Analysis of Influencing and Decision-Making in Leadership

This report delves into the critical aspects of influencing and decision-making within a leadership context, drawing from the author's personal experience in the XYZ company. It explores the evolution of the author's leadership style, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness, integrity, and employee well-being. The report examines various decision-making techniques, including brainstorming, nominal group technique, multi-voting, Delphi technique, and electronic meetings, highlighting their applications in different scenarios. It also addresses the ethical dimensions of decision-making, underscoring the need for transparency, fairness, and adherence to ethical principles. Furthermore, the report outlines different methods of decision-making such as command style, consult style, and vote style, providing insights into their respective advantages and disadvantages. The report concludes with a discussion of the Z model and its implications for effective decision-making. References and an illustration index are also provided to support the analysis.

Influencing and Making Decisions

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Decision making techniques and leadership...........................................................................1
Ethics in decision making.......................................................................................................4
Methods of decision making..................................................................................................5
Decision making framework..................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

Illustration Index
Illustration 1: Decision making framework.....................................................................................7
Illustration 2: Z model.....................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
I am working in the XYZ company for four years. At the initial level, it was
challenging for me to do the activities and make decision but as the time passes I am able to
learn how to make effective decision at the workplace. Few days back Managing director of
the company give me an opportunity to be a leader, at that time I was very tensed about
leading the employees, how I will manage and satisfy the employee needs but I am
fortunate to reflect my leadership style in the organisation and make effective decision.
Decision making and leadership starts with self-awareness, that means I need to work
harder to analyse my strength and weakness and organisation's opportunities and threats. I
need to mould my behaviour according to the employees in order to develop a healthy work
culture in an entity. I need to consider integrity in the decision-making approach as it can be
defined in many ways but according to me it simply means I need to keep “single objective”
for every task whether it is small or big, employee will naturally trust you in the complex
responsibilities. Combination of trust and responsibilities create creditability in making the
decision which helps me in leading people toward the achievement of a single goal. Finally,
a leader should pay attention on self-care that means emphasises on paying attention self-
interest and personal goals of all the employees Making decision to select your limits that
are your responsibility and how you delegate authority to the people in the entity.
Decision making techniques and leadership
Leader in the venture always needs to make decision based on the problems. They
need the group members and debate, discuss and decide mutually get agree upon one
conclusion (Shaaban and Mohamed, 2016). Group decision making is a powerful way to
identify the problem and reach to final goal, as all the partners are involved in the process, it
is very easy to accept and follow on the judgement. There are five techniques for making
group decision making, these are as follows:
Brain storming: It is the combination of solving the problem and making decision
than communicate that decision in group. When there are large number of people in the
group, big number of ideas and alternative will come to remove the hurdles and there is a
great possibility to reach at the final solution. The process starts with analysing the problem
jointly in the group, making the proper research that how the problem had arisen and what
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will be consequences. Generating the ideas by every group members and analysis each idea
by finding the pros and cons. Finally making discussion to reach at final conclusion
(Richter Sundberg and Nyström, 2016). Leader plays a very important role in
brainstorming. As I am the leader in the organisation, I motivate the group members to
analyse the problem together in the team. I encourage employees to think new idea and
provide in the meeting.
Nominal group technique: In this method, the leader divides the group into small
teams and ask them to generate new ideas to solve problem. All the alternatives are to be
noted down in written and afterword all group members communicate about very
achievable choices. Each member votes on the best alternative (Ross and Krishnamurti,
2016). The choice which get the highest vote will be selected by the group. Leader plays a
very important in nominal group techniques. I as a leader, divides the group into the small
team according to the capability and similar characteristics of the members and I guide
them how the problem is analysed and idea will be generating by each member of the
group.
Multi voting technique: In this method, the shortlisted alternative is being voted by
every member of the circle. Each individual will vote at one time only. The selected option
will continue to the other level, the activity will continue till the best alternative is not
selected.
Delhi technique: In this decision-making method, the leader allow team member to
create ideas(brainstorming) individually and submit it to him/her personally. The alternative
which is given by one member that is not known by the other one of the group. The leader
collects all the details about the ideas and then modify or improve them. This process will
continue till the best way is not chosen to solve the problem (Heyler and Collier, 2016). As
the leader, I need to keep the privacy of all the ideas that what idea is given by whom so
that all group member will trust on me. Due to this better working condition will maintain
in the group environment that lead to effective achievement of goal and solution of
problem.
Electronic meeting: The decision-making process takes place virtually with the
help of technology. That can be done with the way of Skype call with all the members. The
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leader selects two to three strategies and that are discussed virtually so that the clear picture
about the alternative come in-front of every member that what are pros and cons of all the
choices. The member choose and the communicate the best alternative which have more
advantages as compare to disadvantage (Heyler and Collier, 2016). As a leader, I take
initiate to introduce about the problem and strategies chosen by me, I motivate each
member to participate in the conversation taking place on Skype that leads to increase the
communication skill of each member and he/she will openly speak and put his/her ideas in-
front of each member.
When any problem arises in the team, I choose the mix of all the techniques
according to the circumstances and problem. Such that if the problem is complex like
adoption of new technology/software, I need to be aware that every member of the group
are ready to adopt the new technology and who will need training and development to adopt
new software. At this stage I will choose the brainstorm technique where the group member
discusses the problem and reach at the particular solution
If three to four problems are raised at the same time at that point I will choose
nominal group technique where I divide the team into the small groups, it is divided on the
basis of their characteristics, skills and similarities. On the basis of skills, the problems are
allotted such that the group member having good skills, the complex problem will be
assigned to that group and the group members having moderate skills will be allotted simple
hurdle(Paul and Ramanan, 2016). This distinguish helps the leader to find the variety of
ideas and ways to solve the complex and simple problems in the organisation.
If there are many alternatives raised for a particular problem and it is difficult to find
the best way to solve the hurdle then I select the multi-voting technique which helps me to
discover the best way at which all the members are satisfied and will implement the same.
In this multi-stage of voting, every choice will go through the two to three stage of voting
which help the employee to get more insights about the alternative and at the end most
effective way is being selected. If the member does not what that his/her ideas is to be
communicate to every member to the group at that time I will select the Delphi technique,
there privacy will be maintained and employee will fell secure and convey his/her idea to
the leader.
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When the member are not in the office premises, members are from other branch or
other city/country at that time I will select electronic way of problem solving where the
conference will be done on Skype and the strategies are predetermined by me before the
meeting so that only discussion can be done and I will encourage all the member to put their
ideas and communicate in the conference.
Ethics in decision making
Ethics is an inbuilt part of the decision making for every type of leader. The leader
who is effective have better understanding and awareness about his own moral, values,
ethics and system. A good leader hasve integrity, skills and transparency, he/she has a better
knowledge about all the members of the group that what are their norms, values and ethics.
Leader should take transparent and consistent ethically based decision. He/she not takes
convenience and bias decision which are not in the favour in the organisation. The leader
considers the following points to take ethical decision:
 Keep the promises and fulfil them
 Treat each member of the organisation equally
 Not blaming others for the wrong work done by him
 All the decision should be conveyed properly without any communication barriers
 Keep the organisation environment according to the ethics
 All the laws should be follows, no breaking of laws
 Do smart work as compare to hard works
Help others when your work is finished
Considering these factors and implementing them, leader can create the ethical
environment. Sometimes in the organisation two values clashes for decision making, at that
point of stage leader should keep the balance between that values and fulfil them equally, to
make ethical decision (Khishtandar and Dorri, 2016). Decision making ethically is very
difficult for those who are at leader position because employees are being effected by the
single decision, who are following the leader. Making wrong decision it will affect all the
levels and department of the company. Leader should consider all the objective and
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strategies made by the top level and departmental head and then take the decision, as well
he should follow all the ethics of the entity.
Methods of decision making
To choose the best way from the various alternative there are four methods, these
are as follows:
Command style decision making; This method of decision making matches with
the autocratic style of leadership where the leader does not delegate the authority and
responsibilities to the employees or group members. Leader will take all the decision
according to him and communicate them to the group members (Mai and Namuduri, 2017).
There is no involvement of the members, they have no right to give ideas to the leader for
choosing the best alternative. This is effective when the things are moving so quickly in the
venture and leader have no choice, that time he needs to take decision on the spot. The
decision like monetary and crises, there may be leader have no time to consult with the
team members and handle these problems individually so that delays reduces.
Consult style decision making: Collaborate decision making requires insights and
ideas from all the members for the group. When the leaders routinely ask question, and take
feedback about their viewpoints and ideas are consulted style. Leader does not give right to
select best choice or delegate the authority to members for making decision, they are only
asked to give ideas, if leader finds that suitable and efficient than only that choice will be
implemented. This will help him find out the innovative and new ideas to solve the problem
(Kraak and Story, 2016). Adopting this style of choosing the best alternative helps to
increase the morale of the members, they think they are also involved in the decision-
making activities and find that they also provide the fruitful choices for the venture.
Vote style decision making: This method is suitable when large number of options
are available to solve the problem and it is getting difficult to choose the best alternative out
of them. When the member is confused about the option that it will help to remove the
obstacles and if they don't want to waste more time to discuss about the pros and cons of
alternative, at that point of time votes are put by the all member of the group and only once
they are given chance. The alternative which get the highest vote will be selected for the
implementation to solve the work problem.
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Convenience Decision making: In this method, the leader delegate authority and
responsibly to its peers. This is done only when the leader has full trust and faith over their
followers. Sometime it happens due to huge work load, leader get frustrated and will not
able to make chose the best alternative effectively, at that stage the peers are given
responsibility to make that decision properly (Khraibani and Kaysi, 2016). These methods
have many benefits that are measure the capabilities of the employee. Fast decision making,
empowering your team, maintains the leader sanity and provide confidence to the members.
I will choose mix of all the methods according to skills, ability and willingness of
my peers for making the decision and best choice. When the decision is to be taken on the
spot, there is no time to consult with my team member about the alternative and my peers
does not have that many capabilities and skills to take decision effectively at that time I will
prefer command style of decision making. When there are large number of alternatives
available and I am confused that what choice should be selected and which will provide me
the large benefit's accordance to demerits at that time I will select the voting style that help
me find out the favourable choice of my team member that at what alternative they are
capable to implement for solving any problem.
When my team members are capable enough to provide me innovative alternative
and ideas to remove the hurdles at that point I will decide to implement consult style that
helps me find insight and ideas of all the members and it will also improve the morale of the
employee. When the peers are having good skills and capabilities to take the decision at that
time I will delegate responsibilities and authority to them so that they can able to make
decision accordingly
Decision making framework
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(Source: Decision making framework, 2016)
It is process every leader shroud follow to make effective decision while solving any
problem or removing any obstacles and hurdles. This process includes
Identify the problem: This is the first stage of choosing the best alternative to solve
the problem. It includes the deep research of the problem. Two major question arises in it
one is how problem has arisen another is what are the consequences of this problem over
the organisation.
Search for information: There are two sources from where the data is collected that
is internally and externally (Mai and Namuduri,2017). Internally will be from the people
working in the company that are employees and managers. Externally are shareholders,
customers, competitors and suppliers.
Analysis of data: As the data has collected, information is being analysed by
various techniques like SWOT and PESTLE analysis to increase the understanding of
problem.
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Illustration 1: Decision making framework

Finding and selecting alternative: In this stage, all the ideas are analysed and best
choice will be selected which have large advantages and small disadvantage (Choi and
Luthy,2016).
Implementation and follow up: The best selected option is being execute to solve
the problem and finding that the chosen alternative is effective in removing the hurdles.
Expansion decision made by the organisation
As a leader, organisation give me to take decision regarding expansion of the business.
After analysing the market environment internally and externally, if was find out that they
company need expansion in order to capture large market share and gain competitive
advantage.
Z decision-making model have been chosen to find out that organisation need to make
expansion or not.
The leader need to take tough decision. They need to analyse all aspects to find the best
path so that objective and plans can be put into the action. To be successful leader, they
need to make decision effective and efficient so that they can able to get best for the
organisation. For making the best decision, Z model is being used where it has four phases
that are
Sensing: In this stage, all the data and information are collected to make the decision
positive with all the evidence. All the information should be clear and related to the subject.
Intuition: After collecting all the facts, possible alternatives are find out. It is brainstorming
stage, need to analyse all the alternative on the basis of strength and weakness.
Thinking: At this stage, all the consequences of the decision are taken into consideration.
They find that decision can be complimented in the real life environment or not.
Feeling: Finally at this stage, all the decision making effects are identified and how it will
effect the different stakeholders of the company.
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The decision is reactive, I analyse all the facts and figures to find out the various alternative.
Further, I evaluate all the possible choices on the basis of advantages and disadvantages so
that final conclusion can able to draw the decision. This model helps me to take reactive
decision. From this model I came to know that there are large number of competitors who
are entering into the market and graphing the market share. After analysing the facts and
figures, I find that the company need to do expansion, various aspects are identified for
expansion such as budget, country for expansion, target market and cost involved. Further,
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Illustration 2: Z model
(Source: The Z model for decision-making, 2016)

these factors helps me to take decision that organisation should expand in to several
countries and different market.
From this model, decision-making tools and techniques, leader is able to learn various
aspects that have lead to increase the organisation profitability and productivity. The
various benefits which a leader and organisation finds are as follows:
Leader is able to learn different techniques and able to know how that techniques are
applied in the different situations.
Various skills and knowledge have been enhanced in the decision-making process.
Organisation able to expand their products and services to different sectors and to the new
target market.
Company will can competitive advantages and large market share through expanding their
business.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that without leadership the effective decision is not created.
Leader plays a vital role in decision making, that is to encourage group members to provide
the innovative idea for solving any workplace problem. Leader assign authority and
responsibilities according to follower’s skills and ability. For making decision, proper
framework should be follow and should have better understanding about the problem and
solution. Ethical decision making helps in effective implementation of the alternative
chosen.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abel, D. and Littman, M.L., 2016, March. Reinforcement Learning As a Framework for
Ethical Decision Making. In Workshops at the Thirtieth AAAI Conference on Artificial
Intelligence.
Abel, D. and Littman, M.L., 2016, March. Reinforcement Learning As a Framework for
Ethical Decision Making. In Workshops at the Thirtieth AAAI Conference on Artificial
Intelligence.
Choi, Y. and Luthy, R.G., 2016. Decision-making framework for the application of in-situ
activated carbon amendment to sediment. Journal of hazardous materials. 306. pp.184-
192.
Heyler, S. G. and Collier, D.Y., 2016. A qualitative study investigating the ethical decision
making process: A proposed model. The Leadership Quarterly. 27(5). pp.788-801.
Khishtandar, S. and Dorri, B., 2016. A multi criteria decision making framework for
sustainability assessment of bioenergy production technologies with hesitant fuzzy
linguistic term sets: The case of Iran. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.
Khraibani, R. and Kaysi, I., 2016. A new evaluation and decision making framework
investigating the elimination-by-aspects model in the context of transportation projects'
investment choices. Transport Policy. 48. pp.67-81.
Kraak, V. and Story, M.S., 2016. Guiding principles and a decision-making framework to
enable stakeholders to pursue healthy food environments. Obesity Reviews. 17. p.194.
Mai, B. and Namuduri, K., 2017. Neuroscience Foundations for Human Decision Making in
Information Security: A General Framework and Experiment Design. In Information
Systems and Neuroscience (pp. 91-98). Springer International Publishing.
Mallari, M.S.N. and Joseph, D., 2016. Ethical Frameworks for Decision-Making in Nursing
Practice and Research: An Integrative Review.
Martinez, N. and Wueste, D., 2016. Balancing theory and practicality: engaging non-ethicists
in ethical decision making related to radiological protection. Journal of Radiological
Protection. 36(4). p.832.
Paul, M. and Ramanan, T.R., 2016. A multi-objective decision-making framework using
preference selection index for assembly job shop scheduling problem. International
Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy. 9(4). pp.362-387.
Richter Sundberg, L. and Nyström, M. E., 2016. Reaching beyond the review of research
evidence: A qualitative study of decision-making during clinical guideline
development.
Ross, D. and Krishnamurti, L., 2016. What Are the Expectations of Patients in Decision
Making Process for Disease Modifying Therapies for Sickle Cell Disease: Do They
Care about Shared Decision Making?.
Shaaban, F. M. and Mohamed, M. R., 2016. Decision Making Performance Process among
Head Nurses. Journal of High Institute of Public Health. 44(1). pp.53-60.
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Stovell, D. and Hutton, P., 2016. Service users’ experiences of the treatment decision-making
process in psychosis: A phenomenological analysis. Psychosis. 8(4). pp.311-323.
Online
Business decision framework, 2016. Available
through:<http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/response-strategies/decision-
support>. [Accessed on 14th June 2017].
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