ILM 10 Assignment 2: Problem Solving and Decision Making Report

This report analyzes a workplace scenario at Arab Bank, focusing on the challenges of problem-solving and decision-making within the organization. The student identifies two key problems: discrepancies in job descriptions and the negative impact of 'climber' employees. The report provides a detailed analysis of these issues, including their scope, impact, and affected parties. It explores decision-making techniques, such as the Nominal Group Technique, and proposes a communication plan to address the identified problems. Possible solutions are outlined, and monitoring and review techniques are suggested to ensure the effectiveness of the proposed interventions. The report aims to improve fairness in appraisals and overall employee motivation and productivity.

Running head: ILM
Assignment 2
Solving problems and making decisions
Arab Bank plc
(Real Story)

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Brief of my organization, its operations, and my role.................................................................2
AC 1.1 Present situation and Analysis of the problem....................................................................2
What is the problem and what may have caused it:.....................................................................2
AC 2.1 Identification of problem 1 and possible solutions.........................................................3
Problem two.................................................................................................................................4
It scope (e.g. how widespread, how often, how much … etc):........................................................5
Who, how and what it affects in the work place / team:..............................................................5
What you are trying to achieve by solving the problem:.............................................................5
What the result will be if no action has been taken:....................................................................6
AC 3.1 Decision making technique.................................................................................................6
AC 4.1 Communication plan and implementation..........................................................................7
Brief description of the possible solutions to the problem:.........................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Brief of my organization, its operations, and my role
Arab Bank is the first private sector financial institution in the Arab world, with
headquarter based in Amman / Jordan. We rank amongst the largest international financial
institutions by having an unmatched Global Arab branch network with 500 branches in more
than 30 countries in 5 continents. Arab Bank covers four major areas, and those are: Personal
Banking, Corporate / Investment Banking, Private Banking, and Treasury to serve all
individuals, corporations, government agencies and other financial institutions. I have joined
Arab Bank in September 16th, 2007 as a financial control associate. I am working now as a
Middle Office Controller / Treasury Controller. My core job is to monitor, control, and report the
activities that are executed by the staff in both the front and the back office (Treasury
Operations). The focus is upon the preparation of accurate management information which will
enable accurate measurement of performance and risk. Last year I got shifted from Financial
Control Department to Risk Management Department.
AC 1.1 Present situation and Analysis of the problem
What is the problem and what may have caused it:
The problem is that I got the appointment letter in my organization for a particular post
and I am getting forced to take up the responsibilities of some other tasks in a repetitive manner.
The problem has two areas to talk about; however both the areas are related to each other. I have

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chosen my job because it’s easier than picking any other organization and just imagining a
problem.
Scope
This situation is pretty much concerning as in this way, the employees of the business
organization will feel insecure as under the supervision of the authority I got assigned for 2 other
jobs which were not mentioned in my job description and for that I can seek some legal help as
this act is against the constitution.
Impact
The impact of this situation is tremendous as this is clearly a breach of contract and
against the constitution. For this type of situations in the workplace, one can surely take legal
help and issue a case in court.
AC 2.1 Identification of problem 1 and possible solutions
I will name the first problem as “Job Description Farce”. To be clearer, my job
description is not what it really says when describing it above. I am doing three more jobs those
are not suitable for me, neither matches my job description. I did speak about these issues to my
HR manager Mr. Khan and the assistant manager Mr Qureshi. They said that as I am a new
employee, I will be needing time to gain further experience and by taking up those tasks I will be
able to learn things. What makes it worse is that I am not getting rewarded or appraised for the
other three jobs. In fact, I am sitting in the wrong department. Currently I work in the Financial
Control Department doing a finance job (Job 1) and my job description says that I am working
for Risk Management Department which is true (Job2). In this scenario, I am not experiencing
any kind of development in my career and I am not been able to learn anything and above all my

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satisfaction level is zero. These are the factors that are bothering me. In this scenario, either I will
have to talk to the governing body of the institution or I will have to seek legal help.
AC 2.2 Summary of options
I am one of the three Arab Bank Management Information System (MIS) team members
(Job 3), this department is responsible for the information and generation of report for any
department in all Arab Bank / Bahrain, despite having this section under Financial Control
Department which contain two team members they do not do this job and this job is written in
their job description (Neubertet al. 2015). As from my job title, my core job is to work as a
Middle Office Controller / Treasury Controller (Job4) and this should be the job I am getting
appraised for.
Problem two
Problem 2 is “Be a climber and go top”. A climber employee will step on anyone and
everyone to move up the ladder, this employee spends a lot of time trying to carry favor mostly
with the higher up positions and few with same grade positions; they are also called gossip
employees, as their main focus is on the trash talks feels like a part of a group or to create what
they see as camaraderie. So when one team member’s back is turned, this employee will try to
bond with another person by speaking negatively about them, and when that second person back
is turned the cycle continues (Marsick and Watkins 2015). I have talked about this issue to my
colleagues and some of them are from my department and some others are from different
departments. In this scenario, I can understand the situation in advance when they always will
take all the credit they can, they would not think twice about lying or cheating to look good.
They play the ‘good guy game’ with everyone around. This climber individual always dedicates

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his energy to get ahead and he would not care how he will do it. He will do anything for a better
job title, a bonus or a raise (Kaner 2014). The basic problem arises when a difficult task is
allocated to them they will always complain in front of other team members, but while facing the
boss they try to behave in a proper manner. They portray that they know the tasks in a better way
and tries to be the first person in solving the problem of others (Rios, McConnell and Brue
2013). So I will name both problems as“Bias Chaos”.
Figure: decision making process
Source: (Gamratet al. 2014)
It scope (e.g. how widespread, how often, how much … etc):
This happens on daily basis with the same team member and they will get all the credit at
the year-end appraisals by being the top performer (TP) along with other job titles as well as
increments each and every year.
Who, how and what it affects in the work place / team:
As discussed above, no team member will show his/her grievance for this problem
because this climber team member is acting camaraderie with all other team members. The

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‘good guy show’ is going on all over the year, and just exactly before the time of appraisal, they
stand up in front of all other team members saying that they know the tasks in a better way than
the rest of the team members. Surprisingly, team members take this issue lightly for the above
reasons but I do not. As the biasness in the department is on the rise, I come to work and finish it
off diligently before rushing back home instead of listening to these grapevine messages. I even
was going to resign from my job because of this problem. If you perform so much and at the end
of the year you do not get appreciated, you feel very down and there is no one to talk with or
complain to(Kaner 2014). I think for an employee to work with full potential, motivation is an
important factor and in workplace, reward and recognition helps in providing the same.
What you are trying to achieve by solving the problem:
To get every team member his/her right of fair appraisal without being biased to any
particular team member especially climbers.
What the result will be if no action has been taken:
The increases in the number of employees who are trying to demotivate the honest
employees have resulted in the fall of the performance in the organization. Unfortunately, the
department will be very intolerable, which will result in very low productivity. As stated by
Holmes and Stubbe (2015), any member of the team will do his/her best to leave this department
as soon as possible.
AC 3.1 Decision making technique
I think that Nominal Group Technique can be used to solve these kinds of workplace
related issues. In this way, the team has to divide into smaller groups in order to generate new
ideas to solve the issues. Then the management takes the possible ideas and all the member of

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the teams has to discuss about those chosen ideas that they might accept (Yoder-Wise 2014).
Finally the team members vote and the opinion gets most votes gets implemented to solve the
issues (Carmeli 2014). This technique would surely serve the purpose as I think in this way
equality would prevail and no one will be able to manipulate the decisions.
Figure: decision making technique
Source: Holmes and Stubbe(2015)

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Figure: Nominal group technique
Source: (Carmeli 2014)
Source: (Gamratet al. 2014)

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AC 4.1 Communication plan and implementation
Employees Way of
communication
Decision Implementation Time taken
Managers Email, Direct
communication
Transparency
should prevail
between the
employees and
employer
Assess the choices
of solution generated
by the smaller
groups
12th June to
13th August
Team members Direct
communication
Equality should
prevail in the team
Generate innovative
ideas to solve the
issues
2nd October to
31st December
Table: communication plan
(Source: Goetsch and Davis 2014)
Brief description of the possible solutions to the problem:
Climbers see that they are normal persons, in some of the occasions they will even
approach you for an advice saying “why you don’t do like me? Why you don’t get along with the
boss? Talk to him from time to time … etc.”. they think getting what you want or getting along
with your boss is something normal. No use of grievance to others or higher authorities.
Climbers might not be aware that they are misbehaving (Goetsch and Davis 2014). So I suggest
having the situation pointed out to them in a manner that does not put them on the defensive, and
might be a huge step to remedying the situation. There is nothing wrong with ambitions, but if
you are working with a team member who is using dubious tactics to get to the top, I suggest one
should fight in a proper manner. This doesn’t mean using the same dubious tactic. Just make sure
your own work is above and beyond what they are doing, and you shall be the one reaping career

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rewards in no time (Gamratet al. 2014). At the end you can choose your friends but you cannot
choose your colleagues at work.
AC 4.2 Monitoring and review technique
The managers of the business organization can use various tools for review and monitor
the situations in the workplace like being observant, talking to the employees of the organization
regarding the issues they are facing, distributing feedback sheets and by communicating in a one
on one way (Gamrat et al.2014). These are the techniques using which the managers or the
higher authority can notice the issues present in the workplace. These types of issues need to be
solved with highest priority as these can effectively reduce the motivation level of the employees
resulting in a decrease in the general productivity of the organization (Carmeli et al. 2014).
How to monitor the situation
To monitor the situation, I will have to gather feedbacks from my team members and the
managers of the organization to track the improvement of the situation and apart from that I can
arrange some meetings to get to the bottom of the issue.
Conclusion
Thus to conclude, it can be said that within a business organization there should be a
transparency between the employers and the employees in order to sustain the motivation level
and the loyalty of the employees of the organizations. Apart from that, I think the management
should consider that the equality should prevail in the teams and the appraisal system should
improvise the ways of judging the contribution of each members of the team in order to sustain

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the equality among all the members of the team. The assessment process should be fair and
acceptable to everyone in order to maintain the satisfaction level of the employees to generate
more productivity and profitability of the organization.