Introduction:
An organisation’s ability to make best use of
their resources in gaining competitive
advantage generally relies on ready access to
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ANUSHA CLOASGUOLUAT 10
often widely held and disparate resources and
data. Access, which requires the manager to
work across organisational boundaries and
operate between functions or perhaps between
organisational entities. Organisational
boundaries provide roles and opportunities to
operate e!ciently in creating value, but at the
same time, allow the growth of freedoms which
help contain resources. Challenges clearly exist
for those wanting to operate collaboratively
across formal organisational boundaries as
strong functional orientations tend to create
competitive environments where individual
goals have overtaken organisational goals. The
organisation, to make best use of disparate
resources in securing integrated actions within
and between functions, must rely on more
collaborative practices over competitive ones.
Compettiittiivve Decciissiion–Makkiing Prraccttiiccess
Competitive practices are often a feature of
organisations, which must actively compete with
others across the organisation to gain
resources. The functional design of
organisations can lead to divisional or vertical
groupings developing positive and strong
bonds. Only to have those strengths turned
against outsiders (anyone from outside the
immediate vertical) across the organisation in
failing to collaborate and help. Rather, those in
the vertical strive to compete and gain access to
information, or funds, or resources, including
time needed to support others. Business
schools have long taught MBA students the
merits of competition over collaboration. It has
merits of competition over collaboration. It has
only been a recent preference for collaboration
by some organisations that has facilitated the
transition of shared resources between formerly
competing units, through collaboration lead to
above business wide capabilities, and provide
above average returns to the business.
Moreover, knowledge that can be held unevenly
by people scattered across the enterprise needs
to be sourced through collaboration to be made
available to others in the organisation.
Competitive environments and the decisionmaking
“owing from them can deny the
business e#ectiveness of customer response
and lead to low levels of customer service as the
customer $ghts their way between competing
departments, or verticals, to have their
questions answered or their problems resolved.
Collllaborrattiivve Decciissiion–Makkiing Prraccttiiccess
Collaborative practices can help develop strong
functional and inter functional relations by
promoting shared goals allowing the
organisation to reduce counterproductive
behavior. This is achieved through frequent
information sharing, strong managerial
interaction and a willingness to share risks and
rewards.
It has been identi$ed that collaborative
practices undertaken by organisations have
reduced con”ict, improved supplier customer
relations, developed willingness of people to
work together, viewing colleagues from other
disciplines more favorably and fostering
improved relations with mangers formerly
improved relations with mangers formerly
considered inept (Allred, Fawcett, Wallen &
Magnan, 2011). The keys to developing
collaborative practices can lie in aligned goals
and metrics, improved information sharing and
training in process thinking and collaborative
behaviours.
Decision making which is based on managers
having complete control over their decisions is
more likely to $nd that the decision maker has
limited discretion in selecting between courses
of action. Decision making, to be e#ective needs
to be shared rather than be the province of the
individual. Competitive environments deny the
sharing of goals, ready exchange of information
and promote bene$ts for the few over the
many.
Diivverrssiittyy iin Decciissiion Makkiing
Popular opinion has it that diverse groups,
those with membership drawn from di#erent
age, gender categories or ethnic origins, are
likely to be smarter in problem solving decision
making than their more homogeneous
counterparts. While research into the role of
diversity and impact on group decision making
has been scarce, several anecdotal reports
drawn from the corporate world have described
higher levels of decision making performance
from teams having diverse membership. One
explanation for this high performance lies in
their members’ abilities to bring di#erent
experiences, skills and abilities to the groupbased
decision-making process.
Diversity of team membership can be built
around the formation of cross oragnisational
work teams, composed of men and women,
drawn from intergenerational age and racially
diverse categories who can stimulate new
thinking. The advantages of having diversity of
views operating in teams can however have a
cost as perceived di#erences are not always
readily welcomed, particularly by those
organisations with well-established sub cultures
driving their decision making. Creative tensions
in decision making, can feature in diverse teams
as di#erent approaches, views and beliefs can
be considered as troublesome or even
challenging. The bene$ts however, creative
tensions bring to the decision-making process
are considerable Major bene$ts for the diverse
team include most importantly, the brining of
di#erent points to bear on problems. Diversity
in teams o#ers the bene$ts of opposing
groupthink where decisions remain
unquestioned and unidirectional, linear
processes go unquestioned and remain
harmonious. Building diversity into groups and
teams brings di#erence and through that
di#erence a questioning of established orders
and unquestioned actions. Even though it may
at $rst be very challenging to confront and
overcome feelings of di#erence through con”ict
the bene$ts of higher quality, more balanced
decision making associated with diverse teams
can outweigh the costs in loss of harmony and
longer times devoted to decisions.
Essential Resources:
Allred, C.R., Fawcett, S.E., Wallin,
C., & Magnan, G.M. (2011). A
Dynamic Collaboration
Capability as a source of Competitive
Advantage. Decision Sciences. Volume 42,
Number 1, February. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.laureate.net.au/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=bsu&AN=58612912&site=ehostlive
The resource‐based view of the $rm
argues the essence of decision making is
to determine how $rm and supply chain
resources can be con$gured to achieve
inimitable advantage and superior
performance. However, combining
resources found among diverse members
of a supply chain requires higher levels of
coordination than exist at most
companies. Manifest cross‐functional and
interorganisational con”ict impedes the
relational advantages of collaboration.
Ashridge Executive Education.
(2014). Collaborating at work:
The Collaboration Skills You
Need. YouTube. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=lmwmg4pwdBc
This video is part of a collection of nine
videos on collaboration. Video suggests
that more work inside organisations is
done through collaboration rather than
close teams. The video provides insights
into how to be good at this way of working
and makes use of relationship maps and
mapping as tools for identifying and
acting on relational di#erences.
Phillips, K. (n.d.) Better
Decisions through diversity.
KellogInsight. Retrieved from
https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/better_decisions_through_diversity
New research $nds that socially di#erent
group members do more than simply
introduce new viewpoints or approaches.
In this study, diverse groups
outperformed more homogeneous
groups not because of an in”ux of new
ideas, but because diversity triggered
more careful information processing that
is absent in homogeneous groups.
Gorte, J. (2017). The value of
diversity in decision making.
Hu#post. Retrieved from
https://www.hu!ngtonpost.com/entry/thevalue-
of-diversity-in-decisionmaking_
us_589e02e6e4b0cd37efcfe7d5
This article describes research by
organizational scientists, psychologists,
sociologists, economists and
demographers showing that socially
diverse groups, those with a diversity of
race, ethnicity, gender and sexual
orientation are more innovative than
orientation are more innovative than
homogeneous groups at solving complex,
nonroutine problems. This is not only
because people with di#erent
backgrounds bring new information.,
simply interacting with individuals who
are di#erent forces group members to
prepare better, to anticipate alternative
viewpoints and to expect that reaching
consensus will take more e#ort
TEDx Talks. (2014). The Power of
Collaboration: Dr. Shelle
VanEtten deSanchez at
TEDxABQWomen. YouTube. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=VmQVNE-MbKI
The power of collaboration and teamwork
is amazing. We learn more, grow more,
and build more personal and professional
skills in the process of collaborating! It’s a
huge con$dence booster too! The video
deals with comparisons between working
alone and the bene$ts of collaboration
when working with others in teams.
Olsson, S., & Walker, R. (2003).
Through a Gendered Lens: Male
and Female Executives’
Representations of One another.
Leadership and Management
Development Journal. 24/7, 2003, 387-396.
Executive leadership is constituted as a
predominantly male domain, placing
predominantly male domain, placing
women in an antithetical position to
executive power. In taking a social
constructionist model of gender, the
paper suggests that in the corporate
world, as elsewhere, perceptions of the
behaviour of men and women are
“automatically $ltered through a gendered
lens” and reconstituted within a more
general discourse on gender di#erence,
tapping into subconscious images of
leadership to reinforce a masculinist
construction of executive power.
Landsinger, D. & Deane, B.
(2005). The Diversity Council
Best Practices Study. Anheuser-
Busch, Study Sponsor for The Gil Deane
Group, Inc. Diane Landsinger, SPHR,
Senior Research Consultant Barbara
Deane, Senior Research Consultant. April
21, 2005.
This paper is devoted to Corporate
Business Research into multicultural
market opportunities to identify
di#erences in imaging patterns across
di#erent ethnic markets, cultures and
social segments. Quantitative methods
are used to understand their habits and
practices, as well as ethnographic and
anthropological methods to get a deep
understanding of the di#erent
assumptions and beliefs. Diversity criteria
are used in the selection of top 20
executives.
executives.
Milken institute. (2016).
Diversity is a Reality. Inclusion is
a Choice. YouTube. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=vbAAyD93YP4
Many organizations embark on diversity
programs without truly understanding
inclusion, a self-defeating approach that
leads to poor results. Diversity in the
absence of inclusion rarely adds value to a
workforce. How can companies foster an
inclusive work culture and ensure that
diverse perspectives, backgrounds and
beliefs are respected and harnessed? In
this breakfast session, our panel will
examine the challenges companies face
and explore innovative thinking and
forward-looking strategies for these
crucial issues.
Barco TV. (2014). Collaboration
in the Workplace. Time for a
switch. YouTube. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=_bnrqjMRcLc
A fast-moving video supporting the
assertion that 78% of US executives want
their organization to collaborate better?
And that 8 out of 10 business leaders
expect technology to make meetings
more productive? These and more
interesting survey $ndings are
summarized in this infographics movie.
Granthorntontv. (2015). Women
in Business- The value of
diversity. YouTube. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=qXcxK18pRVs
Ground-breaking research in this video
reveals strong link between diversity in
decision-making and business growth
prospects. Companies with diverse
executive boards outperform peers run by
all-male boards according to a new study
which covers listed companies in India,
the UK and US. Our research estimates
the opportunity cost for companies with
male-only executive boards (in terms of
lower returns on assets) at a staggering
US$655 billion in 2014.
Metcalfe. B. (2010). An
investigation of female and
male constructs of leadership
and empowerment. Organizational
Psychology. Emerald. Vol.25. No. 8. Pp 640
– 618
This interesting article investigates the
di#erences between male and female
understanding of leadership and how this
a#ects their decisions.
LLearrniing Exxerrcciisse 5..1..
Compettiittiion and
ccollllaborrattiion
Review the resources for module 5.
- What do you see as the
di#erence between
competition and collaboration? - Assertions are often made that
Competition is the
organisation’s sole creator of
wealth. How is collaboration
perceived and enacted in your
organisation? How does
collaboration contribute to
wealth creation? - How might greater
collaboration and less
competition be applied to your
organisation’s decision making?
Record your response in Discussion forum
5.1.
To participate in the Discussion
Forum, click here to scroll to the
bottom of this page then click on the
“Moodduullee 55 — Diissccuussssiioonn FFoorruum” link.
LLearrniing Accttiivviittyy 5..2::
Buiilldiing Diivverrssiittyy
Review the resources in module
5. - What elements of diversity can
- What elements of diversity can
you identify in your project
team / workplace team? - What are the challenges and
bene$ts of diversity in team
membership? - How might resistance to
diversity be overcome by
managers-decision makers in
organisations? - How might the advantages of
creative tension in decision
making be explained to middle
managers resisting change?
Record your response in Discussion
Forum 5.2.
To participate in the Discussion
Forum, click here to scroll to the
bottom of this page then click on the
“Moodduullee 55 — Diissccuussssiioonn FFoorruum” link.