Problems are usually of three types: opportunity, crisis, or routine. Crisis and routine problems present themselves and must be attended to by the managers. Opportunities, in contrast, must be found; they wait to be discovered. Often they go unnoticed and are eventually lost by an inattentive manager. Because, by their very nature, most crisis and routine problems demand immediate attention, and a manager mayspend a great deal of time in handling minor crises and solving routine problems and may not have time to pursue important new opportunities. Many well-managed organisations try to draw attention away from crises and routine problems and toward longer-range issues through planning activities.
To locate problems, managers rely on several different indicators, the so-called warning signals:
1. Deviation from past performance. A sudden change in some established pattern of performance often indicates that a problem has developed.
2. Deviation from the plan. When results do not meet planned objectives, a problem is likely.
3. Outside criticism. The actions of outsiders may indicate problems. Problems are a natural, everyday occurrence of life, and in order to suffer less
from the tensions and frustrations they cause, we must learn how to deal with them in a rational, logical fashion.
If we accept the fact that problems will arise in a regular basis, for a variety of reasons, and from a variety of sources, we can:
1. Learn to approach problems for an objective point of view;
2. Learn how to anticipate some of them; and
3. Prevent some of them from becoming larger problems.
4. To accomplish this, you need to learn the process of problem solving.
3) Recognising the Existence of a Problem
Before a problem can be solved, you must first recognise that a problem exists. Here is where your approach to problem solving is crucial. You should not allow the problem to intimidate you. You should approach it rationally and remind yourself that every problem is solvable if it is tackled appropriately. Fear can block your ability to think clearly, but if you:
1. Follow a workable procedure for finding solutions.
2. Accept the fact that you can't foresee everything.
3. Assume that the'solution you select is your best potion at the time.
4. Accept the possibility that things may change and your solution fail; you will than enter the problem-solving process rationally. You should try to view it as an intellectual exercise.
4) Identifying the Problem
Once you recognise that a problem exists, your next step is to identify the problem. Identifying problems is not as easy as it may seem. If the problem is incorrectly identified, any decisions made are directed toward solving the wrong problem.
When a particular problem occurs often, managers develop a routine procedure for solving it. Programmed decisions have repetitive and routine solutions. The managers of most organisations face great numbers of programmed decisions in their daily operations. Such decisions should be made without expending unnecessary time and effort on them.
When a problem is complex or extremely important, it requires a different and, perhaps, unique solution. Nonprogrammed decisions are solutions for novel and unstructured problems. What is important is that the need for nonprogrammed decisions be properly identified. On the basis of this type of decisions making, billions of dollarsin resources are allocated every year. Government organisations make decisions that influence the lives of every citizen; business organisations make decisions to manufacture new products; hospitals. Such decisions have traditionally been handled by problem-solving processes, judgement, intuition, and creativity.
Coping with nonprogrammable decisions, always
However, there are some sources of difficulties in problem identification:
• perceptual problems Our individual perceptions may protect or defend us from unpleasant realities. Thus, negative information may be selectively perceived to distort its true meaning. It may also be totally ignored
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