Managerial Decision Making Report: Consultancy Communication

This report addresses a managerial decision-making problem faced by LeMax, a consultancy firm in Australia, stemming from ineffective communication. The report begins with a problem background and a SWOT analysis of the organization, identifying the lack of a suitable communication medium as a primary issue. It defines the problem, which is the misinterpretation of client requirements due to poor inter-departmental communication. Three potential solutions are generated: providing training to consultants, introducing dedicated portals for collaboration, and conducting joint discussions. These solutions are then evaluated using the SAF model, with the introduction of dedicated portals deemed the most suitable. An implementation plan, including a force-field analysis, is proposed to improve communication and service quality, ultimately aiming to enhance client satisfaction.

Running head: MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING
MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Executive summary
The report aimed at identifying a business problem that is being encountered by a consultancy
organization in Australia, LeMax, due to the absence of effective communicational medium. The
report aimed at identifying the problem that is being encountered by the organization and thereby
develop a set of alternative solutions. The report also assessed the best option out of the
alternatives with the purpose of improving the organizational operations as per the client
requirements. Therefore, the purpose of initiating the report is to develop cognition on the
manner in which decisions might be made through assessment of a range of alternatives for
improving service performance.

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Table of Contents
1. Problem background....................................................................................................................3
1.1 SWOT assessment of the organization..................................................................................4
1.2 Analysis of the problem.........................................................................................................4
2. Problem definition.......................................................................................................................6
3. Solution generation......................................................................................................................6
4. Solution evaluation......................................................................................................................7
4.1 Analysis of the options through the SAF model....................................................................9
4.2 Selection of the best option....................................................................................................9
5. Implementation and action plan.................................................................................................10
5.1 Force- field analysis.............................................................................................................10
5.2 Implementation plan............................................................................................................10
6. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14

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1. Problem background
Changes in the organization are based on the evolution of new practices and trends that
affect the market demand (Leventsov, Radaev & Nikolaevskiy, 2017). Technological
innovations in the different sectors play a major role in improving the business operations while
operating as per the common objectives of growth and expansion of the businesses (Zakaria,
2017). In this regards, the concerned organization, LeMax, faced significant issues in integrating
the stakeholders due to the absence of effective communicational medium. The organization is
established in Sydney, Australia, since the year 2017 and focused on providing the clients with
their valued consultancy services. The objective of the organization was to propose solutions to
different business issues ranging from legal to logistics.
The organization operates mainly focusing on the client dealings of a team of five
consultants who are responsible for providing their valuable strategies on the challenges that are
being faced by the client’s organization. However, the lack of effective communication between
the consultants affected the capability of the organization in empowering the collaborated
functioning of the business stakeholders. The managers found that not all the consultants remain
present every day. The consultants are specialists in their respective fields and due to their
absenteeism and lack of suitable communicational tools, the client’s projects gets delayed.
Again, the collaborative decision making affected the quality of solutions provided to the clients.
Helmi et al., (2017) stated that communication between the internal stakeholders play an
important role in improving the client experience. Therefore, the lack of sufficient networking
between the internal departments curtailed the organization in proposing the clients with relevant
mitigation activities.

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1.1 SWOT assessment of the organization
Strengths
 Huge number of clients
 Skilled consultants
 Market knowledge
 Capital investments in different
information gathering sources
Weaknesses
 Absence of communication between
the departments
 Lack of collaboration among the
consultants
 Increasing operational expenses
 Absenteeism of the specialist
consultants affecting business
propositions
Opportunities
 Improving technological implantations
 Expansion in the growing economies
 Improvement of networking in the
markets
Threats
 Intense market competition due to the
existence of reputed companies in the
similar sector
 Threat of new entrants in the market
1.2 Analysis of the problem
The major issue that is being encountered by the organization is due to the absence of
effective communication media in the organization. It restricted the capability of the consultants
in improving the lineup and meeting deadlines as per the requirements of the clients. The
absence of internal communication between the consultants affected the planning and organizing
related aspects while proposing the best possible recommendation to the clients. According to
Avdiji et al. (2018), communication acts as a medium of information exchange while improving

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the decision making skills of personnel. Therefore, in this relation, the lack of effective
communication disturbed the competency of the staff consultants in synthesizing the issues that
are being faced by the client organizations and thereby provide the same with effective
mitigation strategies. The absence of collaborative functioning of the staff members also
restricted the organization in improving the experience of the clients. The organization attracted
the attention of the business executives as their clients. Therefore, the absence of effective
service propositions affected the capability of the organization in retaining the loyalty and
commitment of the business clients.
 What is the problem?
The lack of collaboration between the consultants in the organization resulted to diminishing
quality of the consultancy services that are provided to the business clients. The diminishing
quality of the value propositions affected the capability of the venture in retaining the trust and
commitment of the client organizations.
 What is the cause?
The cause of the problem is related to the absence of effective medium of communication in the
concerned venture. The lack of effective communication vehicles in the organization affected the
capability of the venture in empowering collaboration between the consultants while restricting
the same to plan and organize the different activities effectively, while adhering to the client’s
expectations.
 What information?
The clarity of information on the client’s specifications on a particular project or outline of an
issue is important for the organization while proposing mitigation strategies to the client’s

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business. The lack of effective sourcing of information might affect the aptitude of the
organization in proposing the correct mitigation strategy after evaluation of the client
organization.
 What departments?
The consultants that operate closely with the client organizations while proposing their valued
services are being affected by the absence of specific communication vehicles.
2. Problem definition
The problem that is being faced by the organization is specifically elate to the
misinterpretation of the client’s requirements due to the absence of effective communication
tools. The absence of suitable inter- departmental communicational medium affected the
capability of the organization in promoting collaboration among the consultants while increasing
the quality of services, in accordance with the specifications that are provided by the clients.
Therefore, the most common question that might be addressed by the organization, while trying
to mitigate the issues is:
“What ways can inter- departmental communication be empowered with the purpose of
improving the experience of the client organizations?”
3. Solution generation
Communication permits an organization in minimizing errors while adhering to the
different aspects of client specifications (Niyato et al., 2017). In this connection, the concerned
organization might take the initiative of formulating different alternative solutions to the problem
that are being faced by the same due to absence of effective inter- team communicational media.
The section would highlight the different alternatives that might be considered by the concerned

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organization with the purpose of improving the service propositions while adhering to the
specifications that are made by the clients.
 Option 1: Providing training to the consultants with the purpose of increasing their skills
while adhering to the client’s requirements
 Option 2: Introducing dedicated portals for the consultants so that they might collaborate
with one another while serving a client’s requirement
 Option 3: Conducting joint discussions with the consultants on the critical requirements
provide by the client
4. Solution evaluation
Solution evaluation phase enables an organization in selecting the best possible solution
from a given list of alternatives. Gu et al., (2017) stated that assessment of every alternative
before making a decision supports an organization in increasing the efficiency of the operations.
Therefore, the section would analyze and evaluate all three solutions on the basis of feasibility,
acceptability and suitability in the business model on the parameters of effectiveness and cost
involved in the practices.
Option 1: Providing training to the consultants with the purpose of increasing their skills
while adhering to the client’s requirements: Training and development would allow the
consultants in identifying the nature of requirements of the clients. Moreover, effective training
on meeting deadlines and project goals through variety of real life cases would allow the
organization in empowering adaptability among the consultants. Lin, Casanova and Fatty (2016)
opined that effective training and development related activities of an organization enables in
increasing the effectiveness of the operations, correlating to the common objectives of the

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venture. The training and development activities would require a total of AU$ 3.50 per hour of
training, due to the inclusion of external trainers and resource costs in the process. The
organization might take the initiative of providing a three days training to the consultants, in
every week for the first month, with 2 hours of exercises per day. Therefore, the application of
effective training and development related programs, including demonstration of real life case
scenarios, would enable the concerned venture in empowering the activities of the consultants.
Option 2: Introducing dedicated portals for the consultants so that they might collaborate
with one another while serving a client’s requirement: The introduction of dedicated portals
would permit the organization in improving the collaboration among the different consultants
while adhering to the requirements of the clients. The dedicated portals would also assist the
organization in making case sensitive data available to the consultants through the online portals
that are interconnected through a dedicated server. The implementation of the dedicated online
portal would allow the organization in empowering the rate of communication and consultation
between the consultants while serving the requirements of particular client’s project goals.
According to Awoyemi, Alfa and Maharaj (2018), the improvement of communication between
the internal stakeholders of an organization supports in improving the quality of the services that
are being provided to the clients through pre-planning and organized approach. Dedicated portals
would allow the concerned organization in not only empowering a collaborative approach among
the team of consultants but also help in integrating the team members even though they are not
physically present in office. Therefore, the introduction of the dedicated portals would allow the
organization in improving the client dealings while improving the quality of services through
increased collaboration among the consultants.

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Option 3: Conducting joint discussions with the consultants on the critical requirements
provide by the client: The conduction of joint discussions would allow the organization in
integrating the specialist consultants over a critical project. Joint discussions would allow the
organization in increasing the feasibility of the business operations while operating in the
different markets. Satapathy et al., (2016) opined that the joint discussions supports an
organization in improving the effectiveness of the operations in accordance with the demand of
the customers. Therefore, the organization might conduct joint discussions among the team of
consultants with the purpose of improving the quality of the services as per client specifications.
4.1 Analysis of the options through the SAF model
Rating between the
scale of 1-5 Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Suitability 2 4 1
Affordability 3 3 4
Feasibility 2 4 2
Total 7 11 7
4.2 Selection of the best option
The SAF model assists in developing an idea on the most effective option that might be
applied in the organizational model for improving the quality of offerings as per the client
specifications (Tomkos et al., 2017). After the assessment of the options, it can be noted that the
option 2 might be implemented by the organization for improving the service propositions of the
same. The introduction of dedicated portals might be costly than the other two options, but is
sustainable in accordance to the needs of the organization while meeting the client’s

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requirements on the respective projects. The implementation of the dedicated portals in the
organizational framework would allow the business in empowering the information based needs
of the consultants while increasing collaborative functioning of the business stakeholders while
adhering to the needs of the clients.
5. Implementation and action plan
5.1 Force- field analysis
Driving forces Restraining forces
Availability of IT and
software engineers
Implementing
dedicated
portals
Higher cost of implementation
Improvement of client
handling
Change resistance by
employees
Availability of web solutions
Technological glitches might
disrupt entire operations
5.2 Implementation plan
Goals Activities Timeframe Rationale
Assessing company
needs
 Conduction of
internal
surveys
among the
consultants
2- 3 weeks The assessment of the
needs of the company
through the internal
surveys would enable
in developing an idea

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 Gathering
feedbacks and
analyzing
 Compilation
of a report
on the nature of the
change
Consultation with
the management
stakeholders
 Holding
meeting with
the CEO and
the Board
members
 Placing the
proposal of
change
 Taking
consent from
the
management
stakeholders
2 days The consultation with
the management
stakeholders would
allow in increasing
the feasibility of the
implementation
process after taking
the consent of the
same
Budgeting  Consultation
with the
accounts
manager, the
IT manager
2- 4 days The budgeting related
activities would allow
the organization in
gaining knowledge of
the costs that might

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and software
engineers
 Preparing a
budget of
costs
be invested by the
venture for the
change
Implementation  Developing
the portals
 Encryption
and
decryption of
data in the
portals
 Launching the
portals after
integrating the
servers
1-2 weeks The collaborative
functioning of the
stakeholders in the
implementation
process would allow
the organization in
improving the quality
of the service
propositions
Monitoring and
control
 Developing
KPIs
 Assessing the
performance
through
collection of
feedbacks
The monitoring and
control related
activities of the
organization would
ensure the
uninterrupted
functioning of the

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from the staff
consultants
 Creating a
contingency
plan for
technical
glitches
dedicated portals
6. Conclusion
Therefore, from the above analysis it might be stated that the assessment of the problem
and the selection of the best option from the alternatives play an important role in improving an
organization’s performance. The concerned organization, LeMax has been facing issues in the
operational processes due to insufficiency of communication among the consultants. The report
identified the issue that is restricting the quality of services provided by the concerned venture
and selected a viable option for the same through assessment of the alternatives.

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References
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collectively solving Ill-structured problems. In Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii
International Conference on System Sciences.’
Awoyemi, B. S., Alfa, A. S., & Maharaj, B. T. (2018). Network restoration for next-generation
communication and computing networks. Journal of Computer Networks and
Communications, 2018.
Gu, F., Ma, B., Guo, J., Summers, P. A., & Hall, P. (2017). Internet of things and Big Data as
potential solutions to the problems in waste electrical and electronic equipment
management: An exploratory study. Waste Management, 68, 434-448.
Helmi, S. A., EIHassani, S., Yusof, K. M., & Phang, F. A. (2017, November). Enrichment of
Problem Solving Skills Among Engineering Students through Cooperative Problem
Based Learning. In 2017 7th World Engineering Education Forum (WEEF) (pp. 410-
414). IEEE.
Leventsov, V., Radaev, A., & Nikolaevskiy, N. (2017). Design issues of information and
communication systems for new generation industrial enterprises. In Internet of Things,
Smart Spaces, and Next Generation Networks and Systems (pp. 142-150). Springer,
Cham.
Lin, P. C., Casanova, L. F. G., & Fatty, B. K. (2016). Data-driven handover optimization in next
generation mobile communication networks. Mobile Information Systems, 2016.

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Niyato, D., Kim, D. I., Maso, M., & Han, Z. (2017). Wireless powered communication networks:
Research directions and technological approaches. IEEE Wireless
Communications, 24(6), 88-97.
Satapathy, S. C., Bhateja, V., Raju, K. S., & Janakiramaiah, B. (2016). Computer
communication, networking and internet security. Proceedings of IC3T, 5, 20160.
Tomkos, I., Shariati, B., Rivas-Moscoso, J. M., Marom, D. M., & Klonidis, D. (2017, July). New
frontiers in optical communication networking. In 2017 19th International Conference
on Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON) (pp. 1-2). IEEE.
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