Decision making is the topic for this part of our guide to organizational management…

Decisions, big and small, need to be made every day, and for an organization to be effective, its managers need to be able to constantly solve problems and make decisions that are of benefit to it.

It is critical to first prioritize issues and problems based on the issues potential effect on the organization. Those that stand to have the greatest impact should be dealt with first, and all problems need to be addressed in a systematic way prior to a decision being made.

Jumping to conclusions should be avoided as first impressions rarely give the whole picture - obtaining and assessing all the information available being the best way to prevent doing this. Such information should ideally be from more than one source to prevent bias and should be verifiable in some way.

Brainstorming possible solutions with one or more individuals, after receiving all relevant information, can provide a few different perspectives, which can be beneficial to coming up with an elucidation that will work. Potential options can be wide-ranging in the beginning and narrowed down and tweaked until the best possible fix is determined.

Having identified a set of options and solutions, feedback and suggestions on them, along with alternatives, should be sought from consultations with others. For the most part, group decisions (particularly where the group contains people who the end decision will affect) are preferable to those made by individuals as a pool of knowledge, skills and experience can be drawn upon.

Available assistance in the decision-making process can come in the form of Pareto Analysis, Paired Comparison Analysis, Grid Analysis, PMI, Six Thinking Hats, Starbursting, and Decision Trees, to name but a few. These techniques should not be relied upon solely to make a decision, but should be used to guide the process and offer a more scientific-approach. This is of particular importance where the decision-maker is a little too close to the issue to see the bigger picture.

The final step will be to weigh the positive benefit of each proposed solution against any negative impact such decision may incur, as few solutions can be implemented without some draw-back. The best solution will be the one that offers the most positive benefit, with the least likelihood of negative side-effects.

If not repaired it won’t take long for a building with one broken window to quickly turn in to a building with many broken windows. Addressing problems when they are small will prevent them from developing into more serious problems.

When considering the level of employee satisfaction the same is true. Dissatisfaction can spread like wildfire and in the blink of an eye you can have the type of morale problems that are notoriously hard to resolve.

To be confident that your employees are satisfied you need to be aware of any day to day concerns and deal with them before they get out of hand. Keeping the initiative is vital and it is nearly always better to give a little and often.

This turns out be a vicious circle. Fixing problems when they are small is also when they are at their cheapest to fix. The majority of employees would prefer their managers to act without being prompted and by doing so they prevent the situation where they have to address employees’ concern while on the back foot. Employees like strong, confident management and a proactive approach generates respect not least because someone has taken the time to understand some of the employees’ issues.

Compare that with those managers who are out of touch. Arriving late to a problem they are on the defensive, their credibility at risk as they may have to concede to demands which can lead to further and less reasonable demands. It’s not big and it's not clever.

How then can a company monitor the morale of the employees without a big budget and an abundance of spare time?

The first port of call should be an online employee survey. They represent a quick, easy and low cost solution. Instead of weeks and months surveys can now be designed and published in hours and minutes, by harnessing the power of the internet invitations can be sent out instantly and free of charge using email, links on websites and postings on social networks; the results are collated in real-time and can be automatically displayed as charts.

The ideal delivery mechanism is the corporate internet.

By linking through to an online survey website a company can regularly conduct surveys so they become part and parcel of the daily operations.

With an online survey’s ability to produce results in real-time the mood of the employees can rapidly be gauged and concerns highlighted both on a collective and individual level.

Organisations can use survey results to highlight problem areas and then use follow-up surveys to target specific concerns. With good information managers are able to identify specific problems and prepare a considered response.

By conducting regular surveys companies are able to address small problems before they grow into much bigger problems that are then more difficult to address.

And don’t forget that the majority of employees appreciate being consulted so asking their opinion is not a sign of weakness but an indicator of good decision making.

Very occasionally management problems can be solved with something that is quick, easy and won't break the bank; this is fortunately just one of those occasions.