Class Exercise Work with your group to recommend a decision making approach for each of the four sample cases below. Please also list the names of the members of the group that contributed to the assignment. Different Methods for Making a Decision (Vroom's Adaptation of Tannenbaum and Schmidt's Taxonomy] Decide You make the decision alone and either announce or "sell"it to the group. You may use your expertise in collecting information that you deem relevant to the problem from the group or others. Consult Individually You present the problem to the group members individually, get their suggestions, and then make the decision. Consult Group You present the problem to the group members in a meeting get their suggestions, and them make the decision. Facilitate You present the problem to the group in a meeting. You act as facilitator, defining the problem to be solved and the boundaries within which the decision must be made. Your objective is to get concurrence on a decision. Above all, you take care to ensure that your ideas are not given any greater weight than those of others simply because of your position. Delegate You permit the group to make the decision within prescribed limits. The group undertakes the identification and diagnosis of the problem, developing alternative procedures for solving it, and deciding on one or more alternative solutions. While you play no direct role in the group's deliberations unless explicitly asked, your role is an important one behind the scenes, providing needed resources and encouragement. Sample Cases Setting: Banking: Your Position: President and Chief Executive Officer The bank examiners have just left, insisting that many of your commercial real estate loans be written off, thereby depleting already low capital. Along with many other banks in your region, your bank is in serious danger of being closed by the regulators. As the financial problems surfaced, many of the top executives left to pursue other interests, butfortunately, you were able to replace them with three highly competent younger managers. While they had no prior acquaintance with one another, each is a product of a fineyounger managers. While they had no prior acquaintance with one another, each is a product of a fine training program with one of the money center banks in which they rotated through positions in each of the banking functions. Your extensive experience in the industry leads you to the inevitable condusion that the only hope is a two- pronged approach involving reduction of all but the most critical expenses and the sale of assets to other banks. The task must be accomplished quickly since further deterioration of the quality of the loan portfolio could result in a negative capital position forcing regulators to close the bank. The strategy is clear to you, but you have many details that will need to be worked out. You believe that you know what information will be needed in order to get the bank on a course for future prosperity. You are fortunate in having three young executives to help you out. While they have little or no experience working together you know that each is dedicated to the survival of the bank. Like you, they know what needs to be done and how to do it. Setting: Repertory Theater Your Position: Executive Director You are the executive director of a repertory theater affiliated with a major university. You are responsible for both financial and artistic direction of the theater. While you recognize that both of these responsibilities are important, you have focused your efforts where your own talents lie - on insuring the highest level of artistic quality to the theatre's productions. Reporting to you is a group of four department heads responsible for production, marketing development, and administrations, along withan assistant dean who is responsible for the actors who are also students in the university. Last week you received a comprehensive report from an independent consulting firm commissioned to examine the financial health of the theater. You were shocked by the major conclusion of the report "The expenses of operating the theater have been growing much more rapidly than income and by year's and the theater will be operating in the red Unless expenses can be reduced the surplus will be consumed, and within A.five years the theatre might have to beclosed" You have distributed your report to your staff and are surprised at the variety of reactions that it has produced. Some dispute the report's conclusions criticizing its assumptions or methods. Others are more shaken, but even they seem divided about what steps ought to be taken and when. None of them or, in fact, anyone connected with the theater would want it to close. It has a long and important tradition both in the university and in its surrounding community. Setting: Auto Parts Manufacturer Your Position: Country Manager Your firm has just acquired a small manufacturer of spare auto parts in Southeast Asia. The recent collapse in the economies in this region made values very attractive. Your senior management decided to acquire a foothold in this region. It was less interested in the particular acquired firm, which produces parts for the local market, than it was in using it as a base from which to produce parts at reduced cost for the worldwide market. When you arrived at your new assignment two weeks ago, you were somewhat surprised by less than enthusiastic reception that you received from the current management. You attribute the obvious strain in working relations not only to linguistic and cultural differences, but also to a deep-seated resentment to their new foreign owners. Your top management team seems to get alongvery well with one another, but the atmosphere changes when you step into the room. Nonetheless, you will need their help in navigating your way through this unfamiliar environment. Your immediate need is to develop a plan for land acquisition on which to construct new manufacturing and warehouse facilities. You and your administrative assistant, who accompanied you from your previous assignment, should be able to carry out the plan, but its development would be hazardous without local knowledge.Setting: Manufacturer of Internal Combustion Engines Your Position: Project Manager Your firm has received a contract from one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers to produce an engine to power their "flagship" sports car. The engine is of Japanese design and is very complex not only by American but by world standards. As project manager, you have been involved in this venture from the outset, and you and your team of engineers have taken pride at the rave reviews the engine has received in the automotive press. Your firm had previously been known as a producer of outboard engines for marine use, and its images is now greatly enhanced as the manufacturer of the power plant of one of the world's fastest sports car's. Your excitement at being a part of this project was dashed by areport of serous engine problems in cars delivered to customers. Seventeen owners of cars produced in the first month have experienced engine seizures - a circumstance which has caused the manufacturer to suspend sales, to put a halt to current production, and to notify owners of this year's production not to drive their cars! Needless to say, this situation is a disaster and unless solved immediately could expose your firm to extended litigation as well as terminate what had been a mutually beneficial relationship. As the person most informed about the engine, you have spent the last two weeks on the road inspecting several of the seized engines, the plant in which they are installed, and reviewing the practices in your own company's plan in which the engine is manufactured. As a result of this research, you have become convinced that the problem is due to operation of the engine at very high RPM's before it has warmed up to develop sufficient oil pressure. The solution would be to install an electronic control-limiting engine RPS's until the engine has reached normal operating temperature.Competence Commitment Likel hood of Compliment Exporting Group Team Group H H H H H L Consult (Group) H H Consult (Individually) H H Factitate H L L Consult (Group] H Decide H Facilitate H Consult (Individually) H Decide H Delegate Facilitate Decide