Describe Mr. Stavropolous' decision making style. How did he see the relationship of decision making to corporate structure?

Essay by ophof33 January 2005

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In my opinion, Mr. Stavropolous and the DOW Company did not conform to only one style of decision-making. What developed were several types of decision-making. From the article that I read, I felt it was clear that depending on the situation; it called for several categories of decisions.

In the commentary, "Dow Chemical's CEO William Stavropoulos on structure and decision making," Mr. Stavropoulos said, "you have to spend an awful lot of time communicating with people. You have to be concerned with educating them as to what is going on." "We train people in how to use this blueprint, so that they play an active role in transforming the company." This style of management is a collective-participative type because he involves the members of the company, striving for their perspective and encouraging their ideas. Including group participation and involvement.

However, Mr. Stavropoulos goes on to say that he wants his employees to have the most information available to them so they will be able to make better decisions and "they will be able to make them on the spot."

This type of style falls under the autocratic decision-making. As an advantage "very fast decisions" need to be made. Although the leader is usually involved in this because they remain in total control, I feel that Mr. Stavropoulos wants his managers to fall within this style of decision-making.

Looking at the company as a whole, I see the "organizations ability to use team decisions." Which tells me that the company is a "team-based system." They allow their members to make independent decisions based on the "more information they have" and give them the responsibility to decide how to manage. This was how Mr. Stavropoulos interpreted the relationship between decision-making and the corporate structure. Quoted from page three of the...