Organizational Learning and Decision-Making: Interviewing
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Organizational Learning and Decision-Making
- Resources: Rules of the Road for Interviewing
- Research an organization or subset of an organization (i.e. department or division) (Credit Suisse Group www.credit-suisse.com ) and analyze their processes of decision-making and learning initiatives.
- Use Rules of the Road for Interviewing on the below as a guide to conduct at least two interviews of current employees to gather primary data about the organization
- Write an essay based on the analysis of your interview and research.
- Address the following within the organization:
o Models of decision making the organization currently uses
o Efficiency of the managerial decision-making processes currently in place
o Presence or absence of explorative and exploitative organizational learning
o Level of involvement managers have in encouraging organizational learning
o Use of knowledge management systems and the integration of information technology in the organization
o Cognitive structures and biases
- Critique the organization based on the above areas using a minimum of five peer-reviewed references to support your conclusions.
- Include the interview questions and responses as an appendix with your essay.
- Format your paper according to APA standards.
Note. Do not disclose the name of the organization or the name of the people interviewed for this assignment.
Rules of the Road for Interviewing
Prior to the interview
1. Select the individuals for the interviews. Brief the interviewees and frame the interview. Explain the interview structure, time commitment, and your purpose. Provide context for the interview, i.e. this is an academic assignment required for a graduate course in Organizational Theory and Design.
2. Assure the interviewees that their information is confidential and that no names are included in the data collection and feedback. All information is kept confidential, and you have an ethical obligation to maintain your commitment after this work is done.
3. Once the interviewee has agreed to the interview, arrange for a private space, and set time, date, and appropriate location for each of the interviews.
4. Prepare for the interviews by completing a substantial portion of your research. You must have background knowledge about your topic and the organization in order ask appropriate questions.
During the interview
1. The first few minutes of an interview are critical; interviewees will not usually talk freely with a stranger. Begin by getting acquainted. Prior knowledge of the organization is helpful in this situation.
2. Brief the interviewee, frame the interview, and reinforce the confidentiality aspect of the interview. Depending on the lag between setting up and conducting the interview, providing the framework at the start of the interview helps put the interviewee at ease.
3. Have a clean sheet of paper and pen in hand to take notes. Be sure not to write the interviewee's name on the paper.
4. Remember that an interview is a focused conversation and not an interrogation. Your goal is to understand the interviewee's perspective on the topic at hand.
5. At first, read the questions exactly as you have them written. After the interviewee has had a chance to respond, you can probe more deeply about additional topics that aid your research. You can do this by stating, "Tell me more about..."
6. Do more listening than talking. You want to avoid interjecting your opinion, sharing your thoughts or perspectives. Remember, your goal is to gain a better understanding of the organization from the interview.
7. When the interview is over, debrief the interviewee by reviewing key points and ask them if there is anything else they want to add. Remember to thank the interviewee. Offer to provide anonymous feedback and a written summary, if desired.
After the interview
1. After the interviewee leaves, review your notes immediately and clarify or add to your writings as needed. It is easy to get caught up in the act of interviewing and forget to write everything you need. Take additional notes while the memories are fresh.
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Solution Summary
This solution discusses organizational learning and decision-making.
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Decision making is an important function for any organization. It can be considered as a consequence of cognitive process, resulting in the selection of a course of action among various options available. Every decision making action makes an ultimate choice. The output can be an activity or a belief (Harris, 1998). An organization should fully analyze an alternative decision before implementing it. Human performance in decision making conditions has been a matter of dynamic search from various perspectives. There should be variability and creativity in decision making (Robert, 2004).
When an executive is to decide, he has a number of alternatives or course of action before him and chooses the one he thinks best. It may or may not be truly the best. It is the process of choosing between alternatives. It is a choice among alternatives made after consideration of the likelihood of various outcomes occurring as a result of the choice and according to a decision rule that forces the decision to be made in line with the decision maker's objectives or goals (Kroon, Hart & Kreveld, 1991).
The decision making process of an organization is highly dependable on its learning initiatives. It is integral for the organizations to meet with the changing requirements of the environment. Some organizations are known as proactive organizations that engage themselves in a process of continuous learning and are known as learning organizations (Luthans, 2006). Evaluating an organization's decision-making process and learning initiatives is a quite complicated task for the researchers.
In order to complete this project, an interview is taken by the researchers to the personnel working in XYZ Corporation to understand the decision making process and learning initiatives of the firm. With the help of this report, it would be easy for the readers to understand the decision-making process of XYZ Corporation and various learning initiatives that leads an effective decision making process in the organization.
Preparation before the Interview
In order to conduct the interview, I have selected two executive members, who are the top management and middle management and give their contribution to the decision making process. The structure of the interview is the face to face interview. I have selected this structure because in this kind of interview the interviewees give appropriate responses and it consumes less time in comparison to the telephonic interview. The time would be consumed by this interview between 45 minutes to 60 minutes.
The main aim behind conducting this interview is to assess the strategies of the organization to conduct an effective decision making processes. In order to give assurance to the interviewee that their responses will not disclosed, I would sign a deal with them. This deal will contain the surety guidelines that name of the interviewees would be confidential and the responses given by them will not use by us in an illegal and unethical manner.
In order to conduct this interview, I would arrange a private location like the cabin of my research institute, a seminar hall, my office, etc. At the time of interview there would be only four persons in the interview location, interviewer, interviewee, recording man and technician. The time would be chosen by the interviewee as per their comfort level.
During the Interview
Now, it's time to conduct the interview and ask some questions to the interviewee. It is quite difficult for both the interviewer and interviewee to match the comfort level at the initial stage of interview. Firstly, I will explain him the purpose of my interview to become friendlier with him. I will clear him that this is an academic research for my course to understand the organizational theories and practices and assure them his name will not disclose. During interview, I would have a clean sheet of paper and a pen to write the note and responses given by interviewee. Now, I will ask the questions to him and put their responses in notes. The questions are stated in the Appendix section that should be asked to the interview to fulfill the requirements of this report. With the help of these questions, I will try to gain knowledge as much as possible.
After the Interview
Now, this is the time to explain the understanding gained by me in the interview process. In this I will add my knowledge and research with the ...
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