Introduction to Problem-Solving and Decision-Making at the Workplace
The two major area at work place includes problem-solving and decision-making. In an organization to run effectively, effective and quick problem solving is very significant, and can gain benefit from having appropriate skills of problem-solving. The major reason for not proper problem solving can be either the company or individual was unable to identify the core of the problem, or if the problem is identified correctly, then the approach for solving the problem was not right (Lusa, 2017).
Decision-making is another important criteria at work place, in simple terms, it is deciding one solution, among different alternatives to solve a problem, it includes quick or intuitive or it can be done through a process (Pettigrew, 2014).
For this, the selected company is “Puma,” a sportswear company, and one of the major issue faced by this company was company’s lack in CSR regarding critical conditions of the supplier. Puma is a sportswear brand that is German Based. The most popular products offered by the company include all sportswear like shoes, sports t-shirts for men and women, sports equipment’s and many more, and the company is offering their products globally. The major competitors of PUMA are Adidas, Reebok, sketchers, and Nike who are dealing in the same industry worldwide (chinalaborwatch, 2018).
The issue and the problem-solving approach of the company to tackle the issue will be discussed in the report further
The companies headquarter is in “Germany, although the production sections are mainly in other developing nations and China. The organization has invested a huge amount while advertising, but when it comes to the workers involved in the process of manufacturing, are earning the bare minimum yet. In China, suppliers of Puma were been monitored by the “China Labor Watch (CLW),” and while investing Taiway sports ltd., who was given “A” ranking in 2006 report. The conditions were found to be deplorable by CLW, and it was found by PUMA that now the company is at “B+” grade. Moreover, the company claims that finding of CLW; either was exaggerated or is unfounded on Taiway. For further investigation, the workers of the Taiway were interviewed, which was arranged by CLW along with a media group of German that is Der Spiegel. After the interview was conducted, the company responded to CLW, on fifth may, claiming that the efforts of PUMA in improvising the factor was not considered by CLW and again stated that majority of conditions presented by CLW were unfounded. China labor watch on 19 April 2008 had presented a report, investigated on Taiway sports ltd. That identified various approaches used by PUMA to take due advantage of their staff. For this, PUMA responded that the company has made large efforts on the factory’s corrective action, even after believing that most of the findings of CLW were unfounded, ask not to consider only one supplier case, and generalize it with the overall supplier’s condition of the company, and must conducted future investigation for the same. The next investigation was taken at Surpassing shoe co. ltd, where CLW found that the similar conditions were there as of Taiway, and PUMA did not address any poor conditions that were brought under public attention by media and was not able to monitor all the suppliers efficiently (chinalaborwatch, 2018).
Overview of PUMA – A Sportswear Company
The major reason for choosing this company and this issue, as the issue, has affected the company very much, and it is the responsibility of the company to provide good working conditions and work for all the stakeholders. Moreover, suppliers are a significant part of the company, due to which the products are improvised and company sales are affected. The choice can be justified, as clear change in grading of the supplier over years has been observed, that was recorded in PUMA’s sustainability reports (fairlabor.org, 2018).
To handle this situation, the company approach was to refuse for what it was accused by China labor watch. The company tries to justify themselves by stating that the grade of its supplier factory has been decreased, and the investigation was exaggerated, presented by CLW. The decision-making and problem-solving approach used by PUMA was a creative problem-solving approach (eu-china.net, 2008).
The company adopted a creative problem solving for the issue for decision-making. According to this approach, the solver’s has an ability to find out several outcomes, create assumptions as to what is essential to do so comes up with a result or outcome, and the solver is generally risk taker, as they are quite sure about their own judgment instead of others perception. These solvers are generally started finding the result from the beginning and are not a follower of a particular process. , they are unique path creators and try to find a new solution (Pettigrew, 2014).
In this case, like a creative solver, the company assumes that CLW has exaggerated the investigation, and was trying to put the company down, to tackle the situation, the company put the point against the reporting of CLW, keeping their own assumption largely. The confidence of the company among themselves while considering this issue was a plus point. Moreover, the strong statement of the company to press, make their viewpoint and approach more relevant. The only problem with this approach used is, that there is no limitation to creativity, and assumptions (Klein, 2014).
The allegation over PUMA Company was regarding poor conditions of suppliers and workers at the factory, this included excessive overtime, nonpayment of minimum wages, discrimination, excessive fines, and poor food. For this issue or allegation, the company instead of adopting a creative approach could have adopted an analytical approach to problem-solving. If initially, the creative approach was okay, later when the conditions were not improved as per CLW report, the company could have reached to the core of the problem, gets the exact detailing of the issue, understand another perspective, and determine where it is going wrong and what is missing. With the Analytical approach, PUMA leaders could have found the gaps between the expected and the actual performance and must fill the gaps with appropriate action taken by the company, like decrease the working hours, paying the workers their overtime hours, provide appropriate health care facility and work breaks, to reduce the risk of accidents. This approach depends more on the process of facts and findings. For example, the case of many food chains in various countries had faced issues, like MC Donald’s, have face the food quality issues in many countries, and solve the problem with analytical thinking, and trained to fulfill the required gap and came back with a kick in industry (Cotton, 2016).
Issue Faced by PUMA Regarding Supplier’s Working Conditions
Other than this approach, another approach that can be applied is “rational problem solver,” according to this the solver makes assumptions on the information available to him, but removes the most optimal solution that is based or personal perception. Instead, they found the best approach as per their own perspective; they believe that their perspective is true to the extent instead of the world’s perspective (Sarkis & Govindan, 2015).
Instead of providing a statement to the media regarding the exaggerated facts by CLW, the company could have followed a well-developed procedure to solve this problem, and then make a decision. The process for followed for most effective problem solving is:
- Identifying the issue- at this first step of the process, PUMA could have identified what CLW is trying to say while accusing the company of poor conditions of workers at the suppliers. The company could have research on the conditions and laws towards the workers, before providing any statement(Newman, 2017).
- Understand interest of all- at this step, the company could have understood the perspective of China labor laws, workers involved in the issue subject, the suppliers working and their perspective. What are the general interests of the public, as if workers need breaks at their work, the suppliers are not able to provide a healthy and safe environment to the labor(Isen, 2014)
- Identify possible solution- the possible alternatives, like in this case the alternative approaches are the creative, rational, or analytical approach. Where the company will be liable to take different actions that are for creative the company manipulates with the investigation of CLW. By adopting analytical, the company would have taken actions in favor of labor or workers (Isen, 2014).
- Evaluate the alternatives- the alternatives identified are then evaluated, like in this case, the best approachable alternative was a creative problem-solving approach, that the company adapted. The pros and cons of each alternative are studied at this stage so that the alternatives ability to solve the problem is there(Basadur & Gelade, 2014).
- Select appropriate alternative- after evaluating each alternative, PUMA leaders could have selected the most suitable alternative for solving this issue and justify the reason for selecting the same(Weisberg, 2015).
- Reporting the agreement- the agreement on the decision taken are documented legally, and reported accurately. Like if the company decides to enhance the environment for workers, and increase wages of workers, and improve the conditions of the suppliers of PUMA(Seidman, 2016).
- Agree on monitoring, contingencies, and evaluation- at this last stage the future perspective or contingency is considered and since the future is uncertain, the agreements are made for that purpose as well. Moreover, the opportunities are created to evaluate the taken decision, an agreement; it is implemented properly and is working as per the requirement(Sharpio, 2016).
Another technique of problem-solving and decision making that PUMA can adopt while solving this issue is cause and effect analysis. According to this analysis, a visual tool is available to map out the problem identified, the factors influencing this issue and the cause of individual and its effects are observed and evaluated. This technique will help to define the exact problem and the possible factors that are concluded to the problem. In this case, the other factors like the wrong behavior of the workers, or the environment, or the locality where the factory is situated can be the influencer for this issue. In addition, after researching this cause and effect, the appropriate alternative solution can be made and selected. Although, analyzing the cause of the issue, of PUMA, could be difficult and it could be the management of the company, which is responsible for this issue and influencing (Perkins, 2016)
Considering the statistics, facts, and figure of PUMA financial condition during the period of this issue happening. As per the financial report of PUMA of 2007, the profit earned was $510,944,031. On 28th may 2018, the exchange rate was $1 USD= 6.94 RMB. Since the company had a strong brand loyalty, and at that period, the market was not in good condition, the stock prices of all the companies were going down. Therefore, there was no significant effect was observed for this company at that duration of time. Moreover, the reason for no significant change is that the company refuses to accept itself guilty, and through its statement, at the end, CLW accepted the efforts made by the company for improving the worker’s condition (Ellis, 2018).
One of the stages of problem-solving and decision-making is implemented after the solution has been prepared and decided, it needs to be expected as well, this stage is the action of the plan. The elements included while implementing the plan of the problem solving are:
- Task- the plan prepared need to be divided into small tasks to be conducted. In this case of PUMA, the tasks could by finding out the supplier actual conditions, the allegation is to be researched and study in detail, the change in working hours, wages of the workers, the reporting and presentation of all changes done by the company in media through a statement (Lusa, 2017).
- Schedule- the time concern is very important as if the action planed is taken in time only then it has any relevance, otherwise it would make no sense to plan or implement it. In the case, the scheduling regarding the completion of the entire task needs to know well before(Lusa, 2017).
- Resources- the resources like in this case human resource, research and development team, other resources regarding the worker’s consent, are required to implement the strategy. The resources must be available for successful implementation of the tasks (Stamatis, 2016).
- Contingencies- the future is uncertain and the risk involved in the implementation of the plan, and contingencies must be well prepared. For example, in the case, CWL after Taiway investigation also conducted the same investigation with other suppliers as well. Therefore, the company needs to plan for other suppliers as well(Stamatis, 2016).
- Management- the implementation team is made for the applicability, they will handle the process and the management of the implementation.
- Evaluation- the implemented plan is to be evaluated, that is evaluated if the implementation of the plan has resulted in positive outcomes or not, if not then the variations are to be made. In the case, initially the company gave a statement that CLW has given exaggerated allegations, but after the response of CLW, the company provides its response will all the evidence, like working hours, wages paid and all facts and figure, and presented the report formally(data-group, 2018).
- Monitoring – this stage includes the monitor of the implemented plan, and its outcome, this includes comparing the planning and the actual implementation. Is the action taken has the same result as planned? In the case, the outcome is that the CLW accepted the efforts made by PUMA, but also recommend some of the improvements that the company must make in the last response of CLW through media(AFB, 2018).
PUMA’s Approach to Problem-Solving and Decision-Making
Conclusion
The report discussed one of the major issues of PUMA, a sportswear company. The china labor law in its report in 2018 stated the allegation over the company that the condition of the suppliers of the company was very poor. The investigation was based on Taiway sports ltd, which is one of the suppliers of PUMA. The allegation includes the large working hours of the labor or workers in the factory; no overtime payment is paid to the employees and poor working conditions at the factory.
PUMA used creative problem-solving approach, for this issue, and keeping its own assumption, and believe at top priority. The company stated that CLW investigation and allegation were unfounded and exaggerated. To handle this issue, the rational problem-solving technique or analytical problem-solving technique could have also used.
CLW, to show that with only one supplier, it cannot be generalized, another supplier that is surpassing co. ltd. was investigated, and the similar poor conditions were found for this as well.
In the response, PUMA stated and presented the response through media, about all efforts that the company has made in order to improve the condition of workers, and was justified with all statistics related to a worker, the working hours, salary, and every relevant data.
References
AFB, 2018. Plan and Implement Steps to Solve the Problem. [Online]
Available at: https://www.afb.org/info/living-with-vision-loss/for-job-seekers/lesson-plans-for-teachers-and-professionals/problem-solving/lesson-4-plan-and-implement-steps-to-solve-the-problem/12345
Basadur, M. & Gelade, G., 2014. Creative problem-solving process styles, cognitive work demands, and organizational adaptability. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 50(1), p. 80.
chinalaborwatch, 2018. Puma’s Failure in CSR: Supplier’s Critical Conditions. [Online]
Available at: https://www.chinalaborwatch.org/report/21
Cotton, D., 2016. The Smart Solution Book: 68 Tools for Brainstorming, Problem Solving and Decision Making. UK: Pearson UK.
data-group, 2018. IMPLEMENT THE SOLUTION. [Online]
Available at: https://www.data-group.com.au/11-step-9-implement-solution/
Ellis, D., 2018. Aiding the search: Examining individual differences in multiply-constrained problem solving. Consciousness and cognition, Volume 62, p. 21.
eu-china.net, 2008. PUMA’s Failure in CSR; Suppliers’ critical condition. [Online]
Available at: https://www.eu-china.net/upload/pdf/materialien/puma-working-conditions-china_08-07-04.pdf
fairlabor.org, 2018. PUMA AG ASSESSMENT FOR REACCREDITATION. [Online]
Available at: https://www.fairlabor.org/sites/default/files/documents/reports/puma_reaccreditation_report_2010.pdf
Isen, A., 2014. Positive affect facilitates creative problem solving.. Journal of personality and social psychology, 52(6), p. 1122.
Klein, G., 2014. Naturalistic decision making. s.l.:Psychology Press.
Lusa, A., 2017. An Introduction to the Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem Solving Techniques. In Optimization and Decision Support Systems for Supply Chains , Volume 1, p. 151.
Newman, V., 2017. Problem solving for results. London: Routledge.
Perkins, D., 2016. Teaching thinking: Issues and approaches. London: Routledge.
Pettigrew, A., 2014. The politics of organizational decision-making. London: Routledge.
Sarkis, J. & Govindan, K., 2015. Multi criteria decision making approaches for green supplier evaluation and selection: a literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 98, p. 66.
Seidman, A., 2016. State and law in the development process: problem-solving and institutional change in the Third World. s.l.:Springer.
Sharpio, J., 2016. Ethical leadership and decision making in education: Applying theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. London: Routledge.
Stamatis, D., 2016. ix Sigma and Beyond: The Implementation Process, Volume VII. s.l.:CRC Press.
Weisberg, R., 2015. Toward an integrated theory of insight in problem solving. Thinking & Reasoning, 21(1), p. 5.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
