Exam 1 - Ch. 11 and 12 Flashcards
How does good communication help with decision making in an organization?
- Promotes balance
- Organizational stability related to effective decision making and communication
- Leads to more people, more money, and more outputs
- Management asking employee inputs for decision making
Describe the effect of time and knowledge on decision making
Depends on the type of decision being made
- programmed decisions: routine/repetitive decisions, require less thought/knowledge and made in shorter amount of time
- nonprogrammed decisions: require more knowledge and take longer to make
- informal communication: good for speed but not accuracy
When would group decision making be beneficial to use?
- To promote new ideas and understanding
- when starting a new foodservice organization
- when 2 or more organizational units will be affected by the decisions
- nonprogrammed decisions often not made alone
When would group decision making not be beneficial to use?
- If limited time
- Expensive/hard to find experts
- May prevent full discussion of facts and alternatives
- Group norms, member roles, communication patterns, cohesiveness (things that can negatively impact decision)
Conditions of Risk
- Decisions are made when results are uncertain
- Probability techniques are necessary for estimating the likelihood of events occurring in the future (ex: estimating to prevent over/under production during bad weather; likely have to check records of previous rainy days)
- risk and uncertainty increase as timeframe for making the decision is farther in the future
Decision making
selection of a course of action from a variety of alternatives
Steps in the decision making process
- recognize and define problem
- identify alternatives
- evaluate alternatives
- select best alternative
- implement chosen alternative
- Evaluate outcome
programmed decisions
- routine/repetitive decisions, made by employees/lower management
- decision made by following established policies/procedures
- concrete, quantitative
- takes less time
nonprogrammed decisions
- relatively unstructured decision that takes a higher degree of judgment, made by upper management/supervisors
- unique, little/no precedent
- take longer
4 methods for group decision making
- interacting groups
- delphi groups
- nominal groups
- focus groups
interacting group
- decision making group in which members discuss, argue, and agree upon the best alternative
- promotes new ideas and understanding
ex: departments, work groups, committees
delphi group
- used for developing a consensus of expert opinion
- make individual predictions about a problem, come together to review
- takes too much time, too expensive for every day actions
nominal group
- structured technique for generating creative and innovative ideas
- group members presented w/ a problem; write down as many alternatives as possible (without talking) and discuss/rank them in order
focus group
- qualitative information gathering method
- used by large chains desiring customer feedback
- consists of 10-20 people, meet for 2 hrs to discuss predetermined aspect of a particular establishment (and compare to competition)
barriers to communication
- hearing an expected message
- inference
- ignoring conflicting info
- differing perceptions
- evaluating the source
- ignoring nonverbal cues (tone of voice, facial expressions)
- becoming emotional
- cultural/language differences
feedback
-technique for improved communication; two way communication
downward communication
individuals at higher levels of the organization communicate downward to those lower levels
ex: job instructions, emails, memos, policy statements
upward communication
provides employees with the opportunity to have a say in what happens in the organization
ex: special meetings, suggestion boxes, questionnaires, open door policy
horizontal communication
enhances organizational effectiveness; critical to ensure food is available in the right time at the right place
ex: department head meetings
diagonal communication
way of minimizing time and effort expended in an organization; reports/other info may flow directly between departments –> more effective flow of info
ex: ordering clerk sending requests directly to the purchasing dept (rather than ordering clerk –> manager –> purchasing department)
job analysis
gathers information for the job description and specification
job description
tasks, duties, responsibilities
job title
job specification
- human qualities; capabilities the job holders should possess (traits, skills, background, education, experience)
- contains statement of job conditions related to health and safety of employee
Job design
- outgrowth of job analysis
- concerned w/ structuring jobs to improve organization efficiency and employee job satisfaction
Quality of work life (QWL)
- Consideration of job design
- job enlargement, job enrichment, job characteristics, and employee work teams all increase QWL
Job enlargement
- Increase in total number of tasks employees perform
- prevents boredom from doing same tasks every day
Job enrichment
- Increase in opportunities for responsibility, achievement, growth and recognition; increases decision making power
- increased responsibility makes employees feel important and more involved w/ their own work
Performance standards
- Desired results at a defined level of quality
- Productivity standards, safety/sanitation
- Based on work-related behaviors; way to evaluate employees (leads to personnel actions)
3 types of information included in employee orientation
- review of the organization, how employee’s job contributes to the organization’s objectives
- specific info on policies, work rules and benefits
- General information about daily work routine
Orientation
formal process of familiarizing new employees to the organization, job and work unit
Training
ongoing process of updating skills of employees; teaching of technical skills (on the job and off the job)
Development
programs designed to improve technical, human and conceptual skills; usually for managers
Information that cannot be requested on a job application
- Age
- Gender
- Nationality
- Family status (pregnant, married)
- Medical conditions
Advantages of hiring within
- positive employee morale
- improves return investment on employees
- usually less expensive than outside hiring
- individuals already familiar w/ organization’s goals
Limitations of hiring within
- Lack of new ideas
- person may have experience to back up their promotion but not necessarily have the skills needed for a higher level position
Benefit of hiring from outside
Fresh new ideas
Limitations of hiring from outside
- differing methods/opinions
- bad habits/set in their ways
- more expensive, more training involved
Steps in disciplinary process
- Unrecorded oral warning
- Oral warning w/ notation in employee file
- Written reprimand
- Suspension
- Discharge
Legally required benefits
- Social security
- Worker’s comp
- FMLA
Social Security Act
Established insurance programs to cover employees against loss of earnings
Worker’s compensation
assistance when hurt on the job; income/medical benefits vary by state
Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
gives employees up to 12 weeks unpaid, job protected leave per year for personal illness, birth/adoption of child, to care for ill parent/spouse/child
COBRA
gives employees right to continue their health insurance coverage after employment has ended (for 18-36 months)
Effective human resources management leads to
achieving outputs to the system (including employee satisfaction)
HR management is a function of the ________ process in the foodservice model
transformation
How to calculate FTE
of total hours worked in a week divided by 40
1.55
amount of FTE’s needed to fill a full time position
