OPEN UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUS

LEARNER’S NAME: Nausheen ABDOULA

LEARNER’S ID Number: 202201362

PROGRAMME TITLE: MBA with Specialisation in Project Management

MODULE NAME: Management in Organisation

LECTURER’S NAME: Mr Raj Kishore Bunjun

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 01 October 2022

 Management in Organisations

OPEN UNIVERSITY of MAURITIUS

Name of Learner Nausheen ABDOULA

OU Learner ID Number 202201362

Full Programme Title MBA with Specialisation in Project Year Semester

Management
1 2

Name of Part-Time Lecturer Mr Raj Kishore Bunjun

Module Title Management in Organisation

Assignment Number 1 Please Tick First Submission Re-sit Re-Submission
as Appropriate ü
Assignment Due Date Date Assignment is No. of Words: (Where
Submitted Applicable)
2500 Words
Query from Learner to Part-Time Lecturer
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Learner’s Declaration:
I certify that I have not plagiarised the work of others or participated in unauthorised collaboration when
preparing this assignment. No part of this assignment has been previously submitted as part of another
unit/course. (In case assignment is being submitted by email, the learner must type his/her name in upper-case
letters).

Signature of Learner: Nausheen ABDOULA Date: 01.10.2022

Table to be filled in by Part-Time Lecturer

Basis of Assessment
(This may change for different assignments) Weighting Marks Marker's Comment/s
Presentation and Style % 10 Awarded

Evidence of Reading/Application of Theory 2

0
Logical Development/Discussion of the Topic 3
0
Development of Insight 30
Conclusion 10
Total Marks Awarded 10
0

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General Comment and recommendation:

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Signature of Part-Time Lecturer: …………..………….. Date:…………............…….……….

Assignment Cover Sheet

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 Management in Organisations

Table of Contents
1 (a) Using relevant examples from an organisation, critically explain the applicability of the
concept of perception and how it affects the effectiveness of an organisation. (15 Marks)............4
(b) Discuss the various types of decision-making models with particular relevance to an
organisation of your choice. (15 Marks)............................................................................................8
Table of References:..........................................................................................................................13

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1 (a) Using relevant examples from an organisation, critically explain the

applicability of the concept of perception and how it affects the
effectiveness of an organisation. (15 Marks)

Perception is specifically defined as: ‘The process by which people select, organise, interpret,
retrieve and respond to information from the environment that surrounds them’. (Schiffman,
1990).

It is a natural human process through which people respond to present situations, how they
organise and interpret situations in respond to those situations.

Since human nature vary from one person to another, it is natural that the perceptive ability of
each individual will vary towards each situation. The behaviour of an individual within an
organisation is based on his own perception of what is reality and not reality itself.

Different factors affect people’s perception a workplace namely: the individual’s attitudes,
motives, experience, expectations, and interests. Other factors which affect perception
involves work setting, social setting, time, novelty, motion, sounds, size, proximity and
background.

Managers should be able to levy the importance of perception in a workplace, since

perception directly affects productivity within an organisation. This can lead to either a
positive growth or a negative growth of both the workers and the organisation itself.

Application of perception is that concept which cannot be overlooked, the importance of

perception can have both positive and negative outcomes. To explain those outcomes, we will
be taking the example of an organisation having expertise in home and garden appliances
retailing.

For example, during the process of recruiting salespersons for the organisation, within the
first minutes of the interview, the interviewer will have already formed an impression on the
candidate through his own perception on the candidate’s: his physical appearance, his
outward mannerism and way of speaking. The interviewer might be particularly drawn
towards one aspect of the candidate. This leads to the HALO Effect. The Halo effect is
defined as drawing an impression on an individual based on a single characteristic. Here, the
interviewer might assume that the applicant is a good fit for the job due to only one
characteristic of the applicant. Or they might associate themselves as being similar to the
applicant and hence will be a good match for the organisation. The Halo effect might be the

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cause of selecting the wrong person for the job or might as well prove to be effective since
not only one attribute can guarantee the efficiency of selecting a good salesperson.

Moreover, when new recruits are hired, it takes a minimum amount of time for the new staff
to settle in, to get along with their new colleagues and to get familiar with their new working
requirements. During this time period, it is mainly perception which the new recruits will
now use to familiarise themselves with their new environment while getting accustomed to
the ‘reality’ of the organisation.

In the organisation, the first level of promotion is from salesperson to sales manager.
Promotion within the organisation can be a very delicate process. But nevertheless,
discrimination happens more frequently than one might think. For example, a salesperson
might not be getting a promotion because the employer has formed a negative impression
upon a particular employee owing to the particular person belonging to a specific religious
group. This misconception is called stereotyping. Stereotyping is one such issue which should
be severely condemned. Here the wrong perception of a senior employee over a junior
employee can jeopardise the future prospects of an individual. This can lead to junior staff to
feel undervalued, and this can in turn lead to increase absenteeism and decreased job
satisfaction.

Furthermore another effect of perception is Selective perception. Selective perception is the

process in which a person only perceives what he wants to or puts aside and completely
ignores other viewpoints. It can happen that managers exhibit a selective behaviour
knowingly or unknowingly promoting a selective bias on information provided to him.

An instance might be when a manager has a very keen interest in everything related to
financial data. Now an employee working in the financial department has to prepare two
reports, One concerning sales and the other one related to financial data. The employee does
his best to prepare concise and precise reports to present to the manager, but the one related
to financial data is somewhat rushed through. When presented with the two reports, the
manager focuses more on the financial report (due to his innate keenness towards financial
data) by pointing out minor errors ignoring the fact that the other report submitted was
flawless. This is called selective perception If a manager has a negative opinion of an
individual, he or she might be prone to pay more attention to negative behaviors or actions
from that individual and ignore the positive actions that would contradict the opinion.

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Self-serving is another consequence of perception. Self-serving bias can be defined as an

individual’s inclination to attribute any success to their own skills and talents and considering
any failure as related to situational factors or to the actions (or inactions) of other individuals.
To illustrate this situation we can consider the hiring of a new person (salespersons or
managerial post). The rejected candidates can attribute their rejection to external factors
(pressure to hire a particular person) or even find the hiring manager as someone who is not
fit for doing the hiring. Someone prone to self-serving bias do not consider the fact that
actually they might be the one themselves who are to be blamed (Maybe they did not prepare
well to face the interview themselves). Self-serving bias can cloud an individual’s judgment
and put an entire project in jeopardy because simply someone is unable to take responsibility
or evaluate a situation fairly.

Perception is very important when performing Performance appraisal of their staff. When
conducting performance appraisal of an employee, the manager should understand the
organisational objectives and performance measures. Effective performance appraisal
systems can be performed when managers understand the process of perception, hence they
will most likely not be prone to subjective biases. Information obtained through performance
appraisal can help managers to amend organisational objectives and performance standards.

Managers should not judge employees on personal preference or past experience.

Performance should be reviewed against the performance planning regularly to ensure
conformity.

The impact of perception on an organisation cannot be overlooked. The different scenarios

developed above all prove that perception is a crucial part within an organisation.
Consequently, managers should be aware of the part perception plays in an organisation and
should do their utmost best to prevent perceptual errors like described above to occur.
Managers should ensure that required information is available at any given point in time to
prevent any perceptive errors to occur. Absenteeism, turnover and having personal job
satisfaction are directly related to an employee’s perception they have of the job. It is
important to know how an employee perceives his/her workplace. Perception influences
decision making in an organisation. It is a good practise to not only have one decision maker
but several decision makers, in so doing, this will ensure that various perceptions have been
considered before taking any important decision that affects the organisation. To reduce the
gap between perception and reality, the organisation should ensure that the organisation has

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well documented all the policies in place and what procedures to follow in case of any
discrepancy. These policies help employees and the management of an organisation to act in
a fair and consistent manner and in so doing reduce to a certain extent the frequency of
perceptive misconceptions.

Word Count: 1225 Words

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(b) Discuss the various types of decision-making models with

particular relevance to an organisation of your choice. (15 Marks)

A decision-making model can be defined as a model used to guide professionals in making

decisions. Each decision-making model uses different methods to analyse and come up with a
solution which will help professionals to achieve a coherent decision.

Decision making models aids in simplifying decision-making processes and hence promote
effective collaboration within an organization. Models provide a template to teams to follow
in order to create solutions and provide a clear description of processes to follow for other
team members altogether reach a balanced successful solution.

Throughout this discussion we will be referring to a software development organisation.

 The Rational decision model

This model focuses on using logical steps to come to the best possible solution. It involves a
clear analysis of solutions and choosing the one with the most profitable outcome. The
rational decision model is mostly used by teams where there is a time for meetings and
research to take place. This will enable the team to create a list of potential solutions and will
allow the team to choose the best solution with the best outcome.

Steps to follow when using the rational decision-making model:

1. Define your goal or obstacle.

By defining the particular goal or obstacle to be achieved or overcome, one would be
able to to understand exactly what outcome the solution should deliver.
2. Determining the relevant information:
Delegation of a research team or brainstorming sessions to determine what
information about your goal or obstacle is relevant in finding a solution.
3. Create a list of options
Creating a list of potential options for solutions supported with evidence.
4. Arrange options by their value.
Arrange the solutions in order of the highest relevance to achieve the goal or
overcoming any obstacle.

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5. Choose the best option

Consider the value that each of the option will add to the organisation and choose
what is the best option through a consensus.
6. Finalise the decision and take action.
Once the team agrees on the best solution, commit to it and implement the solution in
the organisation.

The software organisation is thinking about investing in accommodating additional server

hardware which will be a very big investment.

Through Rational decision making, the organisation will be able to decide whether it will be
profitable to the organisation or not to invest in additional server hardware. All stakeholders
within the team should be consulted, so as to avoid any wastage of the organisation’s fund.

 Intuitive decision model

This model involves decision taken mainly dictated by feelings and instinct rather than being
based on logical reasoning. This model is mostly used by team leaders and managers to take
quick decisions when being time constrained. The process is less structured and is mainly
based on previously acquired knowledge.

Steps to follow to use intuitive decision model.

1. Define your goal or obstacle.

Though being time constrained it is important to properly define your goal and
obstacle.
2. Identify similar goals or obstacles.
Brainstorm similar goals or obstacles that have already been encountered and solved.
Use this information as a basis for creating new solutions.
3. Recognise possible biases.
Consider how your decision will affect yourself, your team and the organisation when
thinking of potential solutions.
4. Determine the most feasible solution.
Determine an ideal solution which will help your organisation achieve its goals or
overcome an obstacle by using your previous experience.
5. Finalise the decision and take action.

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After choosing the most viable solution, inform your team or it might be that you will
have to take action without discussing with your team.

The intuitive model can be used by software programmers, while developing softwares it is
inevitable that it will contain bugs. By using his prior experience of dealing with bugs while
developing softwares, the developer will be able to counter the bugs by himself or by
brainstorming with his team members.

 The Creative decision model

This model makes use of original ideas to create innovative solutions to achieve goals or to
overcome an obstacle. This concept is usually employed while embarking on never
experienced new projects. Using the intuitive model requires flexible thinking to achieve
successful solutions.

Steps to using the creative decision model.

1. Define your goal or obstacle.

Since you do not have the experience for dealing with this new goal, it is imperative
to properly define the goal or obstacle. This may involve meetings with your team or
colleagues.
2. Consider relevant information.
Perform a thorough research on the new challenge to acquire and become more
conversant with the new goal or obstacle. Try researching for similar projects, going
through their reports and procedures.
3. Consider the information over time.
Brainstorm ideas with colleagues and ponder over the ideas for at least one day.
4. Create a usable solution.
Consider the solution you think might be used to achieve the goal or to overcome the
obstacle logically to make sure it can be used for the particular solution.
5. Finalize you decision and take action.
Prepare a draft of the proposed solution and finalise it with your team and take action
to solve the situation.

For example, the software organisation has been selected to create and implement an
application that requires to be developed on a never before used platform by the organisation.

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The organisation will have to detail a new strategy to be able to conform to the customer’s
requirement in order to maintain its competitiveness on the software development market.

 Bounded rationality decision

Bounded rationality model is typically driven by 3 main factors namely cognitive ability,
time constraint and imperfect information. Bounded rationality model highlights the
limitations of human’s ability to make appropriate decisions. The decision made usually give
satisficing results.

Cognitive limitations refer to our inability as humans to process information in an effective

manner. Humans tend to simplify decision making process for the sake of taking a decision.

Information Imperfection refer to the lack of information available to a stakeholder to make a

decision.

Time constraints refer to the time available to be able to take a decision. It affects our ability
to process and analyse new information related to attaining a particular goal or overcoming a
situation.

When faced with complex choices, consumers may opt to ‘satisfice’ instead of spending time
and effort analysing the situation – leading to a sub-optimal choice. When we are under
pressure and time constraints, we make sub-optimal decisions – at least most of the time.
However, we may make optimal decisions by luck rather than judgment.

Steps to using the Rational bounded model.

1. Define your goal or obstacle.

Though being time constrained it is important to properly define your goal and
obstacle.
6. Consider relevant information.
Identify quickly available information.
2. Recognise constraints.
Consider how the 3 constraints (cognitive ability, time constraint and imperfect
information) affect the decision
3. Determine the most feasible solution.

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Determine the more satisficing solution according to the goal or situation to be

overcome.
4. Finalise the decision and take action.
Take the decision which satisfies the basic criterias to achieve a goal or overcome a
situation.

For example, if the CEO of the software organisation is being queried by shareholders
about the performing status of the organisation and are becoming restless for results and
adding to that, profits and revenues are falling. The CEO must take a decision and there is
so much information that needs to be assessed within a limited time. In such a situation, it
is virtually impossible for any CEO to make an optimal decision and finally, a satisfactory
decision is made that meets a limited set of criteria but is not necessarily the most optimal
one.

Word Count: 1276 words

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Table of References:

1. Schiffman, H. F. (1996). Linguistic culture and language policy. London/New York:

Routledge
2. “Study Finds That Working under Biased Managers Can Impact Workplace
Performance,” Phys.org, February 13, 2017, [ https://phys.org/news/2017-02-biased-
impact-workplace.html ] Accessed on: 18 August 2022.
3. Self-Serving Bias in Organizations by Rick Brenner [
https://chacocanyon.com/pointlookout/110720.shtml ] Accessed on: 18 August 2022.

4. Decision-Making Models: A Decision-Maker's Guide to 4 Types

[https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/decision-maker-model]
Accessed on: 10 September 2022
5. Bounded Rationality [ https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/bounded-rationality/]
Accessed on: 20 September 2022.
6. Bounded Rationality Definition BY PAUL BOYCE [
https://boycewire.com/bounded-rationality-definition/] Accessed on: 20 September
2022.

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