Question

Within an environment where change is needed, you must recognize the obstacles that can make changes difficult to implement. Two of these obstacles are risk, which can be observed by others, and biases, which tend to be personal and internalized. Discuss risks and biases for a chosen organization. How can they taint analysis? How could you minimize resistance to the use of analytics-based decision making?

Answer 1

Answer: There are a number of risks that are involved in a change which create resistance for change in the organizations like Mc Donald’s. The first risk is that the change will bring a disturbance in the status quo and cause a disruption in the existing processes. As time will be required for the adjustments to the new processes hence there are chances that the same quality cannot be provided to the customers during this transit. There are also chances that the change introduced may fail and this risk may cause financial losses inside the organization. The major biases that may play in this process are cognitive biases based on the past experience that change may result in negative outcomes and may not be successful. Similarly the stereotypes present in the minds of the employees about the intentions of the organization behind the change also acts as an obstacle for bringing the change. These factors can taint analysis by hampering the rational and objective thinking during the analytical process. These obstacles prevent people from thinking in a rational manner and hence they are unable to analyze things. The resistance to the use of analytic based decision making can be reduced by

1. By communicating the employees about the benefits it offers
2. By encouraging them to learn the use of analytic based decision making
3. By providing them with training for learning analytic based decision making