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Questions
1. What recommendation would you make as to how to label the warranty in marketing campaigns?
Why?
2. In making the decision, how could you benefit from the various group decision-making techniques
described in the chapter? Which might be most effective for the decision you face?
There are a number of group decision-making methods discussed in the chapter and students may
choose one or more of them in solving the problem presented in this case. Their responses should,
then, reflect proper awareness of what these techniques involve. Structured conflict, which relies on
c-type conflict, focuses on problems and issue-related differences of opinion. C-type conflict is also
characterized by a willingness to examine, compare, and reconcile those differences to produce the
Practice Being a Manager
THE BEST COMPANY
Exercise Overview and Objective
This exercise engages students in both individual and group levels of planning and decision making. At
the individual level, students must develop a plan that will result in their being hired to work for their
single best company possible. Individual students must define best (e.g., innovative company), and
then construct a plan for gaining employment in this company. Then students will work in small groups to
develop a brochure for distribution to college career centers. The topic for the brochure is Getting a Job
with Your Dream Company. The aim of this exercise is to help students recognize patterns in their
individual and group decision making and planning. This recognition is basic to the application of the
planning and decision-making tools discussed in this chapter.
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Preparation
Students should complete Step 1 prior to conducting the exercise. You should assign the exercise at least
one session prior in order to allow time for preparation of the individual plan. You may want to reinforce
the instructions in Step 1 regarding the target of best company.
Students should carefully define what best company means to them before they begin making their
plans. Students are not required to identify a company by name, but simply to describe a type of
In-Class Use
Students should be assigned to small discussion groups of three to four members. You may use random
assignment here, or convenient groupings such as existing project groups. Instruct these groups to follow
Step 2, allowing each member a few minutes to present their definition of best company and their
employment plans. Then the groups should proceed directly to Step 3, the development of the brochure.
You may want to provide some basic materials or allow each group to use a laptop to construct the
brochure. Emphasize that they should decide on the essentials of the brochure (content, layout) and avoid
getting bogged down in details.
Keep in mind that the purpose of the brochure exercise is to generate a sample of group decision
making and planning (versus creating a great brochure). So you may set any time limit that works best
within your session, with something like 10 minutes a reasonable minimum.
Self-Assessment
SELF-MANAGEMENT
This assessment is meant to identify how developed students self-management skills are. To become a
better manager, it is necessary to develop strong self-management skills. This assessment will give you a
foundation for your later self-management goals (i.e., where you are now so you can see what you need to
do to get where you want to be).
In-Class Use
Give students 5 7 minutes to complete the inventory.
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Scoring
Scoring instructions are included in the Self-Assessment at the end of the chapter. But students will want
to know what their raw score means. Heres what you can tell them:
In general, higher scores mean a more developed sense of self-management and lower scores indicate
a reliance on external sources for planning. If your score fell between:
0-70 You rely almost entirely on an external entity (professor, adviser, boss, or parent) to
71-105 You still tend to rely on external entities to set your goals and make plans for you. It
106-140 Your practice of self-management is uneven. That is, you may be very disciplined
141-150 You are generally good at self-management, but you experience pockets of
inconsistency. Think about the kind of situation in which you have the most difficulty
151-175 You are already very accomplished at self-management. Use the techniques below
to maintain or enhance your current level.
Give students the following techniques to improve their self-management skills:
If you are not used to practicing self-management, the best way to start is with something simple. In
other words, start with something you will be able to accomplish. For example, imagine your dorm
room or apartment is a chronic mess (you may not have to use much imagination). Set an overall goal
to keep it clean and neat. But rather than trying to keep it neat as a pin forever, start by setting a goal
of always hanging your coat in the closet when you come home rather than pitching it over the
nearest chair. Once you feel confident in your new behavior, add another, say, always putting your
Management Workplace
Management Workplace videos can support several in-class uses. In most cases you can build an entire
50-minute class around them. Alternatively, they can provide a springboard into a group lesson plan.
VIDEO: PLANT FANTASIES
Managerial Decision Making
Summary:
Teresa Carleo, owner of Plant Fantasies, is the gardener for such well-known New York City properties
as the Trump Organization, John Jay College, and Jack Resnick & Sons. In landscaping, success often
boils down to big decisions over little details. Although some decisions involve plant colors and types,
others involve complex negotiation with people, such as when Plant Fantasies builds designs created by
outside landscape architects.
Chapter 4: Planning and Decision Making P a g e | 15
Discussion Questions:
1. Did Plant Fantasies owner Teresa Carleo follow the rational decision-making process to launch
Plant Fantasies? Explain.
According to Carleo, the decision to quit her old job and start Plant Fantasies was characterized
by whim and emotion. Her process was not consistent with the rational decision making model.
She was emotionally upset at her former employer, and she had little experience with horticulture
2. List an example of a programmed decision at Plant Fantasies. Identify a nonprogrammed decision
at Plant Fantasies.
A programmed decision is a decision made in any situation that has occurred often enough to
enable decision rules to be developed and applied in the future. Programmed decisions tend to
involve simple routine matters for which a manager has a familiar set of options. One
programmed decision at Plant Fantasies is the daily process of maintaining healthy plants for
clients: a maintenance manager examines plants at client location, determines if the landscape has
Management Workplace Video Quiz
Students are able to take the following video quiz on CourseMate. The video is broken into segments, and
each segment has related questions to make sure students understand how the clip connects to the chapter
concepts.
Video Segment 1
Video segment title Decision Making
Start time (in sec) 0:00
Stop time (in sec) 2:10
Quiz Question 1 According to Teresa Carleo, the decision to start Plant Fantasies was
marked by whim, uncertainty, instinct, and scant consideration of other
options. This decision-making process is best described as:
a. Rational decision making
b. Intuitive
c. The Delphi technique
Quiz Question 2 Teresa Carleo made the decision to start her business from her apartment
because alternative location options were:
a. Not considered
Quiz Question 3 For a landscaping business like Plant Fantasies, the policies it uses to
regulate how its contractors bill clients is an example of:
a. Proximal goal
b. Distal goal
Video Segment 2
Video segment title Decision Making
Start time (in sec) 2:10
Stop time (in sec) 4:37
Quiz Question 1 While planning a landscaping project for John Jay College, Plant
Fantasies collaboration with an outside landscape architect presented
challenges related to:
Option a a. Group decision making
b. Risk
c. Creativity
d. None of these
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Quiz Question 2 Clients of Plant Fantasies should expect Teresa Carleo to have excellent
intuition for making landscaping decisions because:
a. All landscaping decisions are routine
b. She is a resident of New York City
c. She has more than two decades of hands-on experience making
decisions for her company and clients
Quiz Question 3 When Teresa Carleo had to decide what color tulips to plant for long-time
client The Corinthian, she faced a(n):
a. Nonprogrammed decision
b. Decision criteria
Video Segment 3
Video segment title Decision Making
Start time (in sec) 4:37
Stop time (in sec) 6:28
Quiz Question 1 Teresa Carleos discussion of her teams collective creativity and expertise
reinforces the benefit of:
a. Bounded rationality
b. Groupthink
Quiz Question 2 Teresa Carleos day-to-day management of her companys mail, phone
calls, sales, floral designs, field work, and other minutiae creates
constraints on time and attention that leads to:
a. Satisficing
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Quiz Question 3
Which of the following is not a technique that teams at Plant Fantasies
could use to aid effectiveness of group decisions?
a. Delphi technique
Additional Assignments and Activities
Review Questions
1. What are the benefits and costs of planning?
The major benefits are:
Intensified effort. Managers and employees put forth greater effort when following a plan.
Persistence. Employees will work hard for long periods.
The major costs are:
Impedes change or creates hurdles to needed change. Employees can become so committed
to achieving the goals that they fail to see that their plan may not be working.
2. Describe the steps involved in making a plan that works.
There are five steps to making a plan that works: (1) Set SMART goalsgoals that are Specific,
Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. (2) Develop commitment to the goals from the people
3. What are SMART goals?
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4. What are proximal and distal goals? Which type of goals is more effective?
5. How can companies build flexibility into their plans?
Companies can use one of two methods to build flexibility into their plans:
6. How do companies use plans at all levels of management?
Managers at all levels of the company engage in planning of some kind, but the plans at each level are
7. Describe the steps in rational decision making.
Rational decision making is a six-step process in which managers define problems, evaluate
alternatives, and compute optimal solutions. The steps are as follows:
Define the problem. Managers should understand the exact problem that they are trying to
solve, and the problem should be clear.
Identify decision criteria. Decision criteria are the standards used to guide judgments and
decisions.
Weight the criteria. Managers should decide which criteria are more or less important. Two
Chapter 4: Planning and Decision Making P a g e | 20
8. What are decision criteria and how are they used in decision making?
9. What are the advantages and disadvantages of group decision making?
Advantages include:
Group members possess different knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences from multiple
perspectives.
10. Identify the methods of group decision making and give a brief description of each.
Structured conflict: There are two structured conflict techniques: devils advocacy and
dialectical inquiry. The former involves assigning a group member the role of critic to push
other members to solidify their thinking about the decision. The latter involves generating a
solution (thesis) and then arguing in favor of an opposite solution (antithesis), which pushes
group members to see the weaknesses in their proposed solution.
Chapter 4: Planning and Decision Making P a g e | 21
Develop Your Career Potential
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
This exercise is designed to get students to take a proactive approach to their careers by putting a career
plan in writing. This assignment is an excellent developmental opportunity no matter what career students
enter. Studies show that very few students, much less professionals, ever take the time to create a career
plan. Furthermore, this assignment provides you the opportunity to talk to students about your career
planning. If youve never written your own career plan, this is your chance to talk to the students as a
Additional Activities
Out-of-Class Project: “Planning Case Study.” Divide the class into small groups. Each group should
thoroughly research how a particular company responded to the 2005 hurricane disasters in the United
States. Some companies that bear investigation include Home Depot, Walmart, Oreck (the vacuum
manufacturer), and Norfolk Southern railroad. Ask students to think about how the companys decision-
making processes were affected and how the companies preparatory plans (or lack thereof) either helped
or hindered its ability to a) affect the community and b) recover after the disaster.
Out-of-Class Project: “Decision Case Study.” Student groups should research a company that is
currently facing a big dilemma. Groups should thoroughly outline the problem, research all the
alternatives, and use the rational decision-making process to decide what should be done. Note: Be sure
that the problem chosen does not already have a solution!
Out-of-Class Project: “Strategic Plan.” Go to NASAs strategic plan at