University Business Report: Decision Making and Problem Solving

This report delves into the critical aspects of decision-making and problem-solving within a business environment. It begins by outlining the organizational hierarchy and the information requirements at each level, emphasizing the varying decision-making approaches. The report then explores business problems, using increased labor turnover as a case study, and proposes research steps and solutions, including employee investment and fair remuneration. It also examines asymmetrical relationships, the types of interviews used in qualitative data collection, and the concepts of validity, reliability, and practicality in research. The report concludes with an analysis of a graph depicting arrivals to Australia and a discussion of the Central Limit Theorem, confidence intervals, and interval estimates. This comprehensive analysis provides valuable insights into effective business management and research methodologies.

Decision making and Problem
solving
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Question 1...................................................................................................................................3
Question 2...................................................................................................................................4
Question 3...................................................................................................................................6
Question 4: .................................................................................................................................6
Question 5...................................................................................................................................7
Question 6...................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
Decision making and problem solving are some of the essential elements for the success
of business and to perform these tasks , it is necessary to have knowledge of research
methodology. It is a branch of knowledge, which contains various tools for conducting research,
data analysis, searching for alternatives, etc. in this report, related study is performed. Firstly,
hierarchy of an organisation is understood, and required information by each level is studied.
Further study about various topics under this subject is made (Clandinin, Cave and Berendonk,
2017).
MAIN BODY
Question 1
Hierarchy of business decision makers
An organisation operates in a hierarchy which consist four different levels, every level
has different requirements regarding information and every level is making different kinds of
decisions. Following diagram exhibits structure of hierarchy ad also type of information needed
by every level:
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Illustration 1: Hierarchy

 Senior management: Information needed for these type of decisions are unstructured in
nature. This means, decision maker provides judgement, evaluation and insights into the
problem. These decisions are non routine in nature, thus, information that is collected
needs to provide open thinking to managers and requires personal judgement and
opinions to finalise decision (Cope, 2015).
 Middle management: Information required by this level are specific and timely about
firm performance, data about revenue and cost. Another role is to generate plans and
budgets that assist in achieving strategic goals formulated by top level management. This
is basically the guiding management for lower level. They take important decisions
related to allocation of resources, setting of short term objectives and performing the task
of monitoring and controlling of operational level.
 Operational level: This level of management is executive in nature, that means, it
implements the policies and plans formulated by above two levels. Information required
by this level of management is in accordance with their job responsibilities. This means,
as their work is just to implement the strategies and plans, therefore, required information
is structured in nature. They have a narrow approach towards decision making and just
apply what is instructed to them.
Middle level of management has the best chance of success as they are using structured
information provided by top level management and they are in direct communication with
executive level, thus, makes them more prone to success (Dodds and Hess, 2020).
Question 2
Business problem
These are the issues faced by a business, may be long- term or short- term in nature.
These issues creates a hurdle in path of success of business. Some business problems are so
hazardous in nature, that they can pose a serious threat to the survival of firm. Some of the
common examples of business problems are financial issues, reputation in market, regulations,
issues related to branding and positioning, etc (Farooq and O'Brien, 2015).
In this question, problem of increased labour turnover rate is discussed and related
business research is conducted.
Steps on business research problem of labour turnover:
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 Identification of problem: Very first step relates to identification of issue and detail
study of possible causes of problem are studied. In the provided example, the problem is
increased labour turnover rate. This refers to a situation in which there is frequent
changes in a set of employees. Employees are leaving organisation and needs to be
replaced on a frequent basis in a specific change. Following are some possible reasons
that can cause this problem:
1. Lack of growth and progression: One of the very important reason for which an
employees tends to stay in a company is that they do not feel trapped in a dead- end
position, they are always getting opportunities those are promoting their growth
(may be in terms of monetary value or their skill set). If an employee is not
visualising any growth prospective, than, chances of him leaving the organisation
increases (Flick, 2015).
2. Being overworked: This situation arises in case when employees are not able to
strike balance between their professional and personal life. This may be due to
overload of work in your job profile. This results in increase in job dissatisfaction
level. Dis-balance finally turns out in increased labour turnover rate.
 Finding possible solutions: In next step, manager looks for possible solutions those can
solve problem faced by business. In this case, few possible solutions are listed below:
1. Invest in your employees: This solution can prove to be very useful, as, now there will be
increased level of job satisfaction. Under this technique, employer can plan activities like
adoption of transformational leadership style, democratic management, so that employees feel
that their opinions matters (Mackey and Gass, 2015).
2. Fair remuneration system: Compensation should be planned in a way, that, employees feels
that they are paid and values according to their contribution in organisation. Therefore, it is
essential to formulate a effective and strong remuneration plan in organisation.
 Evaluation of alternatives: In this step, investigation is done on all identified solution
and than a best out of them is selected. For evaluation, pros and cons are calculated for
every solution, to find one feasible solution. In the given case, first solution i.e. invest in
your employees can be selected, as it contains more of pros and one very big advantage
of establishment of good relations between employer and employee.
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 Monitoring and controlling: Mere choice of solution is not enough, after
implementation, it is necessary to keep continuous check on chosen option. This will help
in taking corrective measures on time, so that, operations can be conducted uninterrupted
(Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2017).
Question 3
Types of asymmetrical relationships
In casual studies, most used tool is experiments. Experiment includes manipulation of
independent variable to study its effect on dependent variable. A typical example of these
variable is relationship between changes in price levels and volume of sales. In this case, changes
in price level is independent and latter is dependent variable. Nature of relationship between two
variables in a research are divided into three categories: Symmetrical, Reciprocal and
Asymmetrical. Following are the major types of Asymmetrical relationship:
 Stimulus response relationship: In this type, occurrence of a event is recorded in
response to certain changes. For instance, increase in volume of sales due to effective re-
branding of a product.
 Property- disposition relationship: Property refers to nature of a subject and disposition
refers to tendency to respond in specific way in certain situations. For example, property
can refer to religion, gender, etc. while, disposition includes opinions, attitudes, etc.
 Property- behaviour relationship: This type of relation includes effect of property to
human nature. To explain, example of effect of cultural background on consumer
behaviour can be studied (OpokuAhmed and Akotia, 2016).
Question 4:
Types of interviews:
There are three types of interviews conducted in gathering of qualitative data, based on
the characteristics of interviewee.
Following are the basic formats of interviews:
 Structured: In this format, structured and same type of questions are asked to
interviewees. Main advantage of this type of interview is that respondents are judged
based on same grounds. There are no open ended questions in this format. In this type,
data recording is done through paper- based and self report method. It is suitable in
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telephonic interviews. These interviews are also suitable in case when there is well
developed understanding of topic with clear focus.
 Semi-Structured: In this type of interview, pre determined but open ended questions are
asked. These questions arises out of conversation between interviewer and interviewee.
Most common example of question asked in this type of interview is “Tell me about
yourself?” This is an open ended but pre determined question that is asked to every
subject of research. This format is suitable when there is one chance to interview
participants and data is being collected out in field (Pruzan, 2016).
 Unstructured: In this category of interview, there are no specific questions, they arise
out of conjunction with collection of already collected or observed data. Questions arise
with time as researcher learns more about topic. Sample question for this format can be
“This research study is about the opinions of people about their own health. Can you
share our own experience on this?”. This format is suitable in case of when there is
continuous evolution of researcher's understanding. When there is multiple chances to
interview a single person are available, this type suits best.
Question 5
Validity, Reliability, and Practicality
 Validity: It refers range to which a test is actually measuring what it is supposed to
measure. To formulate a valid test or formula, researcher should be clear about the
subject that he is planning to test. For example, question about demographic factors
should match the actual figures. Asking about old age products in a society where almost
every subject is young, is irrelevant.
 Reliability: This refers to situation in which the formulated test is reliable. This means,
that the test results are consistent and dependable. For example, there may be different set
of samples in a research, than, a formulated formula should be applicable to all sets. Practicality: This measurement tools measures the actual application capacity of a
assessment. This means that the formulated action plan or formula should be practically
applicable. For instance, if a method of data collection is selected than it should be
practical to perform. If the sample size is too large, than face to face interview can be
almost impracticable to use.
Content, Construct and Criterion:
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 Content: These are the types of validity measurement tool, according to which, there is
systematic investigation of the content of test to see whether it contains all required data
that is needed to measure the behaviour of domain.
 Construct: This refers to the assessment tool to measure the operationalizations of a
construct. Here construct refers to the some built test based on a established theory. If this
construct passes this test, than it is validated to be worked upon. For example, test
measuring intelligence (Saunders and Bezzina, 2015).
 Criterion: This test measures the the correlation between the test and a criterion variable,
in other words, it means testing the relationship of the test with other measures which
have already passed the test of validity. Example, IQ test related tested against academic
performance.
Question 6
a. Graph
Key points for above graph:
 There is sudden decrease in arrivals to Australia from other countries.
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New Zealand
India
UK
Philippines
China
Pakistan
Indonesia
Germany
Malaysia
USA
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
100000
120000
140000
160000
180000 163130
53450
83960
23070
132360
4780
17870 17900
36670
63270
1180 990 530 360 320 280 270 220 220 200
Apr-19
Apr-20
Illustration 2: arrivals to Australia

 This data is taken from Australian Bureau of Statistics.
 Above source is a secondary source of data collection.
 Sample are the number of migrants moving from other countries to Australia.
b.
Central limit theorem: According to this theorem, it is stated that in case when independent
random variable are added then in that situation, normalized sum tends to normal distribution
even with the constraint of not normally distributed original variables.
Confidence interval: This is a measure of degree of certainty or uncertainty of sampling
methods. In other words, it can be defined as the probability ratio of a parameter falling between
two set values for a specific proportion of times.
Confidence level: It refers to the percentage of all possible values that are expected to include
the true hypothesis of research. This means it is that proportion which is given by a researcher
based on certain assumption, that this much of sample percentage will possess true population
parameter.
Interval estimate: This refers to a range of values for a sample. This means that you make an
estimation of a large sample data, as it is impossible to conduct survey on whole sample size.
Point estimate: This is often referred to as “best guess” or “best estimate”. This means that a
point is selected or estimated for an unknown population parameter. This means it includes
almost every feature of whole sample and every test can easily be conducted on this point.
CONCLUSION
In view of above report, it can be concluded that research is a tool that if used with
effective planning and execution than, can improve business decisions and also solve various
business problems. In this step, it is leant that well planned and well executed research study will
help an organisation and its managers to boost their performance.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Clandinin, D.J., Cave, M.T. and Berendonk, C., 2017. Narrative inquiry: a relational research
methodology for medical education. Medical Education. 51(1), p.89.
Cope, D.G., 2015, November. Case study research methodology in nursing research. In
Oncology nursing forum (Vol. 42, No. 6. pp. 681-682). Oncology Nursing Society.
Dodds, S. and Hess, A.C., 2020. Adapting research methodology during COVID-19: lessons for
transformative service research. Journal of Service Management.
Farooq, S. and O'Brien, C., 2015. An action research methodology for manufacturing technology
selection: a supply chain perspective. Production Planning & Control. 26(6). pp.467-488.
Flick, U., 2015. Introducing research methodology: A beginner's guide to doing a research
project. Sage.
Mackey, A. and Gass, S.M., 2015. Second language research: Methodology and design.
Routledge.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S., 2017. Decolonising research methodology must include undoing its dirty
history. Journal of Public Administration. 52(Special Issue 1). pp.186-188.
Opoku, A., Ahmed, V. and Akotia, J., 2016. Choosing appropriate research methodology and
methods. Research methodology in the built environment: A selection of case studies,
London: Routledge. pp.32-49.
Pruzan, P., 2016. Research methodology: the aims, practices and ethics of science. Springer.
Saunders, M.N. and Bezzina, F., 2015. Reflections on conceptions of research methodology
among management academics. European management journal. 33(5). pp.297-304.
Online
Hierarchy. 2006. [Online]. Available through:
<https://paginas.fe.up.pt/~acbrito/laudon/ch13/chpt13-1main.htm>
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