One of the core fundamentals of a successful workplace attitude is the ability to make decisions in high pressure situations. Within this essay, this value of decision making will be discussed in corroboration with Ellenie Petrou’s high pressure environment and academic sources and experiences that have been done by myself.
The main way that decision making becomes a key factor in work is through a crisis mode, Ellen Petrou really chimed in on this by ensuring students benefitted financially. J.R. Darling explains that the best way crises are eradicated is by making decisions earlier and addressing them before they actually happen. Petrou did this by knowing that Covid-19 will be a financial problem for many people and ensured that a plan for people to make money during the pandemic was discovered early.
Personal experience that has been discovered was that in fast food, a crisis can be avoided by decisive decision making. For example, chicken running out, by preparing more chicken before the stock becomes low. This allows for the successful flow of business, imperative decision making, and intuitive thinking, which are key traits that employers value. If a decision becomes successful for a business, then that person will continue to make those same decisions over and over. This competence of decision making is further enhanced through work. A study by Finnish small and medium sized enterprises corroborates this idea, as they felt competence grows through the workplace. So, the decision making to prepare chicken earlier was one based on judgement seen through the workplace in itself.
Personality define the moments within work, Petrou’s father thought she would be a lawyer due to the nature of her attitude to always fight for what is right. As a Greek myself, this is a key trait we are taught when we are young as my parents fled from a war. Her fight back attitude led to her fighting for support for those in Covid-19 troubles, which intertwines personality and decision making. D.Fontana explores this idea further and says that personality allows for workers to get the best out of their customers. This idea has been explored on a personal experience, as my personality led for me to get the best out of the customers at fast food, and allowed for a positive relationship between both customer and worker. This also led to positive affirmation of my personality and decision making which led to further interaction with customers, on a good note. The decision making to actually listen to a customer and use my personality to make the customer happy, led to a successful business interaction. This can also be said about Petrou and applying relief and aid for those students affected by Covid-19, so that these students feel supported throughout their studies at the institution in which she was working for.
Decision making reinforces other key traits in the work force, for example, listening. Listening is a key factor in decision making and can determine whether the decision that was made was good or bad. Good listening improves worker satisfaction and how they produce their work (L O’Cooper). So when Petrou listened to students, and used politics and alignments to discover what needed changes she used the listening to reinforce her decision for university students. This has also been seen by myself in the coaching landscape. Seeing what games kids enjoy to play, allowed for further decision making for future coaching classes in order to deliver the best coaching experience for the children and ensure they enjoy playing the sport. This attitude is the same for E. Petrou who wanted the University students to have the best experience they could, allowing them to continue their studies at this institution seen through decision making.
All in all, decision making is a fundamental part of the future of the work and will continue to be a trait that employers will look for in their employees. Decision making in crisis mode really tests the limits and if this can be achieved more results will be delivered. The same attitude can be depicted through experience and personality. Intertwining other key traits in work ultimately makes for better decision making, and thus, makes for a better worker and someone of high importance in the company. This was seen through E. Petrou, examples of my workplace and assisted with academic sources.
Bibliography
D, Fontana, 2000, Personality in the Workplace, Bloomsbury, London.
J,R, Darling, Crisis Management in International Business: Keys to Effective Decision Making, Emerald Insight.
L, O’Cooper, Listening Competency in the Workplace: A Model for Training, SAGE Journals.
S, Paloniemi, 2006, Experience, competence and workplace learning, Emerald Insight.
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