Decrypting Decision-Making: a practitioner's view.

Managers within the organizations are required to act within the changing landscapes of the businesses. The dynamicity of the change requires managers to assess the impacts and identify the actions to adapt with the changing circumstances. This needs efficient decision making at all levels of the business model. Taking decisions to execute an action is often a challenging topic within the organizations, and it is influenced by the individual values, organizational culture, current circumstances, policies, etc.

The managers have a certain decision-making style ingrained in their subconscious state. This is regarded as habitual response pattern towards a decision situation [1]. Managers as “individuals” are characterized by a profile of decision styles, that are representatives from the five general decision styles [2].

1. Rationale – requiring extensive information and systematic processing of options,

2. Intuitive – paying attention to details and relaying on ones guess and emotions,

3. Spontaneous – providing impulsive decisions,

4. Avoidant – avoid to take decisions, owing to risks or lack of confidence, 

5. Dependent – requiring support or inputs from the others or transferring decisions to others

On the practical levels, the circumstances dictate the choice of decision-taking approach. This encompasses the assessment of the question or problem first, and then choosing the correct decision-making approach. Malhotra 2018 elaborates the decision styles based on practical use as Directive, Analytical, Conceptual, and Behavioral [3]. These are adapted and elaborated in the table below.

Key Thoughts

Generally, the managers tend to follow the decision-making approach inclined to their habitual response. This may or may not fit with the situation to convince the interlinked stakeholders. Thus, leading to lengthy discussions over the time and unsuccessful outcomes.

A successful decision-making outcome would be based on the interplay between the individual types and state of the situation. Hence, it is important to assess the state of the situation and the participating stakeholders. Then, choose an appropriate decision-making approach. Having a prior alignment on the approach and the specific characteristics of the inputs, would foster clarity across the team/stakeholders, reduce ambiguity, and accelerate decisions-making process by saving time.

References

1. Scott, S. G., & Bruce, R. A. (1995). Decision-making style: The development and assessment of a new measure. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 55(5), 818–831
2. Geisler, Martin & Allwood, Carl Martin. (2017). Relating Decision-Making Styles to Social Orientation and Time Approach: Decision-making styles. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. 31. 10.1002/bdm.2066.
3. Sanjay Malhotra (2018). 4 styles of decision-making: A leader's guide. Article in The Enterprisers Project. 4 styles of decision-making: A leader's guide | The Enterprisers Project