An organizational structure is the formal system that defines how an organization’s activities, roles, and responsibilities are organized to achieve its goals. It establishes the hierarchy, lines of command, and reporting relationships, clarifying how work is coordinated and information flows between individuals and departments. The structure of a company directly impacts how quickly decisions are made, how teams collaborate, and how work gets done. According to McKinsey, companies that have adopted more agile, purpose-driven organizational are more likely to be profitable and nearly twice as likely to outperform peers on growth metrics.  Agile organization structures include Flat, Hierarchical and Network structures, which are characterized by decentralized decision-making, cross-functional teams, open communication, and a focus on adaptability.

For example, Tata Steel is a strong example of an Indian company with excellent decision-making and collaboration, known for its strong workplace culture, cross-cultural collaboration, and employee-centric practices that foster loyalty and a sense of belonging, aligning with traditional Indian values of teamwork and shared goals. It follows Hierarchical structure.

Organizational structure fosters collaboration by defining clear communication pathways, creating interdisciplinary teams, and establishing a supportive environment for shared goals and innovation. Structures like team-based and matrix organizations explicitly encourage collaboration by dissolving traditional departmental barriers and enabling diverse skill sets to work together, while a well-defined hierarchy ensures clarity in roles and responsibilities, facilitating smoother project execution.

Some of the common structures of organization

Functional Organisational Structure

A functional organisational structure starts with positions with the highest levels of responsibility at the top and goes down from there. Primarily, though, employees are organized according to their specific skills and their corresponding function in the company. Banking, Financial Services & Insurance companies  (BFS)

Divisional organizational structure

A company’s divisions have control over their own resources, essentially operating like their own company within the larger organization. Each division can have its own marketing team, sales team, IT team, etc. For example, Indian Railway.

A matrix organizational structure

The chart looks like a grid, and it shows cross-functional teams that form for special projects. For example, an engineer may regularly belong to the engineering department (led by an engineering director) but work on a temporary project (led by a project manager). The matrix org chart accounts for both roles and reporting relationships. Examples are TCS, IBM.

Team organizational structure

Team organizational structure is far from the traditional hierarchy, focusing more on problem-solving, cooperation, and giving employees more control. Example is Bharati Airtel.  A team organizational structure arranges employees into self-managed units to achieve specific goals, focusing on cross-functional collaboration and shared responsibility rather than traditional hierarchies. This structure promotes faster problem-solving, increased employee engagement, and improved communication by giving team members the authority and freedom to make decisions

Network organisational structure

Few businesses have all their services under one roof, and juggling the multitudes of vendors, subcontractors, freelancers, offsite locations, and satellite offices can get confusing. A network organizational structure makes sense of the spread of resources. The Starbucks coffee chain is structured as a network of independently owned and operated stores, each of which licenses the Starbucks brand and sells its products.

Hierarchical Shaped Organization

Hierarchical Shaped Organization is also known as Pyramid shaped organization. It’s the most common type of organizational structure in which the chain of command goes from the top (e.g., the CEO or manager) down (e.g., entry-level and lower-level employees), and each employee has a supervisor. HDFC Bank.

Flat organisational structure

Flat organisational structure is also called horizontal organizational structure. It fits companies with few levels between upper management and staff-level employees. Many startup businesses use a horizontal org structure before they grow large enough to build out different departments. Cipla, Dr. Reddy

Autonomy changes based on organizational structures

Autonomy levels directly change based on an organization’s structure, with decentralized, flatter hierarchies offering more freedom and centralized, hierarchical structures imposing greater control and constraints on employees. While traditional structures limit autonomy, modern approaches like self-management and decentralized decision-making foster increased employee independence, ownership, and innovation by allowing individuals and teams to decide how to achieve outcomes rather than just following directives.

To achieve autonomy, design a decentralized organizational structure that grants decision-making power and resource control to individual teams and employees. A flatter hierarchy and clear operational processes support this by clarifying roles and responsibilities, allowing for independent work and faster decision-making. Resource allocation should then be based on these clearly defined, empowered units, ensuring they have the necessary tools to operate autonomously, even at the risk of duplicate resources to foster innovation.

Cipla, Vedanta, Dr Reddy’s, Apollo Tires, and Future Group have adopted flatter structures over time to improve agility and competitiveness.

Reliance Industries’ subsidiary, Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL), acquired the retail, wholesale, logistics, and warehousing businesses of Future Group in a 2020 deal valued at ₹24,713 crore, though a subsequent legal battle with Amazon temporarily halted the process. While the legal complexities eventually resolved, Reliance effectively took over the operations, including the flagship Big Bazaar stores and other retail units.

Cross functional structures change as per organizational structure

A cross-functional structure change involves shifting from a traditional, department-based structure to one organized around autonomous, self-directed teams comprising individuals from various functional areas. This organizational transformation, often depicted in a matrix org chart, breaks down silos, fostering improved communication, enhanced creativity, better problem-solving, and increased productivity. The goal is to create a flexible, networked organization that can respond more effectively to complex, fast-changing business environments.

IKEA has a unique organizational structure cantered on a complex franchise system managed by Inter IKEA Group, with a hierarchical framework for strategic direction and product development. This system involves the franchisor and independent franchisees, like Ingka Group, operating under a single brand while adapting to local market conditions, creating a decentralized yet brand-unified structure. Ingka Group (Ingka Holding B.V. and its controlled entities) is the largest of 12 IKEA franchisees, representing around 90% of total IKEA sales.

At IKEA product launches require input from marketing, engineering, and sales; for sustainability initiatives at IKEA sales and marketing team up to improve customer experience. This example shows different departments with diverse skills pooling their expertise to achieve shared goals, fostering innovation and efficiency in the process.

At IKEA, cross-functional activities involve empowered, agile teams of designers, technical specialists, and market experts who collaborate from the initial project phase to ensure holistic development and rapid adaptation to customer needs and market changes. They bypass traditional hierarchical approvals, focusing on customer-centric, iterative development with integrated sustainability and digital strategies to drive innovation and efficiency across the value chain, from design to customer delivery.

For better understanding I am giving one more example.  An example of cross-functional collaboration at Taj Hotels is the “Guest Experience Committee,” which brings together staff from various departments, including Front Office, Food & Beverage, Housekeeping, Sales, and Marketing to enhance overall guest satisfaction. These teams work together to develop personalized guest experiences, resolve complex guest issues, and implement new service standards, ensuring seamless and memorable stays that align with Taj’s core values.

Conclusion

A well-defined organisational structure can enhance efficiency, decision-making, and communication. Depending on the structure and type of business, decisions can be made faster, tasks can be more focused, and operational processes can be optimised. A well-designed structure allows for business growth and expansion.

Decision making is the process to select a course of action from a number of alternatives. Like planning, decision making also requires features like forecasting and action plans. For any organization, policy documents help in taking managerial decisions. But these are decisions of routine nature, which we also call operational decisions. Strategic or important decisions are obviously taken after considering different alternatives. In order to be a successful manager one has to necessarily develop decision-making skills.

What is a decision cycle? It is a sequence of steps used by an organization on a repeated basis to reach and implement decisions, not necessarily each decision adds to profits, but organizations must learn from mistakes made by them. For growth and sustainability a business relies on decision cycle. The ‘decision cycle’ as a phrase is used to broadly categorize various methods of making decisions, going upstream to the need, downstream to the outcomes, and cycling around to connect the outcomes to the needs.

Understanding that organizations go through a specific decision-making process allows business firms and manufacturing-related goods and services to develop programs designed to influence each stage of the business process. If a marketer knows, for example, that a customer is about to establish purchasing specifications, he or she can provide useful technical information or offer advice on industry standards and control factors that may affect the formulation of those specifications. A decision cycle is said to occur when an explicitly specified decision model is used to guide a decision and then the outcomes of that decision are assessed against the need for the decision. This cycle includes specification of desired results (the decision need), tracking of outcomes and assessment of outcomes against the desired results. Success in the battle of doing business is about making decisions more quickly than competing firms can.

All businesses operate around certain business process cycles. A business cycle refers to various trends that occur within an industry/sector, such as growth or withering. Many times, management decisions are impacted by where the company stands in reference to a particular cycle. Macro economy also play an important role in management decisions. When the economy is in a cycle of withdrawal, management of firm will act conservatively, whereas in a cycle of expansion, management may tend to act more aggressively to gain as much market share as possible.

Characteristic of Business Cycle:

Usually any business faces four distinct trends: slowdown, bottom, growth and peak. All businesses, even the most aggressive sales organization experience these cycles. A slowdown occurs after a market has experienced a normal period of expansion. This is often followed by a period of sales maturity and product integration by the existing customer base, which is viewed as a slowdown. During a slowdown, competition enters the market that also creates weaker sales. Finally the business hits a bottom. After this bottom and rough period business gets aggressive and makes steps of expansion and marketing efforts to aggressively go after new market share. Following this period of expansion, business will again begin to see a peak in their performance and start the cycle all over.

Macro Business Cycle Considerations:

Macro cycles include the trend of the overall economy. During periods of sustained economic growth, businesses should seek to gain market share by increasing advertising and market efforts. Also, during periods of economic contraction, business managers may decide to consolidate their operations and position themselves for slow, or negative, growth by maintaining higher cash balances and cutting non-essential costs.

Examples of some decision cycles:

OODA Loop: Originally this decision making tool was coined in the 1950s by Air Force colonel and military strategist John Boyd as a way to illustrate the action and decision cycle that a fighter pilot goes through during an aerial dogfight, it has since been applied to disciplines as diverse as business, medicine, law and the acquisition process in the military. The quality and speed of those decisions get enhanced by new command-and-control precepts and advances in information, surveillance and reconnaissance tools, sensors and systems. As a result, military forces have been improving on their ability to observe, orient, decide and attack, better known as the OODA loop.

For the military, the OODA loop is called by different term at different times. In a kinetic war, it’s often called find, fix and finish, or the more extended find, fix, track, target, engage and assess. It also means something different in Iraq than it does in Afghanistan.

PDCA (Plan–Do–Check–Act) PDCA was made popular by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, who is considered as the father of modern quality control. The concept of PDCA is based on the scientific method. The scientific method can be better explained as “hypothesis” which can be proved under statistical control as a three-step process of specification, production, and inspection. It can be specified as scientific method of hypothesis, experiment, and evaluation. According to Deming, during his lectures in Japan in the early 1950s, the Japanese participants shortened the steps to the now traditional plan, do, check, and act.  A fundamental principle of the scientific method and PDCA is the iteration: once a hypothesis is confirmed (or negated), executing the cycle again will extend the knowledge further. Repeating the PDCA cycle can bring the practitioners closer to their goals, usually a perfect operation and output.

Herbert Simon’s model: Herbert Simon made key contributions to enhance our understanding of the decision-making process. In fact, he pioneered the field of decision support systems. According to Simon and his later work with Newell, decision-making is a process with distinct stages. He suggested for the first time the decision-making model of human beings. His model of decision-making has three stages: Intelligence which deals with the problem identification and the data collection on the problem. Design which deals with the generation of alternative solutions to the problem at hand. Choice which is selecting the ‘best’ solution from amongst the alternative solutions using some criterion. Much later, other scholars expanded his framework to five steps (Intelligence–Design–Choice–Implementation–Learning).

Business Analytics: Business analytics (BA) refers to the skills, technologies, practices for continuously connecting exploration and investigation of past business performance to gain insight and drive business planning. Business analytics focuses on developing new insights and understanding of business performance based on data and statistical methods. In contrast, business intelligence traditionally focuses on using a consistent set of metrics to both measure past performance and guide business planning, which is also based on data and statistical methods. Business analytics makes extensive use of statistical analysis, including explanatory and predictive modelling and fact-based management to drive decision making. It is therefore closely related to management science. Analytics may be used as input for human decisions or may drive fully automated decisions.

Design Thinking: design thinking includes “building up” ideas, with few, or no limits. This helps reduce fear of failure among managers. The phrase “thinking outside the box” has been coined to describe one goal of the brainstorming phase and is encouraged, since this can aid in the discovery of hidden elements and ambiguities in the situation and discovering potentially faulty assumptions. In design thinking observation takes center stage. Observation can discern what people really do as opposed to what you are told that they do. Getting out of the comfort zone and involving oneself in the process, product, shopping experience is fundamental.

Design thinking in problem definition also requires cross functional insight into each problem by varied perspectives as well as constant and relentless questioning why? Until finally the simple answers are behind you and the true issues are revealed. Finally, defining the problem via design thinking requires the suspension of judgment in defining the problem statement because what we say can be very different to what we mean.

Decision cycle is evolving in different forms and different perceptions in the business world.

Kids can be easily influenced by the advertisements on various media platforms. Every day we are showered with countless advertisements; they are in newspapers, on billboards, hoardings, banners, websites, newspaper insertions and TV. Whether we like them are not – we are exposed to about hundreds of them on a daily basis. Majority of the time, we ignore them because we are used to tune them out, but kids retain them. They are the captive audience. Do you know that the average American child watches an estimate between 25,000 to 40,000 television commercials per year, and an average UK child watches about 10,000 commercials per year? The kid market is a flourishing worldwide. Across the world children have and are assuming the role of decision makers from a relatively young age. They have a say on which car, mobile, fridge, TV, which colour should the house have, which footwear brand should he/she and the parents wear, which channel to view. You name the procurement and they have their opinion. In marketing this phenomenon is called “Pester Power.” Children usually nag their parents to get things done their way.

Marketers use different media vehicles to communicate with this target audience. A media vehicle which the kid market is very conversant with is television. Television viewing by children has been increasing at an exponential rate especially in the developing countries.  If you observe closely, you will see that most commercials have at least one or two child models in them even if the product or service is not meant for kids. Consequently, television commercials appear to have a large impact upon the brand preference and purchase behavior of children.

Do you know that the minivan was created, because children demanded more room? The three-door minivan was not considered cool. Every auto manufacturer has a strategy to target children, observes a market researcher named James McNeal, who specializes in the children’s market.  The renowned behaviorist was also vice president of the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency and is a spokesperson for the idea that any child, conditioned early enough, could be turned into anything right from a doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and anything, advertisers tap into this vulnerability of children. Young children are increasingly the target of advertising and marketing because of the amount of money they spend themselves and the fact of influence they have on their parents spending. While we used to see child-targeted marketing concentrating on sweets and toys, it now includes clothes, shoes, a range of fast foods, sports equipment, computer products and toiletries as well as adult products such as cars, house, banking and credit cards.

Don’t we all love to watch commercials with kids in it? Our heart ticks, they are heartwarming sometimes and often more successful in giving the precise message. This fact is used beautifully by few advertisers. Airtel in their commercial named ’Barriers break when people talk’ the premise: Two boys, separated by border fences. One of them asks another one to kick a football and they end up crawling under the fences and start playing football together. The core idea is that simple act of communication can bring people together. The film has been created by Rediffusion DY&R.

One survey in America found that 79% of adolescents nationally owned an iPod or MP3 player, 75% owned a cell phone, and 69% owned a desktop or laptop computer. The changing trends in usage and ease of mobility of many of these devices challenge our thinking whether the media exposure is worth it? Are the kids getting too much of exposure into adult world in their susceptible age? Can the increased access to media be minimized with its associated risk factors?

I recall one Times of India ad few years back. The ad starts with a traffic jam due to a massive tree fall blocking a road. While a special way out has been arranged for the VIP, the rest continue to criticize the country as it rains. Suddenly, a kid comes around and tries to move the big tree. Seeing him struggle, other kids and commuters join him and manage to remove the tree to clear the traffic. The inspiring music was composed and performed by Indian musical trio Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy. The ad gives the message: wake up and the country will follow automatically. Kids are more effective to give a message.

Pester power is very effective which has never been reported by any research. Pester power is criticized for one key fact that is the repeated nagging by the child irritates parents to no end.  However, young children may not be articulate enough to have any other feasible methods of persuasion, and let’s not forget the fact that advertisements are specifically designed to encourage young children to nag. One research on this topic suggests that one in six parents claim they now find it difficult to say “no” to their child when pestered to buy them for something and nine out of 10 parents said their children demand things when out shopping together, hence parents prefer to leave the offspring at home to avoid their pestering.

Parents succumb to their children’s demand for gifts and gadgets whenever they ask for them. These items have a great sales because of kids demand electronic gadgets like mobiles, TV, computers of their choice, and they demand changing them often. The parents ‘give in’ easily to their children’s demands because they feel guilty for spending lesser time with their kids and for working long hours. They also don’t want their children to be bullied at school for not having the latest ‘must-have’ item. This include sort of bribing the children for doing their homework and other assignments in time.

But look at the flipside: The world’s leading climate economists are using pester power to influence their parents and other adults into doing more to save the planet. Climate-change campaigners have a new weapon in the fight against global warming. They feel that today’s young people can and should hold their parents’ generation to account for their present actions. They can provoke an emotional response that can motivate actions. Lord Stern, a respected London School of Economics professor who wrote on the financial implications of climate change in 2006, feels using pester power will be a wise thing.

One of the most commanding ways you can encourage your children to contribute in your decision making is to teach them how to make decisions, and to allow them to make their own decisions. The decisions that your children make as they approach maturity dictate the people they become and the life paths they choose. Unfortunately, we shy away from allowing our children’s decision-making.

Human thinking is unstructured and obscure, mind is always wavering and full of doubts. When group decisions are to be made it becomes all the more difficult as each person is on different level   and has a different perspective and a different wavelength hence each person reinforces a problem in a different way. When different people need to make decision on a problem organizations get unexpected results. The thinking hat is a metaphor that represents each thinking direction as the hats can be easily put on and taken off. The six thinking hats introduced the thinking process to follow specific directions when necessary. Six Thinking Hats is a decision making tool designed by Edward de Bono which is useful in group discussion and also in individual decision making. The six hats coloured in six colors and are associated with the idea of parallel thinking. Parallel thinking provide a means for groups to plan thinking processes in a detailed and unified way, and in doing so, to think together more effectively.

The basis of this tool is that the human brain thinks in a number of distinct ways which can be consciously challenged, and hence planned for use in a structured way allowing one to develop tactics for thinking about particular issues. De Bono identifies six directions in which the brain can be challenged. In each of these directions the brain will identify and bring into conscious thought certain aspects of issues being considered for example, gut feeling, instinct, pessimism, judgement, neutral facts etc. None of these directions are natural ways of thinking, but they show a gist of how each person has a thinking pattern. Since the hats do not represent natural modes of thinking, each hat must be used for a limited time only. Also, many will feel that using the hats is peculiar, rough or even counterproductive way might improve their judgement. Some may find wearing a particular hat leading to ambiguity in decision making.

In a corporate meeting some people look at a problem as a small, easily solvable problem; while some might see serious clichés in it. Blue Hat sees the complete big picture, the goals and objectives with clarity; blue hat represents clarity in thoughts.  Red Hat looks at problems using intuition, gut reaction, and emotion. The Red hat represents people with feelings and emotions. People often do not understand the reasoning behind the sensitive person’s recommended solutions. The red hat people have reactions full of feelings to a given problem. Wearing a White Hat represents objectivity; disseminating available data, using information on hand and determining the outcome. White Hat people use information effectively. They need all statistical data, spread sheets, previous reports for decision making. They look for knowledge gaps, and either fill them or assess the risk associated with them.

Black Hat thinkers are serious tinkers. They look at negative aspects of decision making. They look at everything very objectively and defensively. They assess the decision in regards to why it would work and more so why it might not work. This is important because it highlights the weak points in a plan. Black Hat thinking helps to eliminate the flaws, alter them, or prepare contingency plans to minimize their impact. It is always better and cheaper to fail on paper than in the market. Black Hat thinkers prepare others in the group to think cautiously.  Yellow Hat thinkers are positive thinkers. They have a creative streak in them that allows one to see all the benefits of the decision and the value in it. They can easily think creative solutions. For them benefits need to be tangible and specific. Sometimes ideas might be unattractive but the concept behind it might have its weightage this is observed by the yellow hat thinkers. Green Hat thinkers stir the work atmosphere with their creativity and innovative thinking. Green Hat thinking gives solutions for a problem; they look at possibilities, options, ideas and choices.  It gives solutions for doing things in new way.

In a meeting we see each participant’s approach differently. Because everyone is focused on a particular approach at any one time, the group tends to be more collaborative when each participant gives his/her inputs. If one person is reacting emotionally (Red hat) while another person is trying to be objective (White hat) and still another person is being critical of the points which emerge from the discussion (Black hat), somebody has creative solution (Green Hat). Each of these hats aid the group’s perspective. Each individual addresses problems from a variety of angles. An individual might or might not be able to focus with a full-fledged approach in solving the problem. The concept of six thinking hats helps organization to develop leadership as the group listens to each other’s point of view. Team Productivity increases as each participant’s view point gets aligned with the group objectively. It helps people to think innovatively. It strengthens decision making. Product and processes Improve. Changes in organization can be tackled easily. Change management becomes easy. Performance bar can be raised high.

In today’s complex business environment organizations need to think on so many multifarious decisions in some complicated situations; at many such times the managers need a way to increase their odds of success and minimize the probability of a poor decision. Six thinking hats has a 360-degree approach which motivates a person to think outside his/her repetitive thinking style, and facilitates a more healthy valuation of a situation.

Many successful people think from a very rational, positive viewpoint. Rational thinking is easily understood and conclusions are generally well accepted. But, we rarely get the comfortable situation for making rational decisions. In many cases, our thought process fails to look at a problem from an emotional, intuitive, resourceful viewpoint. Does this mean that rational   decision makers underrate conflicting viewpoints? Six thinking hats does allow creative leaps and essential contingency plans. Similarly when pessimistic people tend to become defensive in many situations, driven by emotion alone, they fail to look at decisions calmly and rationally. When individuals and groups assess a problem with the ‘Six Thinking Hats’ technique, they can look at a situation or a problem through all possible lenses, thus allowing them to look at problems with effective blend of drive, skill in execution, public sensitivity, creativity and good contingency planning.

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) employed the six hat methodology in their support to Sri Lankan government’s attempts to improve the planning and implementation of post-tsunami housing and reconstruction efforts. To this end, Sri Lankan and German counterparts cooperated in a series of joint project planning sessions which began with ‘six thinking hats sessions’. These sessions were used to identify and generate mutual understanding of the key issues which needed to be better understood and addressed in the reconstruction process.

When an individual wants to ensure that what he/she is considering, whether everything is  relevant, the person can wear each hat in a sequence  blue – red – yellow – black – white – green, to gauge all spears and try to produce thoughts of that kind. If two contrasting thoughts pop up under the one hat, that is fine, both of them can be weighed simultaneously and the contradiction may be resolved.

It’s a shocking fact but according to multiple sources, on an average an adult makes about 35,000 decisions in a day. Young children make about 3,000 decisions each day. The decisions diverge from which dress to wear, what to eat for lunch, what to cook, whether to go in for a haircut, whether to go for voting, whether to continue sleeping, whether to say hello to someone on the road who is friendly or not so friendly etc, etc…. these are common decisions besides the serious issues on which we take decisions almost every moment in a day. However, there is no accuracy in each decision making of ours. For many of us decision making seems more of a challenge than it should be, for many of our decisions we rely on somebody for their opinions.

When we look back, I am sure, we feel there are so many decisions we made are not the correct decisions. Let’s take a simple example, your recent visit to restaurant for dinner will make you think whether your menu choice was right or not, was it the best decision? Could you have something new on the menu? Think of all those business decisions we need to make. They are more complex and more puzzling. It’s not that we don’t want to decide, or that we are intentionally being difficult about an issue. Sometimes, decision-making is just really, really challenging, even when it seems like it’s about something totally superfluous. We find loads of people who shy away from making decisions; it is an issue for many people. Let me tell you, it is a glaring fact that more and more people want shy away from making decisions than ever before.

Recently, a lot of research has focused on a certain mental limitation, which has to do with our ability to use a mental trait known as executive function. When we focus on a specific task for an extended period of time, mind gets confused about how to implement the task; it’s like if I wanted to eat a burger and I instead ate salad, I am flexing my executive function muscles. Both thought processes require conscious effort; one needs to resist the temptation to let his/her mind wander. However, that use of executive function, which is a talent we all rely on throughout the day draws upon a single resource of limited capacity in the brain. When this resource is exhausted by one activity, our mental capacity may be strictly hindered in another, seemingly unrelated activity. And this process of thinking and making decisions goes on and on.

The skill of good decision-making has become increasingly important. We have an abundance of choices, both with the simple things in life such as ordering from a menu, where to go for a haircut, which style of suit to stitch, which perfume brand to buy to the serious things in life such as choosing your career, health treatment, or whom to marry. When making a tough personal or professional decision, I think the best advice is ‘Be TRUE to yourself.

Before you know when to trust your gut, you have to know yourself well enough to understand where on the decision-making scale you fall. On one end of the spectrum, you have the highly intuitive people, and on the other are the intensely analytical people. It seems, Sam Walton used to take a lot of decisions based on his gut feelings: on one such occasion, Walton’s decision to hold Saturday morning all-employee meetings which led to a culture of rapid information and decision making, which in turn created one of the biggest companies in the world. Similarly, Jack Welch’s decision at General Electric (GE) to fully fund a first-in-class training center at Crotonville, led to the development of hundreds of great leaders who practiced the “GE Way”. Henry Ford was a quick decision maker – he is famously known for his decision making power. Henry Ford’s decision to double the wages of his workers enabled him to attract the talent he needed, and helped insure a class of worker who could afford the very products they were building.

Under the dynamic leadership of Indira Gandhi, India’s voice was heard with respect in various international organizations and forums. She took certain decisions keeping in view the prevalent circumstances that resulted in raising the stature of India at the international level. She had no articulated world vision but had observed her father identifying India’s national interest with independent decision-making in international affairs, economic development at home and the exclusion of India and its neighborhood in Southern Asia from either of superpower’s sphere of influence. Her decisions were pragmatic, her dealings with foreign leaders tough.  The truth is under her leadership, India started progressing in many areas. Indira Gandhi was a quick decision maker.

Our emotions help us decide what’s important to us, they prompt us  to take some action, they guide us toward an aspect of what needs to be exposed and what needs to be healed of self, they also guide us when we are out of balance so that we can bring back ourselves to center. Friends, each decision of ours need not be ‘correct’. In life’s journey, we go through the thick and thin, with each good or bad experience. Some choices may lead to more painful lessons than others, but that doesn’t mean we should not make decisions. I have seen people who flip a coin to make decisions as in ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ chits with ‘yes’, ‘no’ scribbled on them, seeing a soothsayer for his advice and some more weird things. Life involves some risks. Flip the coin and see where it leads you.

I believe, it’s better to trust our intuition because sometimes our intuition guides us toward those things we fear the most so that we can push past them and become stronger as a result. The next time you feel fear, embrace it, inspect it, and if guided to do so, move boldly toward it. Try it!

Most of us don’t remember our first two or three years of life; but the fact is our earliest experiences may remain in our memory with us for years and continue to influence us well into adulthood. Our personalities shape on how we were treated in childhood, the order in which we are born in the family, our teachers, our childhood friends and our hobbies. From the biological angel, a lot of or behavior patterns depend on how we are nurtured, a lot of what goes on during childhood, influences how we turn out as adults. And, there isn’t a set right and wrong formula for ensuring achievement and happiness in adulthood.

 A lot of research has been conducted by world famous Universities and research institutes on childhood psychology and it is found that the type of emotional support that a child receives during the first three and a half years has an effect on education, social life and romantic relationships almost 20 or 30 years later. Babies and toddlers raised in supportive and caring home environments tend to do better on standardized tests and later on, they are found more likely to attain higher degrees as adults. They are also more likely to get along with their peers and feel contented in their romantic relationships.

Although, parental behavior in the early years is just one of many influences, but it is not the only factor causing the benefits; researchers have accounted for socioeconomic status and the environment in which children grow up as an important parameters in an individual’s development in life. A specific study was conducted by researchers from the University of Maryland on 165 babies; when separated from their parents, some got upset but quickly recovered when they were reunited. Other babies had a harder time trusting their parents after a brief separation, and they weren’t able to calm down after being reunited. This speaks a lot. Some children are extra-sensitive and when they face some trauma in their childhood, they feel anxious in socializing as teenagers.

If as a child your parents didn’t let you make decisions, you might be a dependent adult. If you had controlling parents, you might be a stubborn adult. If you watched too much TV as a baby, you may have suppressed communication skills. If you watched too much of violent programs on TV, you are more likely to be an aggressive grown-up. If you mimic your parents, you’ll be more open-minded as an adult.

Here comes some more focus on what kind of individual you are: if you are the eldest among your siblings, you are responsible, confident and conscientious. You are more likely to mirror your parents’ beliefs and attitudes. You are likely to be comfortable with adults. It is said that oldest children are often natural leaders, and this might reflect at their work place. This is because they are more likely to have power over their younger siblings. Obviously, their siblings must be looking up to them for taking decisions, quite likely these (eldest in family) individuals are  dominant and want things to be done in particular manner. Oldest children in later years tend to be perfectionists.

If someone is the middle one among his/her siblings, the person possibly is adaptable, diplomatic and good at people skills. The person must be amicable and might be good at people skills. He/she might like to bring people together. Middle children are often popular and easy-going. However, because their role in the family changes from youngest to middle, it is seen that they often struggle to establish a clear role for themselves, and many go through a period of upheaval. They often face identity crisis.

Often it is seen that middle children are competitive by nature. This is because they do not have the time on their own with their parents that oldest and youngest children enjoy, and their role as the baby of the family is supplanted, so they have to find other ways of getting their parent’s attention. Their success in life helps them get the required attention.

If a person is the youngest child in the family, he/she must be a charming individual. Possible also impulsive and good at getting their own way. The youngest child is pampered among all children. The youngest child is treated as baby of the family, this means that he or she is likely to be spoilt. They tend to take on fewer responsibilities and more opportunities for fun compared to older siblings. But, another fact is also that the youngest child often finds that he/she is not taken as seriously or is not given the independence by the family members. You will often see that the youngest ones in the family crave for independence. Youngest children often rebel as a way of distinguishing themselves from older brothers and sisters; they tend to search uniqueness. They are more likely to take on risks, and often choose a career that differentiates them from other members of their family.

Finally, we find that individuals who are raised as the only child, probably have enjoyed all attention from parents and others in the family. Because of all attention, they are more confident, meticulous and socially mature. This happens due to the amount of time they spend in a largely adult world. The only child assumes that others know his/her feeling, they also think that others think the same way as they do. It is quite possible, they may be dependent on their parents for longer time than other children, spending more time at home and delaying decisions about their future. They depend on others in decisions making cause in their childhood, their parents make most of the decision for them.

Our childhood experiences include the way we have been raised by our parents, this combined with our own personalities. Our reaction to siblings and peers and the context of our lives prepares a particular set of beliefs and patterns that have a huge impact on our future relationships.

People generally can’t change who they are but they can change how they behave and how they are. Our personalities, tendencies, gifts, and vulnerabilities remain the same throughout life but how we use them can, with effort, change substantially. If in our childhood it required that we give up, or more accurately, hide our innate sensitivity, openness, joy, or talents because they were not welcomed and understood by our caregivers. But, we can re-discover them and develop the things that have been suppressed or denied in our adulthood. This shift not only feels better but begins to change our relationship patterns on a deeper level.

Decision making is a part and parcel of our daily life. For managers its part and parcel from moment to moment; their each action and decision is observed by their bosses, peers, assistants because their decisions are critical to the organization’s growth. Some decisions are small, some are big, some are good, some are not so good… but still decision making is vital. Some decisions can affect somebody’s life, livelihood, and well-being. Inevitably, sometimes the manager makes mistakes along the way. Therefore, decision making is scary reality that requires great understanding of complexities; thus, the manager’s maturity, intelligence, responsibility, and his people skill matters. It’s been seen people with the best information and intentions are sometimes hopelessly flawed.

Managers can make mistakes and sometimes they might be grave mistakes. Daimler led the merger of Chrysler and Daimler against daunting internal opposition, nine years later, Daimler was forced to virtually give Chrysler away in a private equity deal.

Steve Russell, chief executive of Boots, the UK drugstore chain, launched a health care strategy designed to differentiate the stores from competitors and grow through new health care services such as dentistry. It turned out, though, that Boots managers did not have the skills needed to succeed in health care services, and many of these markets offered little profit potential. The strategy contributed to Russell’s early departure from the top job. Sometimes excitement needs to be resisted.

Brigadier General Matthew Broderick, chief of the Homeland Security Operations Centre, who was responsible for alerting President Bush and other senior government officials if Hurricane Katrina breached the levees in New Orleans, went home on Monday, August 29, 2005, after reporting that they seemed to be holding, despite multiple reports of breaches.

All these executives were highly qualified for their jobs, and yet they made decisions that soon seemed obviously wrong. It happens at times, we all make decisions which can go drastically wrong. We make mistakes in the planning process, in designing or strategising we miss the threads somewhere. Flawed decisions start with errors of judgment made by powerful individuals. We depend primarily on two hardwired processes for decision making. Our brains assess what’s going on using pattern recognition, and we react to that information—or ignore it—because of emotional tags that are stored in our memories. Both of these processes are normally dependable; they are part of our evolutionary advantage. But in certain circumstances, both can let us down.

When an executive takes a big decision, he or she typically relies on the judgment of a team that has put together a proposal for a strategic course of action. After all, the team will have to look into the pros and cons much more deeply than the manager/executive has time to do. The common problem is, biases invariably creep into the team’s reasoning and often precariously distort its thinking. A team that has initially appreciated with a proposal, for instance, may subconsciously dismiss evidence that contradict its theories, give far too much weight to one piece of data, or make faulty comparisons to another business case.

For one reason or another, someone will find a reason to project their insecurities, their negativity, and their fears onto the process of execution. Others in the team need to need to deal with it. We live in times of stifle change; shifting powers between government agencies, consumerism, globalization and maddening short product life cycles. Technology today is so short lived, emerging countries and changing economic landscapes, financial systems that are under severe pressure, new innovative companies that change market places.

Today’s leaders are dealing with an exponential change rate, and with information and communication channels that are easier accessible, faster and more widespread than ever before. Leaders are exposed to external influences and pressures that are less conventional and more quickly come and go. Leading change requires leaders to cope with this higher level of complexity. It also means that they, as part of their job, will almost inevitably face criticism in many occasions. Great leaders are aware of this and deal with criticism constructively. They see it as a normal part of their role and they approach it with an open mind. They have a fundamental and positive impact on the change, precisely because they deal with criticism effectively. They realise that execution is critical to success.

According to Jack Welch of GE boundary less behaviour and constantly searching for better ideas is the need of the hour for all managers. Here’s what he says about innovation: “If you’ve got a company that has a mentality inside that is filled with searching for a better idea every day, not just as a slogan but as a real concept, you will have innovation around you all the time.”

Lets except this fact – that as people we are biased in every single situation, there’s no such thing as objectivity. The truth about criticism is that it’s almost always in your head.

I think when managers mature they realise that when leading change, it is normal to encounter resistance. It is evidence that change is taking place. Criticism is just one of the ways in which resistance expresses itself. That doesn’t make it pleasant, but it is ‘normal’ in situations of change. Great leaders see criticism as an opportunity. They embrace it and use it to engage people, to create awareness for change, to facilitate dialogue. They use it as fuel for change. Not in a calculating way, but with an open mind and a willingness to change views and perspectives.

They make the complexities understand to others. Leaders have to deal with a great amount of change every day and are confronted with a higher level of complexity. More and more resistance and criticism is related to misunderstandings and misinterpretations caused by this complexity. Good leaders are aware of this and put extra energy and focus on communicating and explaining the complexity to those who are affected by it. They don’t make the mistake of pretending as if there is no complexity, as if things are seemingly simple. They don’t deliberately communicate about the reality in simple generalizations and in black and white terms. Nor do they use the complexity as justification for their actions. Instead, good leaders don’t want to make things look simple when they are not, but they don’t want to hide themselves behind the argument of complexity either. They don’t pretend they know the full scope of the complexity and all its consequences, when they do not. Instead they focus on explaining openly and honestly what they believe is the essence of the complexity and its potential consequences, what they believe should be done to create change, and why this is important. They invite the critics to exchange perceptions, experience, knowledge and ideas together, and to create a shared view on the complexity and on what to do to overcome its challenges.

They communicate clear values. Good leaders are persistent when it comes to their values. They see values as one of the fundamentals on which successful change is built. They pay special attention to communicating values, even when they deal with criticism. They don’t try to counter criticism by losing themselves in technical arguments and details, by showing their knowledge and expertise. Instead they explain the values on which they based their decisions and actions, and the importance of these values. By doing this they align people around these values and build a case for their decisions, especially when these decisions have unpleasant consequences.

If they have committed mistake, they admit them; they except that when the criticism is valid they need to adjust their decisions and actions. They show courage and are willing to take a risk while leading complex change, even when it turns out to be a wrong decision.

Most importantly, they understand that ego is one of the biggest barriers to people working together effectively. When people get caught up in their egos, it erodes their effectiveness. That’s because the combination of false pride and self-doubt created by an overactive ego gives people a distorted image of their own importance.

Egoists see themselves as the centre of everything and they begin to put their own agenda, safety, status, and gratification ahead of those affected by their thoughts and actions. That’s a deadly combination in today’s business environment, where organizations need people to work together collaboratively to meet the ever increasing expectations of customers.

The single most fact is that for all managers criticism is part and parcel of life.

Frederic Winslow Taylor, (1856-1915) was the first person who attempted to systematically analyze human behavior at work place. He compared the organization to a machine form; the machine with its low-priced, interchangeable parts, each of which does one specific function. Taylor said organizations are like big machines because humans working in an organization can be easily molded and can be transposable.

Like in a family or in a society, even in organizations, individuals and groups interact on different matters for the harmony and prosperity. The combined behaviors create a company climate that can reinforce or depress an organization’s success. Each individual and his behavior matters because business processes are interdependent. Therefore, while working from within a company’s structure, both management and staff might have difficulty in recognizing patterns of behavior and also how intensely those patterns can influence a company’s performance. The leadership is extremely important to create positive influence and positive atmosphere by helping the employees to grasp and work on achieving mission, vision and goals of the organization; this is where OB is important. Every person working in an organization from the gate keeper, sweeper to the CEO is involved in the company’s future. If the internal atmosphere is good in an organization, it projects a strong external manifestation.

OB relies heavily on social sciences and psychology. When an individual joins an organization he is concerned with his personal growth. But his interpersonal relations are important for the organizational competence and in return the group dynamics. The individual’s behavior is thus very important from the organization’s perspective. If the individual speaks good of his organization outside, it showcases the cultural strength of the organization. People are the key to an organization’s survival.

The importance of organizational behavior rests in understanding how individuals, groups, and organizational structures interact and affect one another. OB studies, examines communication patterns between individuals and groups, as well as the structure and culture of organizations. Many culturally and financially weak individuals have blossomed and grown after joining good workplaces. A detailed look at workplace behavior, business culture, and organizational practices generates greater insights about communication patterns and conflicts. People can make work place an exciting, fun-filled, and productive place to be, or they can make it a routine, boring, and ineffective place where everyone is apprehensive and tense. Steve Jobs, cofounder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc. attributed the innovations at Apple, which includes the iPod, MacBook, and iPhone, to people, noting, “Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have.…It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” 

Such conclusions sometimes spark solution-oriented policies and organizational change, causing leaders to implement rewards systems, new communication techniques, or innovative management approaches. Learning and revising the ways in which individuals and groups in an organization interact is often very helpful. Lot of factors challenge the system: culture of the nation, infrastructural facilities, demographics, educational standards in the nation, and few other factors are critical for explaining challenges within an organization.

Apple is known for its innovative products and sleek designs. The company is also known for offering tech products at higher price points than its competitors, but consumers still line up to buy new products or purchase upgraded versions of existing products. Apple corporate culture is built on innovation, but critics report that the executives push their employees hard and expect nothing less than the best from them. The company’s focus on creating seamless consumer technology has allowed it to prosper even when other tech companies have experienced declines in sales.

Another reality is that employees fear any change in an organization. Employees are often reluctant to embrace a new technology, new posting, new process, new boss, new colleagues – they have an aversion to something new. Change which cannot be avoided under any circumstance interferes with an organization’s advancement efforts. This is where OB becomes more important. Organizational behavior in such a situation as in adopting change highlights the capable leadership from top in effectively managing fear of change across the organization. When changes take place, managing individuals and groups are important.

Organizational culture is a system of shared values, beliefs, and assumptions that governs the behavior of people in the organization. The culture of an organization is determined by the values placed on a set of characteristics, such as risk taking ability, ethical governance and appreciation of good employees in detail. When jointly there is a high level of agreement and commitment among the members of an organization on preserving these values, the organization is said to have a strong culture. An organization in which members do not agree and are not committed to the core values has a weak culture.

Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Inc., a billion-dollar cosmetics company, makes a similar point, saying, “People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps.” Just like people, organizations come in many shapes and sizes.

The concern for ethical decision-making is key attribute among the regulators, employees, social groups and managers. It has substantially increased since failure of some of the prominent business organizations like, Satyam, Shell and Enron owing to strong social criticism of some of their business practices. Of late, prominent institutes like IIMs have now begun sensitizing students about business ethics and morality; eminent personalities like the Sri. Sri. Ravishnkar, Jaggi Vasudev or the Dalai Lama is invited to speak on business ethics and ethical behavior. A few imperative literature review shows that authors have frequently used ethics, morality and values interchangeably in the context of organizational behavior. But, this requires sufficient research to examine the linkage of ethical decision-making with organizational structure and business results.

While hiring people some organization go too far examining their cultures and behaviors. They check a list of desired attitudes and behavior before hiring employees. As far as possible they avoid hiring the wrong people, so that they can improve employee satisfaction and reduce employee turnover. Google is one such organization every industrialist might consider emulating, especially if the business is involved in the technology field. The company has an informal product development process and gives staff members access to the co-founders and chief executive.

They create a situation in an interview trying to confirm what they think of a candidate; psychologists call this confirmation bias.  Confirmation bias is the tendency to search, interpret, or prioritize information in a way that confirms one’s beliefs. A lot of scientific assessment goes in choosing the right candidate by hunting for evidence that confirms the panel’s initial impression.

Finally, much of what a manager does has to do with trying to get people to work as effectively as possible.  It involves trying to motivate each individual worker. Much of management has to do with understanding people and how they work.  Therefore, having an understanding of organizational behavior is vital to managers.

Each person has an inherent need to understand and envisage his role and his interaction with others in the organization because much of each individual’s time is spent working in or around a group of people in organization. People differ in their personalities, attitudes, and values, and an understanding of an individual’s personality is extremely important in maximizing his happiness and productivity at work. Organization Behavior theories are particularly helpful in satisfying people’s innate drives at the same time simultaneously using their strengths to accomplish vision, mission and goals of the organization. OB helps in creating a healthy work environment where individuals and organization grow concurrently.

It is extremely important to invest your time, efforts, money, and energies in the specialization of your choice. Many of us are good at many subjects. And, many of us try to get adjusted in an area of specialization and try to ‘fit’ into it all through our professional lives. Specialization is a specific area in which you can make a career. When you chose a profession which gratifies your passion, you are the most fortunate person on earth. And, therefore, it is a wise decision to invest in a career of choice.  When we get career in which we find our passion our existence becomes very fascinating.

As Confucius said, “choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” It’s great advice, but it’s not always that simple. It is very difficult to figure out what we love, and how to change that liking into a career. There are many elements one needs to weigh before entering a job. A friend of mine who is very knowledgeable in the area of finance; he has loads of information in the stock market, banking, FDI, accounting, behavioral finance so on and forth. But he does not like to talk and does not like elucidation of concepts. Now this gentleman is a lecturer in a college. Because he does not like talking too much and explaining things in details, he obviously does not make a good teacher. Very few students attend his lectures.

A famous physician practices in heart of the city. He is famous for his diagnosis and prognosis. The problem with this physician is – he gets hyper when his patients ask him more than two questions. He feels his patients should listen to him and obey his instructions. He does not listen much to what patients speak; each patient has some or the other question regarding diet, after effects of medicines, life style, sleep etc. He does not like to listen. He breezes into the exam room with his own agenda and hardly has the time to find out what the patient expects. This common complaint his patients have. Therefore, he is considered as a conceited man.

Matching up our personality with a suitable role is extremely vital to our career. In fact it can become a career challenge. Our personality has so many facets; most of the times we fail to break it down into separate traits. And, even if we are aware of our characteristics, it’s important to know which jobs they’re suited for. I mean, how many people know which career is appropriate for which personality type. Often we have knowledge of one or two careers.

The present trend of education in universities is that students study degrees that sound highly, and at times narrowly vocational. Nevertheless, the trend of students opting for traditional subjects, such as History, English Literature and the Natural Sciences, Commerce is not wiped out completely. Many universities still regard themselves as seats of pure learning. I frequently think is it still sensible and desirable to study for love of a subject alone? On a second thought, a person can get trained up in a job rest of his life, whereas the time you spend in university is the only time in your life when you can study purely because you enjoy it.

Look at the recent changes in the global job market people do not shy away from changing and hopping into new jobs. The old traditional philosophy of sticking and retiring from one job is disappeared. In today’s job market very few people experience the stability of working for only one or two employers throughout their careers. In fact, most workers entering their first job today will change career paths at least seven to ten times before they reach retirement age.
With workers hopping from one job to other, more frequently very few companies can afford to invest heavily in into employee training and development. Therefore, more and more employers prefer job seekers to develop their own skills before joining a company. As a result, the demand for workers with college degrees has skyrocketed over the past few decades. I want to bring the point of loving your work, loving your career, doing what you love to do. Then job hopping is out of question.

Therefore, one needs to invest a little time and energy before taking decisions about career.

1. Make a list of your interests.
2. Make an honest list of your personal characteristics and your talents.
3. At the same time, make a list of your limitations and things which bore you to death.
4. Carry out some research about what kind of life style each of your interests might bring if it would turn to a job. Gather details in order to build up a realistic image of those professions.
5. Talk to people who have been in those professions for years. Gather the present trends in those particular professions.
6. Now take some more time and try to remember what you loved as a child. Often, our truest passions emerge in childhood. We stifle our childhood passion as we grow older by real life pressures. So think about what you loved in your childhood, what made you happy – was it mathematics, numbers, puzzle solving, reading stories, making collage, drawing, singing, scientific research, navigation, being close to nature…..what was that made you happy. Try to remember. Getting back in touch with those instincts is an important step in finding your passion.
7. Pease remove the materialistic element from your passion. Please don’t let the financial objective spoil your choice. While we all know money can’t be ignored, but don’t allow money dictate your choices. Listen to what your heart is saying.
8. Discuss about your thought process with your best friends who know you well. Sometimes you might not be able to make up our mind. You might misjudge your own decisions. Ask the people who know you personally, they might tell you when you seem the happiest and what you do most enthusiastically. Their answers might surprise you. Listen to your friends.
9. While choosing your educational programs check which subjects scare you to death, which ones do you find boring, whether you would love wasting your time studying them, Think, think and then decide on the choice.
10. Identify your professional hero. We all like one of the professions; we imagine being in it and hero-worship the topper in it. Whom would you most want to emulate? Reach out to him/her to learn more about how that person got to where he is.
11. In short, think of what you enjoy the most. Focus on things that you both enjoy and do well. It could be cooking, gardening, teaching, singing in opera, acting in drama, handicraft, painting …………… it could be from the funniest sounding thing to very serious sounding topic such as aeronautics or medicines. Don’t bother what others would think of you. Follow your heart.
12. Make a list of the top three or four profession which fascinate you; narrow the list to the top one thing. Keep it handy, review it often, and use it as your jumping-off point when you’re plotting your career move.

The movie ‘3 idiots’ gives the same message: chose a career which allows working with passion, believe in yourself, chase excellence and success will follow you automatically, and most important sometimes be idiotic it helps you to bring in the best in you.