The Roles and Behaviours Used While Problem Solving

Four main roles in problem-solving

The Roles and Behaviours Used While Problem Solving

1 (a)    Describe the four main roles (which are specific and relevant managerial behaviours) you yourself undertook while you worked toward solving the problem in this assignment.  These roles should be based on those identified by a well- known management behavioral theorist such as Belbin or Mintzberg.

 

(b)    Provide two examples of you undertaking each of these four roles i.e. eight examples in total required.

 

2 (a)    Critique (judge whether you did it well or not) the effectiveness of you undertaking these roles you yourself undertook (you described in 1 (a) above).  In other words for each role, describe how you could improve in the future.  

and

(b)    Identify and explain four roles each other person in the group undertook and judge that person’s effectiveness at undertaking those group roles.  

 

3 For each team member undertaking the roles you described in 2(b), describe how you would improve their use of these roles in a future problem solving exercise (i.e. four in total are required for each member).

 

PART B – Reflections on the Quality of Your Project Proposal

The Problem Solving Process Described In Your Proposal

1 (a)    Copy the words used in the Group Research Proposal you used to describe the business problem you intended to research and solve (Assessment One).

 

and then:

 

(b)    Now that you have had time to clarify the problem rewrite the problem you researched; so that it now more clearly describes the problem you were actually solving.

 

(c)    Comment on the different description of the problem between what you said in the proposal and the revised description of the problem as shown by comparing the above two questions.  In the unusual circumstance there are no significant differences state why this is so.

 

2 (a)    Describe two mistakes you made, either about the problem or how to solve it, while you were doing the research and state why you consider them to have been mistakes.

 

(b)    What processes or procedures would you do to eliminate each of these two mistakes if you were to repeat a problem solving exercise?

 

3 (a)    Copy from your Group Problem Solving Proposal the words used to describe your methodology or research procedure, then:

 

(b)    Re-write the methodology to include three distinct improvements that would strengthen the problem solving process if a similar problem was to be researched in the future.  Be sure to fully describe these process improvements.

 

4 (a)    Copy from your Problem Solving Proposal the words used to describe the intended sources of information and other resources you thought you would need, then:  

 

(b)    Identify and explain three new sources of information that you actually ended up using or could have used during the actual problem solving process.

 

5 (a)    Describe four reasons why the research recommendations of your report solve the problem and are justifiable / defendable as solving the problem stated in the final report.

 

PART C – How You Managed the Problem Solving Project

1 Describe how you would improve the use of your group agreement if you were to complete a future problem solving group process.

 

2 Suggest three (3) ways you could improve your management of a future problem solving report.

 

3 Suggest three (3) ways you could improve the quality of your oral presentation if you were to complete another presentation about a similar problem solving report.

 

4 Describe in about three paragraphs (about 160 words) how your managerial decision making processes / abilities have improved now that you are near the completion of this course.

 

PART D - The Validity of Management Concepts You Used While Completing the Problem Solving Report

1 (a)    Describe how you applied the following management concepts:

· good planning

· good controlling

· good leading

· good organising

 

(b)    Describe two (2) other management concepts that you found useful and were used in the report.

 

2. (a)    Describe the decision making model used during the research and writing of the solutions to this report.

 

(b)    Justify your choice of decision making model by giving three (3) good reasons why you used it.

 

3. (a)    Describe three (3) types of bias that can occur in members of groups while they solve complex problems.

 

(b)    For each bias explain one way a researcher can minimise the incidence of this bias (explain three different ways in total).