Good decision-making is an essential skill for general career success and more so for effective leadership. If a leader can make timely and well-considered decisions, then he or she can often lead his or her team to remarkable and earned success. However, if a leader makes poor decisions it can result in issues that can make the organization to tumble. Regardless of the size of organization you are in, whether a large corporation, a small company, or a home based business, effective communication skills are essential for success of the organization, especially when a decision has to be made(Feurer, Chaharbaghi, Weber & Wargin, 2000). Decision-making in management is an important skill and making the right decisions is essential. The role of management is to take these decisions, communicate with all the departments in the organization that are involved, and make the right decision. In line with this, managers should constantly strive towards improving their decision-making and communication skills (Feurer, Chaharbaghi, Weber & Wargin, 2000).
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The people charged with governance, this may include members of the organization at different ranks, must work together to ensure that the decision making process runs smoothly. To do this, they all need to communicate and bring out their point of views before making a decision. In my organization, IT governance is entrusted to a number of individuals who are responsible for making, implementing and evaluating IT related decisions. This paper will discuss the IT governance setting as well as the decision making process. It will also make recommendations on how these processes can be improved.
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Information Technology Governance
My organization has a team of information technology executives and information technology committees who make strategic decisions and monitor their implementation through information technology balanced scorecard. IT governance in my organization is founded on IT participation, tactical negotiations, and effective communication. The organization divides the complex challenge of IT governance into smaller pieces, which are solved separately. The main objective of the IT governance project is to help the organization manage its IT effectively so as to derive maximum economic benefits. The team charged with IT governance is expected to create awareness of the business needs as well as establish clear agreements and engagements(Feurer, Chaharbaghi, Weber & Wargin, 2000). IT defines what it intends to deliver, the time frame, and the cost of delivering. To achieve their core objective, IT has established structures, processes and relational mechanisms. A project manager installs the fundamental structures and processes while a committee made of different business units’ general directors and the Chief Information Officer introduces improvement projects on regular basis.
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The Chief Information Officer (CIO), who reports to the Executive Committee and manages a number of IT divisions, heads the IT department. The CIO and the general director’s committee are both in the same line of reporting to the Executive Committee.The department has a number of divisions, division of strategic processes, process management, and the distribution channel divisions. The Strategic Processes division is liable for management reporting, training, communication, andinformation management. The division of Process Management manages IT projects. The process management division also offers advice on design, architecture, and testing. The distribution division accountable for markets and distribution channels.
The Board of Directors, which is made up of 8 members, 2 managing directors 4 principle shareholders and 2 independent directors is entrusted with the organization’s IT governance. The board of directors meets twice a month to address the company’s IT issues and make decisions on information technology budgets as well as resolutions on investment projects. The CIO attends Executive Committee meetings regularly. This ensures that a close link between business and IT is cultivated. The IT strategy committee finds ways in which the Board could become more involved in IT governance as well as ways to incorporate the Board of Director’s role in IT, business strategy, and the degree of the committee’s continuing role in IT governance. The committee also establishes and reviews the organization’s IT strategies.
The process of making decisions relating to IT governance in our organization is organized in a number of stages. The first step in the process is to identifying and diagnosing the problem (Bateman & Snell, 2011). When deciding to implement a new IT strategy, many questions arise. The strategy’s profitability, cost, time, how it will affect the organization and who will implement the strategy.
Next, the committee needs to generate alternative solutions to the problem (Bateman & Snell, 2011). So committee members look into different ways to achieve their goal, how each of them fits into the organization’s setting, the cost involved in implementing them, and how the program works.
Then after gathering all the information one would need to evaluate the alternatives (Bateman & Snell, 2011). Once all the alternatives were researched thoroughly, the committee goes through all the information to see which option would meet all their needs, along comparing cost of the options.
Then making the choice, (Bateman & Snell, 2011). The committee has to be comfortable with all the information they have gathered and asked all their questions that needed answered. Once all this is done the committee members can make a choice which option they prefer.
Then onto implementing the decision since it has been made (Bateman & Snell, 2011). Once the committee members have decided on the option to implement and the decision approved by the Board of Directors, those responsible for implementation start executing the strategy.
Recommendations
Dividing the complex IT governance problem into smallerpieces and solving each problem, the way my organization approaches the issue,does not always ensure that the problem is fully solved. A method that ensures that IT governance problems are solved more comprehensively has to acknowledge theircompound and dynamic nature. The organization should implement an approachthat consists of a mix of structures, processes and relational mechanisms that address the issues without dividing them into smaller pieces.
The decision-making process steps are a model to use when making any decision, big or small. Following the six steps involved helps ensure that the organization comes up with the best decision to have a good result.
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