MANAGEMENT

Leadership style is the consistent behaviour of a leader as perceived by his subordinates. Every leader develops a style in the way he handles his subordinates and the various challenges that arise in the organization.

The style of leadership that a leader adopts varies from one situation to another. No one style is always right, a style may completely suit one circumstance but fail woefully when applied to another situation. Leadership styles can be classified by the philosophy of the leader.

TYPES OF LEADERSHIP STYLES

• Autocratic leadership styles
• Democratic leadership style
• Laissez Faire Leadership Style

Autocratic leadership styles: this is also known as authoritarian leadership style. An autocratic leader commands and expects compliance from the subordinates. He leads by the ability to give or withhold rewards and punishment. Autocratic leader permit little or no delegation of leadership functions. All authority centres in the leader.

In autocratic leadership, there is a distance between leaders and followers, such that discourages an exchange of ideas on issues affecting members of an organization. Autocratic leaders feel that they know best in things they do and use direct order to their followers or subordinates.

Authoritarian leaders are known for their close supervision, domineering role in the organization and are only interested in the attainment of maximum production. They oppose ideas coming from the subordinates and don’t consider the impact of the order he gives to the subordinates.

Strengths of Autocratic Leadership

• It is useful when the subordinates are new on the job and have experience or sufficient knowledge and training to perform their jobs without active supervision or assistance.

• In crisis or emergency situation, when decision must be taken immediately, it may be imperative that the leader adopts an autocratic leadership approach because there may be no time to assemble subordinates or followers for a discussion.

• Autocratic leadership leads to effective achievement of goals. This is particularly so when workers are submissive and prefer not to be responsible for participating in planning and decision making.

Weakness of Autocratic Leadership Style

• It has the potential of creating problems of morale and productivity in the long run.
• It is unsuitable when the workforce is knowledgeable about the job.
• It does not encourage the development of commitment towards the objectives of organization by the workers.
• It leads to misunderstanding and communication breakdown due to lack of feedback as a result of the one way communication characteristics of authoritarian leadership.

Democratic Leadership Style: this is sometimes referred to as participative leadership style. A democratic leader in an organization encourages group involvement in planning and achieving objectives and orders are issued only after consultation and explanation (Pratt and Bennett1979).

Under this, group members are encouraged to demonstrate initiative and creativity. Functions are also delegated particularly if the task is complex and the members, numerous. This leadership style also demands that in planning, effecting change or solving problems, the managers or leaders meets with the affected workers and informs them fully of the problem, needs and objectives of the problems.

Laissez Faire Leadership Style: this leadership style is regarded as delegative or free reign leadership Style. In this type of leadership style, the leader allows the employees to take decisions. This type of leadership styles is adopted in a situation where employees are able to evaluate the situation and determine what needs to be done.

The Basic Theories of Leadership

• Trait theories: these are the theories that are largely based on identification of traits that make for effective leaders. A trait in this context is generally defined as distinctive physical or psychological characteristics that account for a person’s behaviour. This group of theorist believes that leaders are born and not made.

• The situational Theories: this group of theories believe that leaders are the products of given situations and that the leadership style that best contributes to the attainment of organizational goals might vary depending on the organizational environment and in different situation or circumstances. This theory believes that the characteristics of subordinates, organizational tradition, and cultural influence affect the emergence and leader’s behaviour.

Human resource management is concerned with the recruitment, selection, controlling, motivation, training and development of human resources in an organization to achieve the goals or objectives of the organizations.

Human resource is the most important asset of any organization; its management is seen as an integral part of the general management activities of organizations.

The objectives of human resource management includes:

• To create and maintain an atmosphere that can enhance the fulfillment of organizational goals.
• To motivate the personnel to achieve organizational goals.
• To obtain the right personnel both in quality and quantity.
• To design and develop an efficient organizational workforce that can respond to changes in technology and other work logistics.
• To achieve and maintain good human relationship between employer and employees and among the employees.

The Need for the Creation of Personnel Department in an Organization

• To enhance the administrative efficiency and convenience in handling personnel matters.
• To enhance more effective co-ordination since all the records of employees are maintained in a single department.
• To save time in handling personnel issues through prompt attention to them by a specific and designated department.

Functions of Human Resource Management

• Staffing the organization through recruitment, selection and placement.
• Training and self development of employees.
• Developing and maintaining sufficient motivations for workers by providing incentives and other staff welfare packages.
• Reviewing and auditing man-power plan and management in the organization.
• Carrying out personnel appraisal and evaluation for purpose of promotion and advancement.
• Keeping record of personnel data services.
• Developing rules, regulations guidelines and policies to guide personnel management in the organization.
• Getting involved in collective bargaining, contract negotiation, handling of grievances and staff relations.

Sources of Manpower Recruitment

Manpower could be recruited from internal or external sources.

Internal Source: The internal source of recruitment encompasses those personnel already in the organization that can further be utilized through promotion, transfer or recall from lay-off or retirement. Using this source of recruitment is usually considered important because it serves as motivation tool and for improvement of performance and productivity.

Lower level managers, through this method of recruitment is also made to attain greater heights in the organization. This internal source has the disadvantage of protecting inefficient employees from the needed competition for potential employees from outside the organization.

External Source: this source of recruitment encompasses all the applicants who are not currently in the employ of the organization. They include newly qualified applicants, unemployed persons and the underemployed persons and the underemployed either in the country or from outside.

The advantage of using the external source for recruitment lies basically in the fact that new employees come into the organization with new vigor, skills, initiative, new ideas, enthusiasm and new spirit of competition. Though, it has the disadvantage of creating room for selection of wrong candidates particularly in the circumstance of biased selection process.

The Recruitment Avenues for External Sources of Recruitment

• Recruitment through advertisement: Advertisement in newspapers, magazines, journals and the internet could be used to attract candidates for employment. This is usually the case for skilled employees and white collar jobs.

• Recruitment through groups, organizations, association and clubs: This group could be used to bring to the notice of their unemployed members about existing job vacancies and to apply for them. Organizations or group could do this through publishing of vacancies in the news bulletin or journals. This is obtainable among professional groups.

• Recruitment from institutions of higher learning: institutions like universities, polytechnics, college of education could be used as avenues for external recruitment.

• Recruitment through employment agencies and consultancy firms: external recruitment could be done through employment agencies and consultancy firms. Such organizations usually charge fees for service rendered in the direction.

• Selection: the second major activity in the employment process is selection. Selection basically entails the process of choosing, from the list of applicants for a position. The selection criteria are in terms of academic qualification, skills, abilities and attitudes among other factors required for successful performance in the given position.

EMPLOYEE SELECTION PROCESS

• Initial screening of candidates: this is the first process involved in removing unqualified candidates that applied for the job. At this stage candidates without the basic qualification and experience would be delisted.

• Filling of application forms: after screening and delisting of unqualified applicants, qualified applicants would be given an application form to fill. The essence of the application form is to enable the organization get detailed information about the applicant. Such information includes age, work experience and interest.

• Test administration: at this stage, the candidates are tested to ascertain the suitability for the position being sought. Test at this stage could take the form of, physical test, personality test, skills test, interest test, intelligence test and aptitude test to measure the candidate’s ability to understand and benefit from a training programme.

• Induction and Orientation: on this stage, the applicants that are selected are inducted and given orientation. Induction is a well planned introduction of new employees to the organization, their departments, their co-workers and their jobs.

Orientation is the process of preparing and equipping new employees to function effectively in their new job or position by informing them o their duties. The new employees are also through orientation made to know the company policy towards holidays, sick leaves, retirement and fringe benefits.

• Placement: at this final stage, employees are placed in their new offices and given necessary things to work with.

Problems of Personnel Management in Nigeria

• Quota System or Federal Character: the federal character principle applicable in Nigeria makes it difficult for the selection and placement of personnels on the basis of merit. Under quota system anybody can be selected for a position even if he/she is qualified or unqualified for the position.

• Problem of Manpower Mix: in some instances, wrong people are employed into positions different from their area of specialty and this is caused by corruption and favouritism. For instance, an engineer maybe employed to work as an accountant.

• Lack of Qualified Manpower: qualified manpower for employment particularly in high technical areas are actually lacking in Nigeria. This is usually as a result of poor education and production of half baked graduates that lacks skills.

• Lack of Resources for Manpower Training and Development: most organizations in Nigeria lacks well established human resource management that can ensure that personnel’s are well trained for the job and they also lack training facilities for their staffs. Moreover, the managers and the supervisors of these organizations lack the necessary skills to help in the on-the job training.

• Disparity in Wage Rates: the wide disparity in wage between the private and public sectors and even between organizations within the public sectors results to high labour turn over as people continue to look for better working conditions and salaries.

Reference

• Udeze, J.O (2004), Human Resource Management in Nigeria. Enugu: Joe Best Books.
• Ubeku, A.K (1975), Personnel Management in Nigeria. Benin City: Ethiope Publishing Company.
• Onah F.O (2008), Human Resource Management. Enugu: John Jacob Publishers.
• Howe, S. (1995), Essentials of Human Resource Management. London AP Publication Ltd.
• Ewim, N. and Ubochi, I (2007) Principles of Personnel Management in Nigeria. Lagos: Dominican Publishers.
• Onah, R.C (2005), Public Administration. Nsukka: Great AP/EXpre Publishers.

 Motivation is simply the work a manager performs to inspire, encourage and induce workers to take a required action. In an organization, incentives are used to motivate workers to do their work diligently and effectively. These incentives include money, job security, status and recognition.

The incentives become very effective when they are related or have relevance to the personal, social and physiological needs of the individual. Motivation in public administration is seen as a theoretical construct used to explain why employees do certain things in the organization.

It explains why employee does his job well. The basic elements of motivation are need, drive, incentives, goal and motives. The subject of motivation is one of the most researched and discussed issues in public administration. This is as a result of its importance on the issue of organizational effectiveness and efficiency and the achievement of organizational goals generally.

Some scholars believe that motivation is inextricably related to organization performance and that highly motivated individuals are more productive both in quantity and quality. So the necessity of managers and administrators to motivate their employee cannot be over emphasized.

Theories of Motivation

Over the years, scholars have developed theories of motivation. These theories include:

• Maslow Hierarchy of Needs
• Theory X and Y of Douglas McGregor
• Equity theory of J.S Adams
• Motivation Hygiene theory of Herzberg
• Needs theory of McClelland
• Management motivators of Patton
• Expectancy theory of V.H Vroom
• Model of Expectancy Theory of Porter and Landler
• Goal setting theory of Edwin Locke and Latham Gary
• The Carrot and Stick theory
• The Psycho-Analytic theory of Freud Sigmund
• Multiple interacting factors theory
• Instinct theory of motivation of William James
• Incentive theory of motivation
• Humanistic theory of motivation
• Alders ERG theory
• Reinforcement theory
• Attitude behaviour consistency.

Maslow Hierarchy of Needs: Abraham Maslow is one of the most popular theories of motivation. The needs theory by Maslow is arranged in hierarchical order. They are:

• Physiological Needs: these are needs that are essential for sustaining human life. They include food, water, clothing, shelter, sleep and sexual satisfaction.
• Security or Safety Needs: these includes need to be free from danger, fear of loss of job, property etc.
• Love Needs: this include needs to be accepted by others.
• Esteem Needs: this is the need for self esteem, independence and freedom.
• Self Actualization: this is the last of the needs and includes the need for one to achieve or maximize potentials and the need for one to become everything that one is capable of becoming.

Theory X and Y: this theory views human being as either negative represented by theory X or positive theory Y. Theory X assumes that man by nature is indolent, lacks ambition, dislikes responsibilities and prefers to be led.

While on the other hand, theory Y assumes that employees are not by nature lazy and unreliable and would prefer self direction. Rather they have the capacity for innovation and creativity. In essence, the management of organizations need to know whether an individual employee is X or Y, and based on that, know the motivational strategy to be adopted.

Equity Theory: this theory is based on the assumption that individuals are motivated by their desire to be equitably treated in their work relationship. The key elements in equity theory are inputs, rewards and comparison. Employees who feel they are under rewarded will be less motivated while those who feel that they are fairly or overly rewarded will be highly motivated.

Motivation-Hygiene Theory: this theory assumes that work satisfaction and dissatisfaction arise from two different factors. Those factors that satisfy are called motivational factors and those that dissatisfy are called hygiene factors. Motivating factors includes achievement, recognition and growth opportunity. These motivators are derived from the work itself and are intrinsic to it.

Need Theory: this theory assumes that there are three types of basic needs which are of importance to individuals and which act as factors that influence behaviour and reactions. These needs are need for power, need for affiliation and need for achievement. The satisfaction of these needs is very important in motivating employees even though there is individual difference in the extent to which they satisfy their need.

Managerial Motivators: Patton in his research identified some motivators which are of special importance to executives. They are, the challenge found in work, status like titles, promotion and such symbols like office size and appointment, the urge to achieve leadership or the wish to be a leader among one’s peers, fear of error, loss of jobs or reduction in bonus.

Expectancy Theory: this theory, in the main, assumes that a person’s motivation towards action at anytime would be determined by his or her anticipated values of all the outcomes (both negative and positive) of the action multiplied by the strength of that person’s expectancy that the outcome would yield the desired goals.

Motivation according to this expectancy theory is dependent on an individual’s expectancy of achieving an objective which has value for him.

Basically, expectancy connotes an individual’s assessment of the probability that a particular act will or will not lead to certain outcome. Motivation is always likely to occur when there exist positive valence and expectancy.

Goal Setting Theory: the goal setting theory suggests that employees can be motivated by goals that are specific and challenging but achievable. According to Edwin Locke and Gary Lathan who developed the theory, it is natural for people to set and strive for goals.

However, the goal setting process is useful only if people understand and accept the goals. Thus the best way to motivate employees is to set the right objectives in the right ways for the employees. There are three elements of goal-setting theory which that:

• Goal should be specific
• Goals should be challenging
• Goals should be achievable.

The Carrot and Stick Theory: this theory postulates the use of rewards (carrot) and penalties (stick) to induce behaviours. This theory believes that rewards ad penalties are strong motivators. One example of carrot could be money while an example of stick could be in form of denial of income, bonus, demotion or some other penalties.

Multiple interacting factors theory: this theory assumes there is no way motivation can be realized by a single factor. Other factors like physical material reward, sociological or physiological factors or forces need to be considered. The management need, to effectively combine, physical, sociological and psychological factors appropriately in the task of motivating the employees.

Instinct Theory of Motivation: according to instinct theory, people are motivated to behave in certain ways because they are naturally programmed to do so. An example of this could be found in the animal world in their seasonal migration. These animals do not learn to do this. It is instead an inborn pattern of behaviour. A list of such human instinct includes attachment, play, shame, anger, fear, shyness, modesty and love.

Incentive Theory of Motivation: the incentive theory suggests that people are motivated to do things because of external rewards. For examples, one might be motivated to go to work each day for the monetary reward or for being paid.

Drive Theory of Motivation: according to this theory, people are motivated to take certain actions in order to reduce the internal tension that is caused by unmet needs. This theory is useful in explaining behaviours that have a strong biological component, such as hunger or thirst

Arousal Theory of Motivation: the arousal theory of motivation suggests that people take certain actions to either decrease or increase in levels of arousal. Employees need certain level of activation to be sufficiently motivated to achieve goals, do good work and so on. This is also known as the activation theory.

Humanistic Theory of Motivation: humanistic theory of motivation is based on the idea that people also have strong cognitive reasons to perform various actions. This is famously illustrated in Abraham Maslow hierarchy of needs which present different motivation at different levels.

First people are motivated to accomplish basic biological needs for food and shelter, as well as those of safety, love and esteem. Once the lower level need have been met, the primary motivator becomes the need for self actualization or the desire to accomplish one individual potential.

Alderfers ERG Theory: the acronym ERG means Existence, Relatedness, and Growth. The ERG theory is built upon Maslow hierarchy of needs theory. To begin his theory, Alderfer collapses Maslow five levels of needs into three categories.

Existence needs are desires for physiological and material well-being. (In Maslow model, existence needs are physiological and safety needs).

Relatedness needs are desires for satisfying interpersonal relationship. (In Maslow model, relatedness corresponds to social needs).

Growth needs are desires for continued psychological growth and development.(In Maslow model, growth needs includes esteem and self actualization needs).

This approach proposes that unsatisfied needs motivate behaviour and that as lower level needs are satisfied, they become less important. Higher level need becomes more important as the lower level need is satisfied.

Reinforcement Theory: the reinforcement theory based on E.L Thorndike’s law of effect simply looks at the relationship between behaviours and its consequences. This theory focuses on modifying an employee’s on the job behaviour through the appropriate use of the following four techniques: positive reinforcement, avoidance, extinction and punishment.

Model of Expectancy Theory: Porter and Lawler (1968) drawing substantially upon the work of Vrom developed a more comprehensive model of motivation which they applied in their study. According to this model, the amount of effort and individual is willing to expand in pursuit of reward depends on the following:

• The value the reward has for one
• The amount of effort he anticipates is necessary to achieve it
• His expectancy of achieving it.

Attitude Behaviour Consistency: this theory assumes that attitude (predispositions to behaviour) and actual behaviours are more likely to align if the following factors are true:

• There have been any opportunities to express attitude behaviour.
• There has been a history of attitude behaviour consistency.
• The attitudes are based on personal experience, rather than being copied from others.
• The attitudes are proven by past experience.
• There is no social desirability bias, where the presence of others will lead us into uncharacteristic behaviour.
• The attitude is strongly held and is around core beliefs.

Major Motivational Techniques

Money: money as a motivational technique could be in form of wages, bonus, salary and so forth. Money is mostly effective as a motivating factor if the employees are young, if it is given or paid in such ways to reflect individual performance and if it is large compared to the person’s income.

Positive re-enforcement: this is usually in form of proper designing of work environment.

Workers participation: this is usually in form of consulting the workers on actions or decisions that affect them and allowing them to participate in scheme of things.

Job enrichment: this is in form of making a job more challenging and meaningful. A job could be enriched by giving it variety, giving the workers the opportunity to decide work methods, sequence and pace, giving workers feedback on their performance and so forth.

In conclusion, it is worthy of note that effective motivation depends on organizational climate and motivation is based on situation. Administrators in organization need to respond to the motivations of individuals or employees if they are to create an environment in which employees will perform willingly and optimally for the overall goal of the organization.

Reference

• Maslow, A. (1943), “A Theory of Human Motivation” Psychological Review July.
• McGregor, D. (1966), Leadership and Motivation. Cambridge: MITPress
• Locke, E.A ad Latam, G.P (1984), Goal Setting: A Motivational Techniques that Works? Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
• Vrom, V.H (1964), Work and Motivation. New York: Waley Publisher.
• Ugwuanyi, B.I. (2016), Public Administration. Enugu: Divine Favour Publication

Organizational structure refers to the groupings of an organizations functions, positions and operations. Typically, organizations express their structures visually on an organizational chart. Chart shows the positions within an organization, the roles they play and the relationship between them-including supervisory relationships.

Focusing on organizational structure and its design helps organizations to gain clarity on what they are doing currently, their ideal functioning and how they can achieve it. Again structure allows for the division of work among members of the organization and the co-ordination of their activities to ensure that they are directed towards achieving the goal and objectives of the organization.

The structure also shows the tasks and responsibilities, work roles and relationship and channel of communication. Basically, organizational structure creates the framework of order and command, through which the activities of the organization can be planned, organized, directed and controlled.

An organization must have its own structure in order to operate systematically and efficiently. There is no one best way for organization to be structured and so organizations vary considerably on structural attributes.

Components of Organizational Structure

• Horizontal Differentiation: this refers to the degree of differentiation between units based on the orientation of members, the nature of tasks they perform and their education and training.
• Vertical Differentiation: this is characterized by the number of hierarchical levels in the organization.
• Spatial Differentiation: this refers to the degree to which the location of the organization’s office, facilitate and personnel are geographical distributed.

Principles of Organizational Structure

Modern organizational structures have evolved from several organizational theories, which have identified certain principles as basic to any organization.

Specialization: specialization facilitates division of work into units for efficient performance. According to the classical approach, work can be performed much better if it is divided into components and people are encouraged to specialize by components.

Work can be specialized both horizontally and vertically. Vertical specialization in an organization refers to different kinds of work at different levels, such as project leader, scientist, researcher and field staff. Horizontally, work is divided into departments like genetics, plant pathology, administration and accounts. Specialization enables application of specialized knowledge which betters the quality of work and improves organizational efficiency.

Coordination: coordination refers to integrating the objectives and activities of specialized departments to realize broad strategic objectives of the organization. It includes two basic decisions pertaining to: (i) which units or groups should be placed together and, (ii) the pattern of relationships, information networks and communication.

Coordination of different activities is important to achieve strategic objectives. Efficient coordination can also help in resolving conflicts and disputes in organization.

Hierarchy: basically, hierarchy also facilitates vertical coordination of various departments and their activities. Organizational theorists have over the years developed several principles relating to the hierarchy of authority for coordinating various activities.  

Unity of Command: every person in an organization should be responsible to one superior and receive orders from that person only. This is considered to be the most important principle for efficient working and increased productivity in an organization.

The Scalar Principle: decision making, authority and the chain of command in an organization should flow in a straight line from the highest level to the lowest. The principle evolves from the principle of unity of command. However, this may not always be possible, particularly in large organizations.

The Responsibility and Authority Principle: to successfully perform certain tasks, responsibility must be accompanied by proper authority. Those responsible for performance of tasks should also have the appropriate level of influence on decision making.

Span of Control: this refers to the number of specialized activities or individuals supervised by one person. Deciding the span of control is important for coordinating different types of activities effectively.

Levels of Organizational Structure

Organizations are structured in layers. This implies that the determination of policy and decision making, the execution work and the exercise of authority and responsibility are carried out by different people at varying levels of seniority throughout the organizational structure.

It is therefore possible to structure an organization in terms of interrelated levels in the hierarchical structure such as the technical level, the managerial level and community level.

Technical Level: this is concerned with the specific or actual job or tasks to be done like administrative process, giving direct service to the public in governmental departments and the actual process of teaching in education establishment etc.

The Managerial Level: this level is concerned with the coordination and integration of work at the technical level. Decisions at this level may relate to the resources necessary for performance of the technical function and the beneficiaries of the product or service provided.

The Community Level: this is the level above the managerial level that is concerned with the broad objectives and the work of the organization as a whole. Examples of the community level within organizations are the boards of directors, governing boards or trustees of nonprofit organizations.

Designing Organizational Structure

Some important considerations usually made in designing an effective organizational structure are:

• Clarity: the structure of the organization should be such that there is no confusion about people’s goals, tasks, style of functioning, reporting relationship and sources of information.
• Understanding: the structure of an organization should provide people with a clear picture of how their work fits into the organization.
• Decentralization: the design of an organization should compel discussion and decisions at the lowest possible level.
• Stability and adaptability: while the organization structure should be adaptable to environmental changes, it should be such that it remains steady during unfavourable conditions.

Suggested Posts

• Difference Between Formal and Informal Organization
• Principles of Management
• Decision Making & Decision Making Models
• POSDCORB: Functions of the Chief Executive
• Human Relations Approach to Management by Elton Mayo
• Difference between Maslow Hierarchy of Needs theory & ERG theory
• Person Perception | Principles & Factors that Affect Perception
• Approaches to the study of organizational behaviors
• Management as Art and Science
• Motivation in Management
• Human resource Management

Decision making is simply the thought process of selecting a logical choice from available options. Decision making in an organization involves the process of taking action by some officials or body to approve, modify or reject a preferred position on issue or group of issues.Decision making is the selection of course of action among alternatives.

Drucker (1955), described decision making as a judgment and choice between alternatives and also observes that decision making is a process of evaluating alternatives related to a goal at which expectation of the decision taker with regards to particular course of action impels him to make a selection or commitment towards which he will direct his intellect and energies for the purpose of attaining his objectives.

For effective decision making, a manager or the management must be able to forecast the outcome of each option as well, and based on all these, determine which option is the best for that particular situation.

TYPES OF DECISION

Organizational Decision: this type of decision is taken to further the interest of an organization. It is the co-operative decision of an organization. Bureaucratically, a manager or an administrator can make a decision, which can be delegated to other workers of the organization.

Programmed Decision: this type of decision making is applied to routine problem, routine problems are problems that arise on day to day basis, which could be addressed by standard response. These responses give solutions that have already been determined by previous experience as suitable to the problem in question.  

For instance, a specified process through which somebody can be employed by Nigeria Civil Service Commission, like applying and participating in an interview or examination. Programmed decision is the routine and repetitive decision with established precedence.

Non Programmed Decision: this type of decision making is obtained when there is new and unusual problem. When a problem is unusual, it requires a manager or an administrator to use his discretion to handle and manage such crisis. Non-programmed decisions are usually made by upper level managers.

Personal Decision: this is the type of decision a manager makes without any consultation. In the course of discharging their duties, mangers can make decision in their own interest. It is the personal choice of an individual.

Fundamental or Critical Decision: these are the type of decisions that requires executive judgement.

Routine Decision: this is the regular and patterned decision that provides guide for daily activities and little thought as they are made repeatedly.

Basic Decision: these are major decisions like deciding the location an industry or the type of service that an organization should go.

Tactical Decision: these are decisions that relate to economic use of resources.

Strategic Decision: these are the type of decisions that are usually made by the management and include decisions about basic objectives and operations of an organization.

Types of Decision Making Models

In a bid to have a clearer understanding of how a decision should be taken in an organization, scholars have identified some models which are: rational comprehensive model, incremental model, mixed scanning and the satisfying model.

The Rational Comprehensive Model: this model involves taking decision based on logical or rigorous analysis of problems, the alternative lines of actions to it solution and the making of choice among them. Rational comprehensive model is perhaps the most widely accepted decision making process.

This is as a result of its emphasis on reasoning, whereby decision makers are faced with a wide world of open system of variables in which all alternatives and consequences must be surveyed with the aim of attaining the most efficient result of maximum net value.

This model seek to enable public administrators to make a rational decision in the most efficient, economic and effective manner. Therefore, there are some steps which an administrator considers before taking an effective decision. These steps include:

• Recognizing and clarifying the problem.
• Gathering all the possible facts for the actualization of the goals.
• Outlining and putting each option to a test by asking of its legality.
• Selecting of the best possible solution for the problem.

The Incremental Model: this involves making small or incremental changes from existing decisions. In this context, past decision provides rough guide for present decisions.

This model was propounded by Charles Lindblon (1959) to critique the rational comprehensive model with a central thesis on administrative decision making, which he said involves a continuation of past policies with a least possible modification to suit the changing circumstances.

Lindblom contends that incrementalism represents the typical decision making process in pluralistic societies. He argue that people are essentially pragmatic, seeking not always the single best ways to deal with a problem but more modestly, an approach that avoids many of the problems of the rational comprehensive model, and at the same time more descriptive of the way in which public officials actually make decisions.

Mixed Scanning Model: Amitai Etzioni (1967) propounded this model. This model combines the use of incrementalism and rationalism. He argues that, it will help public administrators to develop a synthesis through which the advantages of each of the rational and incremental models can be maximized.

Etzioni (1967) claims that the mixed scanning strategy was not only to describe how decisions are made but what effective strategy to adopt in policy decision making by decision makers. He further argues that, this approach allows decision makers to utilize both the rational comprehensive and incremental models in different situations.

Mixed scanning model seeks to provide an answer to the major weaknesses of incrementalism and comprehensive rational model of decision making.

The Satisfying Model: satisfying as used in this model means choosing the satisfactory rather than the optimal decision making alternative. Herbert Simon et al (1957), in an analysis concluded that, “Most human decision making whether individual or organizational is concerned with the discovery and selection of satisfying alternatives.

To arrive at a decision that is satisfactory, the administrator does not examine every possible choice, taking into account time and resources constraints. Herbert went further to explain that decision makers operate within certain boundaries determined by the skills, habits and reflexes and the extent of his knowledge and information.

Suggested Posts

• Organizational Structure
• Difference Between Formal and Informal Organization
• Principles of Management
• POSDCORB: Functions of the Chief Executive
• Human Relations Approach to Management by Elton Mayo
• Difference between Maslow Hierarchy of Needs theory & ERG theory
• Approaches to the study of organizational behaviors
• Management as Art and Science
• Person Perception | Principles & Factors that Affect Perception
• Motivation in Management