, enhances employee morale. For example, when this approach was implemented in BIDMC to reduce the costs, the employees lauded the efforts by senior management for creative options to reduce per-head count reduction (Tarki et al., 2020). The third alternative for British America before layoffs is considering crowdsourcing ideas from employees and other stakeholders. The approach not only brings all stakeholders views onboard but also shapes the organizational culture.
British Airlines decision model is based on innovative logistics solutions, low-cost pricing and efficient operations. The decision alternative adopted focuses on future, customer experience and enhancing employee’s motivation. The departments that should evaluate the alternatives include the British Airlines Pilot Association, British Airlines human resource department, the financial and operation and financial department (Rhys, 2020). There are also some interested stakeholders such as political parties that are not satisfied with the British Americans layoff claims. All these stakeholders must be incorporated.
Make a Choice
As a result of Coronavirus pandemic, the British company is considering some sort of financial actions like employee layoff to cushion the financial impacts of Coronavirus. The British Airlines company has alternative options to effect or make a rational decision making about the issue. The most viable alternative is crowdsourcing ideas from employees. Opening up the floor for ideas and comments from employees may be overwhelming; however, it is crucial for enhancing employee participation (Punzel, 2014). The concept of crowdsourcing should begin by the company with the articulation of the priorities it can take with proven positive impacts on cash flows, lower risk profiles, lower capital requirement, and higher chances of saving jobs. The approach brings all the stakeholders viewpoints on board, enhances leadership abilities and maintains control.
Crowdsourcing ideas from stakeholders enhance organizational performance, culture. It engages all individuals from the firm, nurtures an innovative culture, combat disturbances with employee brainpower, and embrace new ways of driving growth via innovation (Noveck, 2015).
References
Liebler, J. G., & McConnell, C. R. (2016). Management principles for health professionals. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Noveck, B. S. (2015). Smart citizens, smarter state: The technologies of expertise and the future of governing. Harvard University Press.
Punzel, T. (2014). Risks and decision making. GRIN Verlag.
Rhys. (2020, May 30). Why are the British airways unions snubbing redundancy consultations? Head for Points. https://www.headforpoints.com/2020/05/27/british-airways-unions-snub-redundancy-consultations/comment-page-2/
Shodiev, T. (2020). The impact of the global crisis on the economies during the corona virus pandemic and mitigating measures. Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control Systems, 12(7), 290-299. https://doi.org/10.5373/jardcs/v12i7/20202011
Tarki, A., Levy, P., & Weiss, J. (2020, March 25). Viewpoint: The coronavirus crisis doesn’t have to lead to layoffs. SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/viewpoint-the-coronavirus-crisis-doesnt-have-to-lead-to-layoffs.aspx