Dilemma Management

Joined up thinking for our fragmented times

Tony Morden

• Publisher: McNidder and Grace
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780857162021
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Assurance

Dilemma Management is a harsh work for the harsh and changing times in the UK. This book has been written to challenge the reader, maybe even to disconcert him or her.

Tony Morden makes absolutely no apology for questioning outdated professional wisdoms or established paradigms, arguing that a large upward step change is urgently needed in professional mindset and competence in this country, and especially in a post-Coronavirus era.

Tony defines and describes the process of dilemma management and illustrates this process with a variety of case studies from business, politics, healthcare, procurement, security, sport, and more generally from the taxpayer-funded public sector.

Part One

What are Dilemmas, and Why Manage Them

Figure 2

Chapter One

Management Dilemmas Defined

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines a Dilemma as ‘a form of argument involving an adversary in a choice between two (or … more) alternatives, both equally unfavourable to him; … a choice between two (or … several) alternatives which are equally unfavourable; also a position of doubt or perplexity’.

A MANAGEMENT DILEMMA DEFINED

A Management Dilemma is defined here as a set of circumstances in which a choice may have to be made, or instead must be made by a responsible person or persons between decision alternatives that are at the same time any or all of:

favourable or unfavourable to the decision-maker; and / or

likely to put the decision-maker into a position of doubt or uncertainty as to the resolution or resolutions that might be possible; and / or

which may or may not be resolvable to the complete satisfaction of all parties affected by the dilemma; and / or

were created by others whose motives may or may not coincide with those of the decision-maker, or indeed may be actively competitive or hostile to them

and in which:

the identification or fixing of the occasion for decision (or its timing) may be unclear or not agreed; and / or

the choice between making the decision, delaying it, or not making it may be unclear or not agreed by the parties to the dilemma.

DILEMMA CAUSES

There are likely to be two or more variables which must be taken as determinants of diagnosis, policy choice, decision or action; but at the same time:

which may, or may not be congruent, coterminous or conflicting; and also

whose interaction may, or may not be congruent or conflicting; or

whose interaction may preclude certain other actions, or increase the level of risk associated with such other actions;

but whose inter-disciplinarity or requirement for co-ordination are essential features in policy-making, decision-making, assurance or practice (for instance as in the case of child or mental health care in the community, or of housing or educational policy)

and which will (i) act as drivers of the choice of options or objectives from which diagnoses, decision choices or modes of implementation may have to be made; but (ii) to which the relevant stakeholders may be more or less attached in their scale of priorities; and (iii) whose necessary identification or solution may be associated with varying perceptions of:

what “should (or should not) be done” as compared with “what could be done”; or

what is politically possible; or

what is consistent with available finance, resources, capability and willpower; or

prevailing and alternative views based on the concept of opportunity cost (such as that of the Best Value approach to public expenditure); and

which render subject specialist, single interest, high power distance, self-publicist, emotional, or so-called “politically correct” approaches to finding, implementing or assuring solutions as undesirable, invalid, ineffective, or unsustainable.

The causes of Management Dilemmas are analysed in more detail in Parts Two and Three of this Book.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MANAGEMENT DILEMMAS

Management Dilemmas will be significant where:

they force the parties to the dilemma into a position of doubt about the degree to which that dilemma may be resolved to the satisfaction of all; and / or

they are likely to impose a degree of Risk and Uncertainty on the decision-maker and the parties involved; and / or

the apparent resolutions may be shown to have the characteristic of mutual exclusivity or non-resolvability; and / or

they ultimately prove to be mutually exclusive or unresolvable.

The significance of Management Dilemmas is analysed in more detail in Chapter 3 of this Book.

MAPPING A DILEMMA

A dilemma may be conceptualised and shown as a continuum between two polar extremes. The decision options that comprise the dilemma may then be mapped at various points between these extremes. For the specific purposes of this chapter the extent of the dilemma might be shown as more negative on the left and more positive on the right, as shown in Figure 3.

The more that the contents of the dilemma continuum can be described and the more that in this case:

there are relevant variables to the centre or right of the continuum; and

the more congruent (internally consistent) are the descriptors to the centre or right of the continuum

the more likely it may be that effective decisions may be made and the dilemma resolved. This process is described in Part Four of this Book.

CASE EXAMPLE

Motorists take photos and videos at the wheel – an RAC survey showed an alarming increase in the number of UK motorists illegally using mobile phones whilst driving. One third of all drivers admitted to one form or other of this potentially lethal practice, which is now described by the RAC as the biggest safety concern amongst other road users. The causes of this increase included:

a belief amongst respondents that it was increasingly unlikely that offenders would be caught (which offenders therefore thought that they would get away with it unchallenged); partly because

there were not now enough road policing officers to enforce the law, and roadside cameras would most likely not to be functioning; and in any case

offenders considered that their use of mobile phones was more important (or more necessary) to them personally than obeying the law of the land.

The immoral and anti-social practice of using a mobile phone whilst driving was described by the UK’s Department for Transport as a contributory factor in 492 accidents during 2014. Of these, 21 were fatal and 84 were classed as serious. One senior police officer commented of the dilemma revealed by the survey that people needed to start taking proper personal responsibility for their behaviour behind the wheel, and to exert strong social pressure on family, friends and colleagues who childishly and complacently put others at serious risk by persisting in the use of their mobile phones whilst driving.

Figure 3
Mapping a Dilemma

Chapter Two

Some Real-World Management Dilemmas

This chapter contains an illustrative selection of real-world Management Dilemmas, for instance as evident at the time of writing this Book.

THE PETER PRINCIPLE (I)

The Peter Principle, described by Laurence Peter, relies on a perception that any process that seems to work effectively now may be used in progressively more challenging applications until (eventually) it fails. People may use what has always worked for them before, until they discover (for instance as a result of professional complacency, inertia, laziness, an outdated knowledge/ competency base, or even bad luck / serendipity) that the approach is no longer appropriate or viable in the present circumstances. That is, the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Preface: What This Book is About
• Introduction: The Logic for This Book
• Part One – What Are Dilemmas and Why Manage Them?
• Part Two – Some Dilemma Sources (I): Big Pictures, People And Culture
• Part Three – Some Dilemma Sources (II): Time, Finance, Security, And Risk
• Part Four – A Dilemma Management Process
• Part Five – Endgame: Some Final Dilemma Management Issues
• And Finally
• Index
• Copyright